I`m thinking of placing an aquarium in the back of a room where I have my home theater. The room measures 12` by 25`. What I want to know is if I have a 100 or so gallons will the fish be affected by loud noises coming from speakers including sub?

Thanks.

I have an aquarium in the same room as my HT. When playing a DVD at moderate levels with agressive LFE, I have noticed that the fish become agitated. They dart about the tank very quickly. So far I have not assoicated any fish deaths with playing my HT. I would say however that it does affect the fish.

I did a night club sound system about three years ago that featured a private room with see through fishtanks separating it from the dance floor. The system was capable of extremely high sound pressure levels including the low frequency. There were two JBL double 18" subwoofer enclosures powered by about 2000 watts each within fairly close proximity to the private room. The fish didn't seem to mind, and have survived nicely. I'm sure the intelligent lighing probably bothered them a lot more than the sound.

I have installed two dedicated home theaters and a family room theater that had large aquariums that were integral parts of the room. The sonic affect was a concern of all 3 professional aquarium installers.

The first was an 8' w X 4' h X 4' d one that was on the screenwall. He had heavy velvet curtains that closed between the speakers and the aquarium and then the screen dropped in front of the curtains. The room had 4 15" subs and a Meridian Digital Theatre that rocked, although it took some tweaking. He never had any problems with the fish and it has been installed for about 10 years. The curtains may have helped protect the fish from the higher frequencies but it was put there mainly to block light since the light system simulated day/night and could not be interrupted to view a movie.

Another project had a 16' w X 6'h X 4'd one running down the right side. It had movable acousitcal panels to cover the aquarium during movies. Again, the panels were there for light blocking as much as acoustical properties. They had a lot of problems with getting their fish stable, but they could not absolutely blame it on the sound (there were thoughts that way). Once they got it stable (after a year), there were no additional problems and there were no changes in use. This has been installed for about 6 years.

The third project was more of a family room with twin 4' w X 3'h X 2' d aquariums on either side of the fireplace built into cabinets. There is nothing that covers these and the lights stay on their schedule even during video viewing (they have a dedicated theater around the corner for "serious" viewing. The speakers were wall in-walls, but the sub was in a cabinet below the right aquarium. This cabinet did not have a bottom in it so the sub sat on the concrete floor to minimize cabinet vibrations. I am not aware of any problems with either tank. This has been installed about 2 years.

So, with 3 installations we have had no real concrete evidence of any problems with the fish. One installation did have problems getting a stable community and the professional service was starting to think it might be the sound when things settled down.

Hope this helps,

Randy

I think you got your answer, but just in case you want more go to [Link: avsforum.com] and search on aquariums I remember a few long threads on the subject either on the builder or accessory forum (but might be on one of the others as well)

Anthony could you find exactly where these threads are in AVS. I could not find them.

thanks.

Also thanks to all for your inputs.

Being the "Black Thumb" of my family (my Dad was a National Rose Society champion and my sister is an Ornamental Horitculturalist) I tend to kill most living things in my charge (my wife was always been concerned about leaving me with the kids for more than a few hours when they were young). We use MarineAquarium (for Mac OSX) on our plasma display (instead of live fish) and it looks really cool . . . and of course you don't have to feed these fish.

Really? Try depriving them of their not only daily, but incessant, supply of electrons and watch them just sort of fade away.

I tried searching a bit, but did not have much time, but I did find this thread [Link: archive2.avsforum.com]

Thanks anthony.

It would seem that this author is against placing an aquarium in a HT environnment. the opposite of what I have been hearing in this forum. Lakes, river, ocean is also affected by noise. How does fish react in these situations?

If you re-read the entire thread and go to reefcentral.com, you will find many that say it is a myth about the bass disrupting the fish. Most seem to agree with my client's and their professionals that it doesn't (as permy previous post). All agree that turning the aquarium lights off to view a movie disrupts the balance more and I think most of us in this forum will agree that the aquarium light is not good for our video (the bose guys probably have some direct reflection theory that makes the video image seem larger than it actually is).

So, to me, (not an aquarium rookie much less an expert), if you really want an aquarium in your theater and you can control the light go ahead and do it....don't use the fish as an excuse not too. On the other hand, if you want to look at the acoustical problems it creates for the movie sound, that is a different matter....you can use THAT as your excuse not to put an aquarium in the theater.

With that said, if you read my other post, with enough money and good enough equipment you can still have a good sounding theater. Compromises must be made.

Randy

Good response randy. The question asked was if there was an affect on the fish. Thre seems to be one. The real question is if there is a negative effect on the fish.

At normalvolumes probably not. If played at level that cause ears to bleed, probably yes.

until fish can talk, we will probably never know if stunn level SPL is detremental.

Sound and excessive vibration can definitely stress aquarium fish. I kind of doubt a home theater is going to generate more turbulence than a waterfall filter or any kind of non-natural aeration though. If you decide to go ahead and give it a try, I'd recommend fairly hearty fish. You could consider livebearers like guppies and mollies or perhaps something along the lines of fancy goldfish or koi.

Cook the fish and eat them while watching. Sounds like an excellent solution to me.