I had a 175 gallon tank in my house. I made sure it was maintained and clean during showings. I removed the tank the week before I closed on the sale and moved the fish & other critters to a tank in the new house. Was a LOT of work but everyone survived.

To me, that is no different than selling a house with a huge projection TV or a pool table.

I really don't think it is problem as long as it looks clean, as people will definitely look at it (make sure the tank walls aren't full of algae).

My only concern is that a tank that heavy may damage the floor (hardwood or carpet).

That tank wouldn't bother me, since it sounds like you maintain it well. It is actually one of the nicest tanks I've seen, with the maple cabinets and all.

It is hard to tell from your photo, but I'd just make sure it doesn't make the room look too small.

I sold a house with a 160 ga. tank in which lived my pet Oscar plus a 25 ga. tank that housed his feeders. No problems. I did put a note on the tank to please not open the lid! :)

/tricia

It's funny. When I first read your post, I thought you wnated to leave the tank (fish and all) with the buyer. I thought, Hell, No!, I wouldn't want the responsibility of that thing in my new house.

Upon taking my time to read your post again, I realized that the tank would be there just for the showings.

I see no problem at all with showing the house with the tank and fish. It could be quite calming and beautiful and appealing to see to a prospective buyer.

As others have said, as long as it's well maintained, I'd enjoy seeing it.

My husband is big into fish, also. I think that tank would actually serve as a selling point to him (Look! There's a place for a gigantic fish tank!) while someone less interested in fish (me) would probably not even really notice it. I agree with the others, as long as it's clean it's fine.

Thanks, everyone, for the replies so far!

Any more opinions, either way, would be great!

The room is pretty big, 17x14, but so is the tank: 6 feet tall, 6 feet wide, 2 feet deep.

It sets squarely in the middle of the room so we can watch what's going on from both sides-a decision at first I wasn't so happy about but the tank is so big there are whole communities that you wouldn't see if you didn't have 365 access.

For our family it's been like having our own little piece of the ocean far inland...

Keep 'em coming!

I think you'll be fine. Note in the listing that the tank does not convey, so that people understand that the room will be a full room and they don't have to worry about the tank.

DS bought a home from a seller who kept fish -- big tanks, but not THAT big. When they moved out it was evident that there had been leaks. The wood floor, under the carpet, under the tank, was ruined -- rip-it-out ruined.

I'd want to know what supports all that weight, too.

A number of years ago my brother in law was selling his home and had a very large aquarium that served as a room divider between the living room and dining room. It was built in and would have been a lot of trouble to dismantle. He had no problems selling his home, the aquarium did convey however because it was built in. He took his fish with him though.

Well- how far are you planning on moving?

I knew I was moving across country so I went ahead and broke down three huge reef tanks and two planted freshwater and sold everything before I listed. It took me a long time to find suitable homes for all the corals and I lost my shirt x 20, but I had to do it. It is possible to move long distance with corals and marine fish but very difficult and requires loads of planning.

If you are only moving local leave the tank and don't worry about it.

The moving part is no problem, it's just one town over.

What we're worried about is that the tank will be such an eyesore to some people that it would distract from the house and prevent a sale.

The floor is another issue; the house is on a slab so there's no problem with damaging the floor underneath.

However, we did want to put in new hardwoods through the entire downstairs to sell the house. Right now there's a huge mishmosh of tile, travertine, vinyl, laminate and carpet.

Should we skip that one room and put "living room floor to be finished by seller on closing" sign up?

Would that look really weird to have the rest of the main floor be nice oak and the one room with the tank be laminate and a giant tank?

My DH thinks it will "tank" the chances of selling a house because it would look weird....

It is like any other piece of furniture.

I have sold house with even larger tanks present (like 750 gallons).

Not REALLY relevant, but funny... When we moved over 2,000 mi. a few yrs ago, I had a 9 yr old goldfish (last survivor of others in a tank), and I didn't want to leave him, but had no one to give him to. I got a sort of plastic globe (soccer ball size) at Wal-Mart, carried him in there, inside a mini shopping bag and took him to the airport. Well, the check-in people at first went to grab the bag and put it through x-ray, but I told them I didn't know whether it was a great idea and told them to look inside. They did, and all started laughing their heads off! They let me just carry him through, and I sat on the plane for 2 hrs that way, and got him to our new place with no trouble at all! But fish from a 250 gal. tank? Yikes!

It would be pretty hard to take a goldfish on an airplane these days with the 3 oz. liquid rule.

You're right, but my idea was to bring as much of his own water as possible!

I think the fish tank is just fine. However, I am wondering about the couch on the right side of the tank... It looks like it is about two feet away from the facing wall. Although I can't see the whole room, you may want to remove or rearrange the furniture. Can you post other shots of the room?

The room is currently what we call the "Man Room"-it has all of my husband's books, decorating, etc. I think what has to happen is for this room to be completely empty except for the tank. I'm not very good at staging/decorating (I've recently come to that conclusion) and I have no idea what to do around the tank, so my thought was just to have nothing in there but the tank. Here are more pix (We are still doing maintenance on the tank and have popped the front door off it and still have the top up)

{{!gwi}}

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Any ideas are welcome...

FWIW, I love fish too. I love to sit and watch them swim. When my dad was going through his cancer treatment, the cancer institute had large fish tanks set up in waiting areas.

I don't think you need to go nuts on the room, just move a few things around until you get the look you want. You want it to be a relaxing room. It is what it is, a room that has your fish.

I would put the couch on that back wall (if it will fit) you see from the entrance, to the left of the tank, then I'd find something to keep his doo-dads (are those golf clubs I see?) in, putting that where the globe is or between the windows. Will the book case fit between the windows? I might do that, then some sort of smaller seating (chaise or chair) where the couch is now but on the book case wall so that it looks like a reading area where you can see the fish.

Leave the fish tank alone since you both enjoy it. It is a bad market right now and it is doubtful that anything you do will make the house sell better.

But you have to live in that house until the house sells which could be a long time. So keep things around that you enjoy.

Frankly I like the fish tank!

Instead of changing all the flooring and leaving a clause about that room, maybe you should just offer a flooring allowance of what you would have spent. It saves you a little bit of hassle as well unless you are afraid that the floors look so bad that people won't look twice, even with an allowance.

The floors look good. Well, good for laminate. The tank has not damaged them at all. I just worry that laminate is kinda cheesy. Well, the laminate in my house is-some laminate is really nice, but the PO put in the really cheap stuff.

I'm thinking flooring allowance might be a good call...

I would rearrange the furniture to make it more inviting. The fish tank is not the biggest problem there, and I think that even someone who doesn't like aquariums will see that as an easy way to remember your home at the end of a mind-numbing day of house hunting. You want the "big fish tank house" to be a positive image.

I agree with setting up the sofa on the other side of the room. Create a space where people can visit and look at the fish instead of a wall. I thinkthe reading area is fine forthe side where the sofa is now, or you could use that desk and find a chair to create a workspace where you could gaze at the fish while contemplating your work or taking a break.

Clear the clutter -- everything needs a place to be put away or to be removed from the area. Don't create the impression that your home doesn't have room to store the things a buyer would need. Open the shutters when your are showing -- if the view is bad, turn them to let in light but not much view.

Our RA doesn't like allowances. She says the mental impact can often be to have a buyer discount the house for the full allowance (you might have gotten it done for less), adjust further because they figure it will cost more to do the work and then take more off an offer because they still want to make a deal. She said her experience was to either do the repair or sell as is at your designated asking price.

Good luck selling.

What if there was *nothing* in the room but the tank so people could get a sense of how big the room was (it's 17x15)?

Bad idea? Good idea?

I see what you're saying about the allowances.

The house we buy, I swear, I'm making them do the work before we move in because I'm OVER fixing stuff!!!!

I am guessing that the fishtank can't be removed until you move. In that case I remove everything else that is in there now and put back just a very few things. Maybe in the first part of the room a couple of not too big chairs and a small side table. On the far side of the tank just a large plant. Look around your other rooms and see what might look nice.

Yeah, we have a nice writing desk that would fit between the two windows, I could put that there with a chair.

Several people have nicely suggested that I need a stager (I know, I didn't get the good taste gene), they'll earn their money in that room, I betcha...

That writing desk and chair sound great. Put the lamp on it. I staged a writing desk with a nice looking pen holder and writing tablet.

I notice a bookcase in the one picture. You can try leaving that in the room on the long wall and see how it looks. Just put a few books on it, some standing up and some laying down. Add a few decorative items. You might want to leave the stand lamp in the room for light.

Your walls are a very nice color and I love the shutters. Pull them back from the windows when showing unless the view is bad or at night.