Custom-made aquariums are emerging as pricey fixtures in luxury homes. Prices can range from roughly $5,000 for a 10-gallon tank to $1 million and up for a tank that hold 5,000 gallons of water.
Fort Lauderdale-based manufacturer Living Color Aquariums, for example, specializes in saltwater tanks and will install a 1,600-gallon one for approximately $150,000.
Featured on the National Geographic cable television channel feature on a show called “Fish Tank Kings,” Living Color this year has started installing vent-less fireplaces beneath home aquariums for customers who want gaze at flames as well as fish.
London-based Aquarium Architecture sells a lush 1,057-gallon garden equipped with LED lighting to simulate sunrise and sunset, which is believed to decrease stress for certain types of fish. The $40,000 tank also can simulate storms to stimulate breeding.
Some aquarium buyers choose an “aquascape” stocked with the types of fish they encountered while snorkeling or scuba diving. Others focus more on creating a small-scale representations of scenes in nature, a mountainous area, for example, or a rain forest.
Aquariums may convey health benefits as well as bragging rights. Funded by a not-for-profit organization in the UK that focuses on marine biology, a research study of 84 people determined that aquariums can reduce blood pressure.
Custom-madeaquariums are emerging as pricey fixtures in luxury homes.Prices can range from roughly $5,000 for a 10-gallon tank to $1 million and up for a tank that hold 5,000 gallons of water.