Aquariums and Audio Equipment

We have a 110 Gallon marine tank on the back wall of the listening room... all of the filters are in the basement and the only sound from the tank is that of rushing water (which is actually quite soothing). The tank actually helps to break up reflection off of the rear wall since it is an imposing structure with numerous angles, shapes, and materials.

As far as disturbing the fish, keep in mind that sound is magnified under water so what might be 95 db to us might be a heck of a lot louder to the fish. We haven't seen a fish die from a loud thwack of a bass drum though. One problem that we do have is that the plexiglass is showing very small superficial cracks from the loud sound levels (at least according to the aquarium people). Their suggestion is to replace it with a glass tank (which we didn't do in the first place because of the unconventional stand it is on and they said plexiglass would work better).

As was mentioned earlier, saltwater aquariums are an eternal money pit and when you see a $1000 worth of fish floating at the top of the tank, you kick yourself for not buying more audio equipment instead of the fish. Oh well, but it looks nice...

All but one post actually talked about the negative impact of the a huge tank toward the music. There is no way it will help your music with a big piece of glass in between speakers. It will throw off the image and make the bright brighter.

I once help a friend setting up his first high end system in a room with a 110 tank since he originally wanted to enjoy music and watch fish at the same time. Two days later he moved the speakers out of the living room since he couldn't stand the noise of the pump.

I don't think fish and stereo go very well together.

I was going to make a joke about making sure the fish were in the sweet spot, but this thread has turned serious. I assume fish don't have ears and somehow the vibration is scaring the sh*t out of them. They probably feel kinda like an achovy about to be attacked by a killer whale. I never liked anchovies, but feel kinda sorry for the rest of the little finned guys. I'm a tad of a hunter so no animal rights stuff here, but makes you hope that you don't come back as an audiophile's pet fish.

What a fascinating thread, and I thought having six cats was time consuming. At least fish don't leave hairballs on the sofa. Then again cats probably reduce the room brightness, and absorb stray sound.

Obviously a quiet pump and a sump-less set-up is required, which probably rules out a salt water set-up. A fresh water aquarium w/ eclipse mount on top filters would probably be better, but how to defeat the imaging issue created by a 3-4' long glass/acrylic tank in the middle of the speakers?

In the end, I'm guessing that its fairly impossible, unless I knock a hole in the wall and mount everything on the other side of the wall - which in my condo, happens to be my neighbor's living room...