|
The silliest thing about a TV fishtank conversion is practicality.
Water weighs something like 8.3 pounds per gallon. A 10-gallon fishtank will approach 100 pounds when loaded up with gravel, water, heater, filter, and airpump. A 20-gallon tank will approach 200 pounds.
I had aquaria for years, and can testify that you really, really don't want to try moving a full aquarium. Old-fashioned aquaria with metal frames are somewhat robust, but modern aquaria are basically sheets of glass stuck together with silicone seal, with a thin plastic frame or no frame at all.
You need to access an aquarium daily to feed your fish, perhaps weekly to clean gunk off the inside, mess with the filters, top off or change the water, and so on.
Most TV fishtanks show the TV pushed up against a wall, like a normal TV. Which makes it impossible to feed your fish or maintain the aquarium, unless you have mounted the cabinet on heavy rubber-tired casters or you are Plasticman and can bend your 1/2-inch diameter arms around very tight spaces.
If your TV fishtank is not mounted on casters, and you try to slide it out from the wall, you will either splash a lot of water out of the aquarium or just bust the tank.
The only way I can see this working is if you saw off the cabinet top so that it's removable. Even then, the humidity from all that nice heated water will quickly do a number on the cabinet joints, veneer, etc.
Phil Nelson
|