is an in-wall tank feasible in my situation and what to consider

[H2OhWhoa]

I want to upgrade to a 125 gallon aquarium, 72”! The agreed upon space is our dining room where we have a dining room table on order (92” long + chairs) which (unfortunately) gets the priority for footprint in the room. We think we can fit the Aqueon 125 gallon which is 72.5” (wide, so left to right) x 18.5” (back to front) x 23.375” tall. My wife would prefer we wait to upgrade the tank until the dining room table’s been delivered between Thanksgiving & Christmas. I worry about what the outcome of waiting will be!

In the meantime, I am having a heck of a time finding a stand we like. Not comfortable with the marineland/aqueon pre-fab stands. They just seem so flimsy and I’ve seen people say they bow. I don’t love the way they look either. No thanks. I’ve been scouting fb marketplace and craigslist for months now, but nothing’s coming up that’s just right. I could certainly build a box out of 2x4’s (the @RocketEngineer template), but I’m concerned with my ability to finish it and make it look like a pro cabinet. We don’t want some amateurish-looking build beside our beautiful new dining room table.

Considering space - we want minimal footprint and that we want top notch appearance in the dining room, I’m wondering if I can figure out how to make the tank in-wall so the glass is flush with the wall in the dining room.

Here are pics of both sides of the wall and some details of the space.

One side is the dining room. You’ll see on the left that a door (from our kitchen), which is always left open, covers the first 20” of the wall. That’s about where I’d need to start the tank. The wall is about 13’, but because of the room on the other side of the wall (the mudroom) I would not be able to center the tank on the wall. I’m ok with this.

On the other side of the wall, the mudroom wall is not as big. It’s 8 ft 6 inches. That’s getting pretty tight for our 72.5” tank.

I’m a novice at everything. Here are my general questions.

• In the mudroom, you’ll see there is a door to the left (to an office) and a door to the right (to the living room). Both swing in to the mudroom. I figure that the tank (and stand) will protrude 14” into the room. Where I have the doors open in the last picture below is about as far as they’ll open if left unchanged. Is this ok, or am I asking for trouble?
• When I cut out the sheetrock in the mudroom I imagine I’m going to need to reframe the studs for the wall. Essentially build the box I was going to build for a stand, put it in the wall as far as it'll go/against the dining room sheetrock. I guess I’ll need a cavity to the left in order to plumb the filter. I’m not quite sure how to do this. Do I need access to this cavity? If yes, this complicates things on the mudroom side and perhaps for the frame I need to build.
• All things considered, is this feasible?

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

The positioning on the mudroom would be essentially a deal killer for me with the current swing of the doors. If you had pocket doors there, that may change.

Assuming the wall isn't load supporting, it wouldn't be too hard to frame to accept the tank and new stand(that has to be built either way)

There's a whole lot more possible expenses and things to go wrong this way, rather than normal, but yes. It's for sure feasible.

 

[H2OhWhoa]

The positioning on the mudroom would be essentially a deal killer for me with the current swing of the doors. If you had pocket doors there, that may change.

Assuming the wall isn't load supporting, it wouldn't be too hard to frame to accept the tank and new stand(that has to be built either way)

There's a whole lot more possible expenses and things to go wrong this way, rather than normal, but yes. It's for sure feasible.

Ya, the door to the left leads to an office. That used to be an attached garage. When i had that finished 6 months ago I really wish I had the contractor figure out how to make that a pocket door. That would be much harder now as it would get in the way of a thermostat and light switches!

 

[All_talk]

That is a tight fit. And I agree the door swing issue is far less than ideal.

Is there an option to have the office door open into the office? This might let you shift things a little.


What about sharing the tank depth on both sides of the wall? Assuming you can stand a little push into the dinning area, maybe you could get the doors in the mudroom to swing near 90 degrees?

What I'm thinking is the wall could be opened up like archway all the way to the floor. And then a conventional tank/stand set though the wall and trimmed like a built-in. Or could be a built in as well. A big drawback to this would be the wall overhead of the middle of the tank blocking access, but you are going to be dealing with a bit of that even with a flush in-wall build. Just cut it high enough and have a removable or opening canopy.

Just some thoughts.
Gary

 

[All_talk]

On plumbing the filter, if you go with a in tank overflow (corner) the drain and returns can go out the bottom. This will not make the best presentation on the "back" side of the tank (assuming mudroom side), but would eliminate external pipes. The exposed back of the overflow could be hidden with a cover panel to clean up the look.

Otherwise, as you said, you are looking a a peninsula arrangement and I would never want to build that in the wall without access for repair or maintenance.

 

[H2OhWhoa]

Is there an option to have the office door open into the office? This might let you shift things a little.


What about sharing the tank depth on both sides of the wall? Assuming you can stand a little push into the dinning area, maybe you could get the doors in the mudroom to swing near 90 degrees?

Thanks for the detailed thoughts!
The door swinging into the office should be viable. It wouldn't change anything about the functionality of the office. I can look up some videos how to do that!

I have thought about having the tank protrude a few inches into each room. Say 7" into both rooms. That's pretty minimal intrusion in both rooms. I'd have to figure out how to finish it in dining room, I guess sheetrock all around. Would offer some Sideviewing too which is a bonus. Does feel like it doubles the work!

 

[Tcook]

I would remove the door. Center tank on mudroom wall. Then build a shallow cabinet to right of tank in the dining room to store/display wine glasses or plates. Extend this cabinetry around the tank so it looks like a nice builtin that covers the entire dining room wall. You each get something.