Wall fish tanks give a dramatic and elegant look to any room. They can be hung on a partition wall so that they can be admired from two rooms. Although wall fish tanks may be pricier than regular aquariums and take longer to mount you will be very happy that you have made the investment and effort when you see how good your aquarium looks and how it is admired by visitors. They can, however, be harder to look after than a stand mounted aquarium as they are set up in a confined space which makes it a bit harder to get into the tank for feeding, cleaning and other maintenance. Many wall fish tanks come with compartments above or below the fish tank which will help to make access much easier.
Some of the more recent wall aquariums come as kits with all the accessories and hardware for hanging required, so that the accessories such as pumps and filters are not visible. These kits are easy to mount so you perhaps don’t need a skilled carpenter to install the aquarium for you. On the other hand if you are unsure of your expertise in DIY, it may be better to pay someone to do the mounting instead then all you have to do is to fill the aquarium and add the fish.
One of the things you should do before you hang the fish tank is to find out whether there is any wiring or water pipes in the wall where you are going to install it. You must locate a load bearing wall and find the wall studs. Tanks can be extremely heavy when completely filled with water so you must be very sure that the wall and studs will bear this weight.You also need to establish whether you prefer to hang the fish tank or build it into the wall.
The next job to do is to measure the area where you are going to place the fish tank and make sure you allow some room for accessories such as lights, pumps etc. The pump can be placed in another room from the aquarium, and water can flow through through plastic pipes to the tank. Even though this may be more effort when initially installing it does have the advantage that you can pump large amounts of water through the fish tank, which let’s you accommodate more fish, and in addition puts the noise of the pump far away from the room. A problem with wall tanks is that they are narrow so that the surface area is smaller than regular rectangular aquariums. This can mean that unless you aerate the water vigorously you cannot keep a lot of fish in the tank.
If you are going to pay a professional builder to hang your wall aquarium talk to him before you purchase your fish tank to make certain that he is aware of what you need to be done. Once your tank is in place it will need to be filled and stocked just like any other aquarium by cycling the tank before you can add the fish. A good method is fishless cycling that is simple to do and does not cause distress to any fish. Once you have cycled the tank you can begin to buy the fish and add plants if you are using them.
An especially lovely effect is to set up a reef fish tank with brightly colored salt water corals and fish, but this is, maybe a project for an expert aquarist. A wall fish tanks, as we have said, makes a dramatic center of attention to any room and is bound to be admired by all your guests.

