# Wall mounted stream



## Crusher7485 (Sep 18, 2009)

I had a great idea. I've always thought that a small stream in an aquarium and/or a waterfall would be great. However, I though it would be cool to make a stream of sorts and mount it on a wall. I just have a number of ideas right now, and I'm looking for info from you guys. Perhaps also someone who thinks this would be cool and would want to do it as well. Then we could trade ideas and build stories.

Looking for:
Build ideas
Practicality
Size
Fish or invertebrates that could live in such a system

I figured I'd have to get heavy duty wall L-brackets.
On top of the L-brackets have 2x4 or similar
The housing for the stream I though would be constructed out of Acrylic, which I think may be cheaper than glass, especially tempered glass.
At the end of the stream have a waterfall that falls into a tube. This tube goes to a small (10 gallon) tank that has heater and filter. In this tank is a pump to return water to the stream.
I'd estimate maybe 10 foot long to fit in my room, 7 on one wall and 3 on another.
Not sure of the dimensions but maybe 2-3 inches of water in most parts, 4-6 inches from wall to front. Need to calculate the weight of this. I think 1 gallon of water is 8.3 lbs. 1 gallon is 231 cubic inches. I'd need to find the weight that would be placed every stud, so every 16 in.
Not sure of lighting system or if I want to add small plants.

Note: I have a 20 long, before that I had a 10. I don't claim to know a whole lot about fishkeeping. I'd like a 55 or so sometime in the future, planted with a CO2 system. But that's a lot of money while I'm in collage.

So...read, find problems, post, discuss, etc. Looking for feedback positive or negative. I think it would be pretty cool, myself.


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## ravenmyth (Dec 15, 2008)

Interesting idea that will require lots of thought and design attention. You should look into the waterfalls they put into gardens and also the ones some people put into houses to get additional ideas.

I see some challenges having a 10' long waterway. One is the increased evaporation so you'll need to add water fairly frequently. Second is temperature loss particularly since your reservoir is a 10 gal tank. You may want to limit that problem by using fish that like room temperature rather than tropical fish. Gold fish or even better White Cloud Mountain fish would be cool (I like the colorful Meteor Minnow variety).*Glasses*


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## chadasmus (Dec 26, 2009)

i think that the waterfall would be easy and cheap to do. You could use styrofoam, carve a little riverbed in it and make the rest look like rock. the styrofoam would hold the water, you could epoxy it to make sure. Using foam you could carve out a spot for the pump and the hoses. You wouldn't have to make it big, but i think that it would make a dramatic affect. i might even be willing to try it when i get home. Got me wondering


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## Imaexpat2 (Jun 17, 2009)

Wow thats a pretty interesting concept...although I think a bigger tank would be much better and provide for more options. As previously mentioned evaporation and water temp will be your biggest challenge I think on this project. I am a bit leary of the L bracket part...thats still going to be a good bit of weight to be reliably supported. Over engineering it a bit and using screws instead of nails should work well enough but I would try to keep the weight to a minimum.

Oh one other major thing that I almost forgot...calculate the amount of water in that stream bed and make sure there is enough left over room in the display or an over flow tank to catch it all should the power go out on you. I do a lot of work with SW tanks and there is nothing quiet as special as having the sump over flow when there is a power outage and the display tank drians about 4-5 inches!

Good luck with this project and take lots of pics along the way so we can all see and follow along. Might be some good motivation for some of the rest of us to try on a simular set up.


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