Vintage Aquariums?

saltwaterfish.com · 2026-09-09T13:15:17-0400

Does anybody here have a vintage aquarium? I love seeing those old Victorian ones with the embossed metal edges and fancy stands. I've seen a few photos online of people who have restored and setup from the late 1800s and I think they look awesome. One day I would like to find my own and make it into a cool project. It would definitely be a fresh water tank though as I don't think it would stand up to saltwater for very long.

Gumbies R Us · 2026-09-09T13:16:42-0400

@Paul B

Baldyreef · 2026-09-09T13:17:54-0400

this would be very fun to make as a freshwater planted tank or as a saltwater macroalgae tank

JP Reef · 2026-09-09T13:20:48-0400

If I had the money it would be interesting to restore a vintage aquarium with monel so that you could use it for a saltwater aquarium. As long as it isn't in contact with the water it would look amazing.

Gumbies R Us · 2026-09-09T13:26:19-0400

Baldyreef said:
this would be very fun to make as a freshwater planted tank or as a saltwater macroalgae tank

That means you do it now.......

Baldyreef · 2026-09-09T13:39:58-0400

Gumbies R Us said:
That means you do it now.......

I might have to

redfishbluefish · 2026-09-09T14:02:10-0400

Certainly not the vintage you're talking about, but when I started with freshwater in the 60's, tanks were slate bottoms with stainless steel frames and a mystery black glop to seal up the glass and slate. They looked like this:

Gumbies R Us · 2026-09-09T14:02:42-0400

redfishbluefish said:
Certainly not the vintage you're talking about, but when I started with freshwater in the 60's, tanks were slate bottoms with stainless steel frames and a mystery black glop to seal up the glass and slate. They looked like this:

A steel frame tank sounds interesting. How well did they hold up?

redfishbluefish · 2026-09-09T14:05:54-0400

Gumbies R Us said:
A steel frame tank sounds interesting. How well did they hold up?

I've got to believe saltwater would do a job on the low quality stainless steel. Otherwise, I think at my peak I had seven freshwater tanks in my bedroom breeding guppies, mollies and swordtails.

McPuff · 2026-09-10T10:15:07-0400

I have definitely come across some of those metal-framed tanks with slate bottoms in the past. They were all pretty small, perhaps 10 gal was the biggest. But they are really heavy!