Placing a feng shui aquarium in your home or office is a powerful way to draw the auspicious chi of prosperity and good luck into your space. Having fish in your house can be beneficial for feng shui, especially for personal development and career advancement. Knowing where to place your aquarium for good feng shui can enhance the positive chi energy benefits.
Feng Shui Benefits of an Aquarium
A feng shui fish tank has the potential to provide many positive benefits. However, you must properly place and care for the aquarium in order to attract the positive flow of energy. With the correct placement, set up and care, the aquarium is a perfect combination of harmony and balance.
Water Movement and Flow
An aquarium brings more than beauty into a home. The water symbolizes the flow of life, of growth, and the activities of living things. The motion and sounds of the bubbling water as it moves throughout the fish tank activate and increase the positive energy of the area, bringing good fortune, wealth and abundance.
Additional Benefits of a Feng Shui Fish Tank
- If the aquarium is located in a room that is dry, it helps balance the energy by adding humidity to the air.
- The moving water in the aquarium has the power to revitalize energy that is stagnant or dormant.
Where to Put an Aquarium
In the practice of feng shui, placing an aquarium in the proper location is important. Using a simple bagua map, you can easily identify the best sector for good feng shui aquarium placement.
- The wealth and abundance sector of your home is the best location for a fish tank, to activate prosperity luck.
- You can also place an aquarium in the career sector of your home to increase success at work and in business.
- Place an aquarium to block off negative chi from exterior structures with sharp corners such as a fence, a bridge or corners from another house.
- A fish tank placed under a beam reduces stress and mental pressure.
Aquarium in the Dining Room for Feng Shui
Dining rooms, like living rooms, are excellent spots for an aquarium. The positive yang energy that the fish provide can energize this gathering space. A consideration in placing an aquarium in the dining room is if the room is open to the kitchen. Because the water element of fish tanks can extinguish the beneficial fire element of a kitchen, they should be avoided in an open kitchen/dining room layout.
Fish Tank in Bedroom for Feng Shui
An aquarium in the bedroom is considered bad feng shui, and can be a disruptive influence on this restful space. The yang energy of the water and the swimming fish generate too much yang energy for a restful sleep.
Avoid These Feng Shui Aquarium Locations
In deciding where to put a feng shui fish tank, there are a few locations that should be avoided. Feng shui rules dictate that the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and center of the home are all inauspicious places for aquariums.
- Never place a fish tank in the kitchen since the fire element is strong in this room, and water destroys fire.
- Don't place an aquarium in the center of a house. The earth element governs this sector and earth destroys water. This conflict could set up a conflict within the family and disrupt the family's abundance.
- Don't set up an aquarium in a bathroom. The wastewater generated in this room is inauspicious and the aquarium will heighten the negative energy.
The Five Elements in an Aquarium
An aquarium is a perfect example of the balance of the five elements of feng shui. When all five elements are present and interacting with one another, they are the perfection of chi energy.
- Water: The water element is the water in the aquarium.
- Earth: The substrate material represents the element of earth. The material could be one, or a mixture of stone, soil, gravel, or sand.
- Fire: The lighting or the fish in the aquarium represent the element of fire. Fish of the following colors represent fire: red, gold, yellow and orange.
- Metal: The metal element is present in most aquarium frameworks. Two other ways to incorporate the metal element are to place old copper coins below the tank's substrate material and adding gold-colored fish, such as golden Arowana or goldfish. Protect your fish by sealing the coins in a plastic locking bag.
- Wood: The wood element is represented by the plants growing in the fish tank or by decorative aquarium driftwood.
Does Aquarium Shape Matter?
The shape of your aquarium doesn't matter as much as having healthy fish and maintaining a clean fish tank. If you want to reinforce the feng shui aspect of an aquarium addition, you can select an appropriate shape.
Rectangle Aquariums
The majority of aquariums sold are rectangular shapes. This shape represents wood and water nourishes wood in the feng shui productive cycle. You can place this aquarium in the two wood sectors of east and southeast.
Irregular Shaped Aquariums
Some irregular-shaped aquariums can be very interesting and add a unique design feature to your room. This type of aquarium, especially if it is a wavy shape, is auspicious since this shape represents water.
Round Aquariums
Some experts like the shape of a round aquarium for the north sector since this shape represents metal. Metal attracts water, which is the governing element of the north sector. This aquarium shape is favored by some feng shui practitioners for the north sector.
Inappropriate Aquarium Shapes
While the square shape represents earth and the triangle shape represents fire. Neither are appropriate for a water element environment. Both set up a conflict of element energies. In the destructive cycle, water destroys fire and earth destroys water.
Best Type of Fish for a Feng Shui Aquarium
The lucky number of fish in an aquarium is nine. Traditionally, many feng shui practitioners recommend placing eight gold or red-colored fish in the tank with one black fish. The role of the single black fish is to absorb all the negative energy before it reaches you. Goldfish are one of the most popular types of fish for feng shui fish tanks. Generally, goldfish are colorful, hardy and inexpensive. Also popular, but very expensive, are Arowana, purest Arowana, and dragon fish. You can use any red fish in place of a goldfish if you prefer.
Fish Colors
You are not limited to the feng shui fish colors and numbers, but you certainly want to have these included in your aquarium. You can add other colors of fish, such as white, green, blue and yellow. When adding colorful fish, consider the feng shui properties assigned to each color, such as blue is the color assigned to the north (water) sector.
Number and Colors of Fish
The balance of eight gold/red fish with one black create an auspicious combination of the number nine. Nine is the number for prosperity, good fortune, and longevity. If you wish to add other fish, you can use your personal kua number or opt for one of the auspicious feng shui numbers that are often used in other feng shui applications, such as lucky bamboo plants. Another method would be to use only multiples of nine.
Aquarium Accessories for Auspicious Layout
The same feng shui rules that apply to your home should apply to setting up your aquarium. You don't want to create a cluttered look with all kinds of accessories scattered about the floor of the aquarium.
- If you want decorative objects, then opt for only one or two, such as a pagoda tower (education luck) or a chest filled with jewels and coins (wealth luck).
- Live plants are more auspicious than plastic ones, but will require more maintenance.
- You can use any color of gravel, but if you wish to adhere to feng shui color rules, then opt for blue gravel in a north sector and green in an east or southeast sector.
- The overhead aquarium light is an excellent addition that will attract auspicious chi energy.
Aquarium Maintenance
It is vital that you keep your aquarium clean. If you allow your aquarium to become polluted and algae begins to grow, your fish will die. In addition, the sector where you've placed the aquarium will be negatively impacted, such as health (east), wealth (southeast) and career (north).
Sick and Dead Fish
Fish get sick and die, just like any other living creature. There are specific feng shui rules governing these instances.
- If any of your fish become ill, you must remove them and place in a separate fishbowl until nursed back to health.
- You need to remove dead fish from the aquarium as soon as you discover them.
- Dead fish should be replaced as soon as possible.
- It is quite common for the black fish (protector from negative chi) to die more often than the red/goldfish and need replacing immediately.
Choosing Placement and Design for a Feng Shui Aquarium
There is positive chi energy generated when your aquarium is placed in the right location. Once you decide on the best placement and design for your feng shui aquarium, you need to turn your attention to housekeeping. Keeping your feng shui aquarium clean, beautiful and well cared for helps your fish stay happy and healthy, enhancing positive chi energy benefits.
