I did this in my old apartment. It was a 1 bedroom with a kitchenette kinda
area that attached to the frontroom area... and that was it. To try and
break it up a a little and save on space for couches and such my wife and I
turned my 90 gallon tank with full canopy and is about 6 foot assembled....
and used it as a divider between the kitchen type area and the front room.

In a lot of ways this is tricker than what you are proposing because there
is nowhere to hide what you have. The way I did it, I just tried to make
everything as inconspicous as possible.

2 powerheads powering the UGF went that the ends of the tank and I skipped
using any in the middle and took out the tubes in the middle.
2 magnum 350 canister filters. one at each end.
heater on the side closest wall
2-24 inch lights one on each side.

I taped up all the cords and tubes for the Magnums on each corner with a
matte black tape and most people never noticed. I also covered up the
backside of my tank with curtains so people wouldnt see the canisters and
lights and such....

It was impressive to anyone who ever came into the apartment and I got to
enjoy my tank from either the kitchen or the frontroom.




"Amateur" wrote in message
. com...

"No-Name" wrote in message
...
I've seen a few pictures of tanks used as a room divider - I like the
look,
but can't figure out how I'd handle the issue of the filters, if I'm
using
back-filters like the Emperor 400 - to eliminate filters on either the
front
or the back side of the tank, I guess I'd have to go to a sump-type
system -
or is there another alternative? If I go to a sump, would I have to
drill
the tank, or is there a provision for the suction and return tubes to go
over the top of the tank at the end of the tank? Thanks for any
suggestions.



The most clean way to do it would be to drill the tanks, that's if they're
not
tempered and can be drilled. You can buy predrilled tanks. If you don't
already
have the tank, the all-glass 180 gallon tank would look nice. The cutout
on one
wall would be a little narrower than on the other wall as the built in
overflow
covers a few inches on each corner in what's normally the back of the
tank. In
my overflows on my rack system, the overflow is simply a piece of pvc
tubing
with vents cut in the top of the tube. The top of the pvc is about a half
inch
down from the top of the tank with the lowest cut about an inch beneath
that.
You can have another piece of pvc coming up into the tank from the bottom
for
the return as well.
There are overflow systems that have a small box you could hang off the
side of
the tank that work on siphon. Or you could have a cabinet above the tank
with
the sump over the tank and pump up to it. This would eliminate the need to
drill. Drill bits are expensive and difficult to use and I couldn't find
any
glass places that would take the responsibility of drilling a tank for me.
The other option is a canister filter like the fluval 404. You could set
one up
on each end. Depending on how the tank was stocked, that would probably
keep up
with most of your filtration needs.
Amateur
www.amateurcichlids.com