Selecting Home Aquarium Cabinetry
There are a few things that the customer should keep in mind when picking an aquarium cabinet for their home. Very basic stuff that can really enhance your aquatic display. Types of wood, stain options or solid colors. How tall should the cabinet be? Is it going to be a saltwater tank today, perhaps a reef aquarium in the future?
First we would urge you to start with a simple question of why you want an aquarium and how is it going to fit into your home. Is this a hobby that is kept in an out of the way place, or a focal show point? If the aquarium is going to kept in an out of view area, then concerns of color matching, cabinetry style are generally not a big concern. Probably a straight forward style (such as the Standard series) will give you good looks and years of dependable service. You generally have a lot more options for what stain or paint color to choose. The issue is just not that critical. In fact, if you plan on eventually moving the set up into another room in the future, you might want to select a fairly neutral color that is flexible with other areas of the home.
If the aquarium is to be placed in a high visibility area, then you have to start with the style of cabinetry. One of the reasons we offer so many standardized models to choose from, is to give the customer lots of flexibility in complimenting existing furnishings. While you are working out the cabinet style, you need to consider the type of wood you want to use. Red oak is the standard material used for most of the cabinets. If the furnishings are in maple, cherry, black walnut, etc, then perhaps that is the wood to select.
Is the customer really concerned with color? Or are they very flexible with it? For most of the orders, a standard stain will suffice quite nicely. In other situations, the whole area may have a themed color. This is where color matching comes into play. Solid colors or stains can be color matched to the existing furnishings. In order to do this we would need a sample to work from. The larger the better.
There are several factors though that come to mind no matter where the cabinet and canopy is placed. First of all is the canopy. If you are going to set up a saltwater reef aquarium or think you are going to- order the proper canopy up front. You need adequate space in the canopy for the lighting. Do it right up front and you will save yourself a lot grief and expense down the road.
The deck height is another concern that needs some attention. Unless you are sitting down whenever you view the aquarium, then anything shorter than 34" is probably to short. I say this based upon the orders that we receive. Most of the "high visibility" cabinets we manufacture place the aquarium 36 to 42 inches off the floor. You get good visibility from a sitting or standing view point.
Just a few considerations.
