Badass Fish Tanks

We don’t recommend you put the fish bowl at grandma’s house in your manly recreation room. Unless you’re into that kind of thing, of course.  What I do recommend you to do is to consider installing a fish tank that’ll be gawked at and tapped more than the lobster tank at Red Lobster.You have a few different options for some really original, badass fish tanks.

Wall-mounted aquariums

I think these are by far the classiest and they’re able to fit into any theme/styled rec room. These usually take up very little space (protrude less than 5 inches) as they are hung just like a picture (on a wall stud). One particular wall-mounted aquarium I like at Hammacher Schlemmer ($299) has side-mounted LCD monitors that display oxygen levels, filtration, and temperature control.

Wall-mounted aquariums can come as little as 2 feet in width to 30 feet, spanning an entire wall. They also come with black frames, stainless steel frames, and custom-made ones can match your wallpaper/texture.

Fish tank tables

You might have seen these before — in 1975. Even if you’re not going for a nostalgic feel for your rec room, it can still be appealing to have a fish tank table. Kick your feet back after a long day and have your fish swim underneath you, fearing your size 12s. Beware though, these fish tank tables aren’t children friendly — nor are they friendly for areas that experience a lot of traffic, heavy beer mugs, etc.

That aside, can you imagine what it’d be like to have some fish sticks to eat on a brand new fish tank table? Then again, maybe you shouldn’t.

Free standing aquariums

Go into any Chinese buffet and you’ll find one of these. They are your standard aquariums and come with a large base, usually either rectangle, square, or circular, that stands 5-8 feet in height. The aquarium is run of the mill, it’s normally the base that makes the setup unique — oak, stainless-steel, tropical-themed, etc.

If you have the square footage to spare and just want a safe, easy to setup (relatively) fish tank for a family rec room or a rec room with a tropical theme, this would be the ideal option.