Aquariums and Audio Equipment

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...

I had a 90 gallon African Cichlid tank in my room until recently. I used a big Hagen canister filter and it was very very quiet. So quiet, that from my chair I couldn't hear it at all. I think you should go for it, especially if you can put the plumbing in a basement... The fish never seemed to notice the music at all.

As more a fish phile then audio so far...you guy's left out the idea of an all natural tank using live mud sitting on platic egg crates for the natural way to break down nitrates. And then put any powerheads on a timer or shut them off when your listening.Or any of the Eheim/Fluval type filters are dead quiet. But for me I keep my two hobby's separate. I do believe that the unnatural vibration the music produces is stressful to them.
Clavio

First of all, marine (salt water) fish sink to the bottom of the tank when they die.

I had a 200 gallan marine tank (using wet/dry and fluidized bed filters) in my listening room. One day while I was at work and on my lunch break their was a power failure at home. Some sand got into the ball valve (prevents all the water from rushing out the returns in the bottom of the tank) and it stuck open. My wife did not know to turn the cut-off valve off (with huge red handle labeled "turn in case of emergency") and by the time she got through to me 150 gallons of salt water was soaking into the rug and wicking up into the custom bubinga speaker stands and the drywall. Shorted out the electric in the walls and in the room (good thing for surge suppressors) By the time I got home the speaker stands and bottom of the audio cabinet were ruined. Spent about 6-8 hours vacuaming up the water with a shop vac. When we moved about 6 months later I gave away the fish, tank, and all the filtration.

Bottom Line - Aquariums and audio don't mix.