Getting Started With My Plans For A 4ft Fish Tank

[Gun]

Hi guys

Errrm I don't really no where to start here.

Basically, I have this alcove in my room which measures 4ft 6"W x 2ft 2"D x 6ft 16"H. In this area, I would like to situate a 4ft tank beneith a plasma tv and I was hoping you guys could help me out in getting started

I suppose the first questions would be:

Is 3" each side and 1" at the rear sufficient enough room around a 4ft tank? Edit: getting mixed up here, the tank will be 18" in depth, so this should be ok..just the width?

Can a tank with a properly fitted hood and tightly fitted condensation tray sit below a plasma? (Please be yes, lol!)

Any advice would be much appreciated, guys

Edit: I should also mention the height of the area and weight of the tank. As for the height..Im unsure (taking the plasma-if it's good to go) in to account. The weight should be ok as there's an adjoining wall beneith this area.

 

[OldMan47]

A good top can give you a decent moisture barrier to the TV. The thing I would be trying to work out is how to run filter hoses and how I will go about cleaning and doing water changes. The hardest thing to gauge is how much room you need for filter and tank maintenance. I would mock it up with maybe cardboard boxes and see what space you have and try to visualize each of the tasks that you have and how you will do them. I failed to do this when designing a 2 level aquarium stand and now have a very hard to maintain lower tank.

 

[waterdrop]

I agree, doing some thinking about "where your elbows will have to go" ahead of time will really pay off.

A little off-topic, but its often ideal to view a large flatscreen from a height that's only slightly elevated from your comfortable seated position. If you have an alternative, say on one of the sidewalls, where you wouldn't have to put the flatscreen so high, it might be preferable. If you don't, however, its probably not really a big deal.

Also, hopefully you've looked around this forum and will look for advice on filters, fishless cycling and other aspects of startup?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Gun]

Thanks very much for the replies, OldMan47 & waterdrop

OldMan47 - The plasma's good to go, as long as I take care regarding moisture....great!

Yeah, I've put a little thought into 'elbow room'. I'm trying not to get to carried away with how the alcove will look...rather than the most important things of all..the fish. There will be 3" each side of tank and up to 7" at the rear.

I don't know guys...what do you think? As long as the canaster filter will hang at the rear I think I may be ok as I'm pretty agile, bendy lol! Thinking of 'access' I also took into acount the depth of the tank/height of tv. I was originally going for a 24" depth..now it's 18".

"I failed to do this when designing a 2 level aquarium stand and now have a very hard to maintain lower tank" Ah, this happened to me a few years ago. My work mate built me a 2ft double stand..which I powdercoated myself Only thing is, even though I had in mind 'bottom tank access' the measurments I gave him for this gap where still to small


Waterdrop - Yeah the height of the tv may be an issue. Would you say 18 -24" is a suitable height for a fishtank to be sitting off of the floor? I would like to keep a decent view of the tank..whils't also hanging the tv at a comfortable height

Yep, I'm trying to do my research...but keep getting distracted by threads like the 'Eco Project and DIY Fake wall/cement bottom guy thingy

 

[minxfishy]

Dont think the access around the tank would be much of an issue would it. Mine are pushed right back to the wall and I have about 1" on the sides. With an external filter, once you've got the pipes in the tank and through to the filter, you dont ever really need to get to them again, the maintenance is on the filter itself, which is easy to reach via the cabinet doors - or am I missing something here?

Providing you have enough height from the top of the tank to the bottom of the TV I cant see a problem. You wont get much moisture from the tank providing you have a lid on it, most come with lids already, unless you were using an open top tank, which I dont think is what you are going for is it?

The TV may be a little high on the wall compared to most, but not high enough to cause a problem I would think. I would be more scared of the TV falling onto the tank - but then my DIY skills are non existant, even my pictures I hang on the walls, have a tendancy to fall off after a while LOL.

 

[Gun]

Hi minxfishy.

Well the cabinet it will sit on...unsure yet My dad may have to build me something..unless I can find something that sits no more than around 2ft off of the ground.

I think I'll do some more measurements. Start with tv, find a comfortable height and see what that leaves me. If it's tight I'll move tv up as needed. I will then have a better idea as to height of cabinet

"I would be more scared of the TV falling onto the tank "

Worst nightmare, lol! It should be ok. There's about 30 screws which will be going through an inch of wood then brickwork.

My room is getting decorated in around 2wks time, about a week later I'm hoping to have the tv in place and my tank sitting there...so I can eventually get started. In the past...I've always missed or skipped something out when setting up a tank, this time I'm determined to do it properly with the help of you guys(if ya don't mind)

Hope I'm not boring you guys, lol!