Aquarium Wall Built Into House Wall?

[Flaring Afro]

Has anyone considered making one wall of their fiberglass plywood aquarium/pond built into an inside load bearing wall? I would be cutting the drywall from the floor to about 3ft high, removing all wiring (I know how to do this safely), and stacking 2x4s while attaching them to the current studs and the floor. This would stretch along a wall that is about 5ft wide.

Doing so would look better, prevent my turtles from walking along the rim from their basking area, and make the indoor pond about 8 inches wider for them. The downside is the inherent risk of it damaging the wall structure if it bows out, but there already is a risk to the floor underneath that wall, which I will be heavily reinforcing.

 

[tlindsey]

Has anyone considered making one wall of their fiberglass plywood aquarium/pond built into an inside load bearing wall? I would be cutting the drywall from the floor to about 3ft high, removing all wiring (I know how to do this safely), and stacking 2x4s while attaching them to the current studs and the floor. This would stretch along a wall that is about 5ft wide.

Doing so would look better, prevent my turtles from walking along the rim from their basking area, and make the indoor pond about 8 inches wider for them. The downside is the inherent risk of it damaging the wall structure if it bows out, but there already is a risk to the floor underneath that wall, which I will be heavily reinforcing.

 

[andyroo]

We set a 7'10" x 3' x 18" ~230gal into the concrete wall at the far end of our entrance hallway. There should be a build Q&A thread on here somewhere...

The back, sides & bottom are steel-float concrete with 3x coats of WestSystem epoxy seal, which looks great as the epoxy makes the mottled render really "pop"
The 1/2" glass is silicone'd into an epoxy-sealed 1.5" angle-iron frame reinforced with another 2" flat-bar along the top, & then pinned to the back-wall with tensioned steel brace at two points. The frame is bolted & braced to the cement, and sealed with fibreglass + epoxy & 5200 - messy to apply, but durable.

Infinite, ongoing & enduring thanks to Fishdance for walking me through it... twice.

 

[AnomalocarisAquatics]

I've seen something like this, just not a whole wall. It was in a neighborhood where my relatives were, if I remembered correctly. It was placed outside, where there were walls and gates. One of the walls had a tank in it. This is definitely not the most uncommon idea, at least not in Indonesia.

 

[Flaring Afro]

We set a 7'10" x 3' x 18" ~230gal into the concrete wall at the far end of our entrance hallway. There should be a build Q&A thread on here somewhere...

The back, sides & bottom are steel-float concrete with 3x coats of WestSystem epoxy seal, which looks great as the epoxy makes the mottled render really "pop"
The 1/2" glass is silicone'd into an epoxy-sealed 1.5" angle-iron frame reinforced with another 2" flat-bar along the top, & then pinned to the back-wall with tensioned steel brace at two points. The frame is bolted & braced to the cement, and sealed with fibreglass + epoxy & 5200 - messy to apply, but durable.

Infinite, ongoing & enduring thanks to Fishdance for walking me through it... twice.

I was hoping not to have to use concrete or metal, but would be willing to consider using metal bracing in there. I figured that in theory if it's strong enough for the fiberglass to not flex and crack, the wall studs should be ok but it is going to be about 30 inches of water which is a lot of pressure... I also could reinforce the wall all the way up and resheet the entire thing, since that makes it way stronger than only reinforcement at water level. I plan to paint the wall anyways.

This will be my second build. The first was built in another home and was 670 gallons using wood and pond liner.

 

[cvar]

Your "load bearing" wall is holding up your roof or upstairs level, or both. If you remove part of a load bearing wall, then you need to replace that section with a proper header beam that transfers the load to the floor below. Same as is done for a large window or doorway. An LVL beam is a good choice for this. Each end of the beam needs to be supported by a few "Jack" studs which hold up the beam itself. And King studs (beyond the beam & Jacks) hold the Jacks & the beam ends in their place. Then the upper load is safely supported. The horizontal water pressure from your pond may cause inward bowing of the wall, but a few strategically placed reinforced horizontal braces between the Jack studs will stop that bowing. Esp. if you add extra Jacks.

Source: I recently reno'd our home, adding new 10' picture windows & doors, and our upstairs level stayed upstairs. County building inspectors approved all of my beam sizes & my DIY installation.

 

[Flaring Afro]

Your "load bearing" wall is holding up your roof or upstairs level, or both. If you remove part of a load bearing wall, then you need to replace that section with a proper header beam that transfers the load to the floor below. Same as is done for a large window or doorway. An LVL beam is a good choice for this. Each end of the beam needs to be supported by a few "Jack" studs which hold up the beam itself. And King studs (beyond the beam & Jacks) hold the Jacks & the beam ends in their place. Then the upper load is safely supported. The horizontal water pressure from your pond may cause inward bowing of the wall, but a few strategically placed reinforced horizontal braces between the Jack studs will stop that bowing. Esp. if you add extra Jacks.

Source: I recently reno'd our home, and our upstairs level stayed upstairs. County building inspectors approved all of my beam sizes & installation.

Oh I don't plan to remove any studs, just the drywall and then build the aquarium wall around the studs with the studs being part of the structure. I've installed a window header before, but only to replace one stud and would never be willing to remove so many in a row without an architect looking at it.

I will try to make a drawing of it on Inkscape when I get a chance. I'm in no rush, I'll be starting around September and want to make sure everything is well thought out before the build starts.

 

[Flaring Afro]

I haven't 100% confirmed the wall has 2x4 studs yet but it angles away and then a bathroom doorway nearby seems to indicate it is this thickness. The wall is about 12ft tall due to this being a 1.5 story house, and this wall is on the end of where the upper bedrooms are. I'll be able to look down into the tank from the top of the stairway.

SVG Link: https://jmp.sh/s/S5vaH0yWl7ycTy7IUfNQ

View attachment turtlewall.png

 

[Flaring Afro]

Do people think I should add the braces going all the way up the wall? Or should it be enough to just log cabin the area below and slightly above water level?