I know this to be a popular feng shui advice given in books and internet sites that unfortunately do not address the fact that water placement needs to be done very carefully.

There is the common feng shui misconception that water equals wealth. While it is true that water is a powerful feng shui activator, it also means that it can activate good chi if placed in the right location, or if placed improperly it can actually activate negative chi. Which is why I now shudder whenever I come across information that touts placing an aquarium / water feature without taking into consideration the details of the location as this is a great dis-service to those receiving the information and taking it in as truths.

Here is what needs to be taken into consideration regarding the location of an aquarium / water feature, and whether or not it is even a favorable thing to do in the first place :

1 ) you need to determine the facing direction of your home / office

2 ) determining the period that the location belongs to ( determined by the move-in date )

3 ) figuring out the the 9 grids of that location ( you do this by dividing the layout into 3X3 sections )

4 ) identifying the flying star chart for the location ( ie. you’re looking for prosperous mountain star if you’re wanting to activate health and relationship luck, then water star if you’re wanting to activate wealth )

5 ) plotting out the annual flying star chart and how it interacts with the location’s chart

6 ) make sure that it follows the guidelines for Direct and Indirect Spirit ( Northwest, West, Northeast and South should never, EVER see water even if it has a prosperous star sitting there – these will be in violation of the rule so there’s no exceptions!!! ).

7 ) find a good day for you to activate your aquarium / water feature

As you can see, without further information on your location I unfortunately can’t help you address this question at this point. To be honest, water placements are VERY powerful but need to be done under watchful eye. I have seen businesses turn around after all the steps were taken to make sure it is appropriate, combined with feng shui date and time selection as well to make sure it is extra potent.

For instance, I have a very prosperous star sitting in the living room part of my home and under normal circumstances I would have a water feature there in a heartbeat. HOWEVER, that prosperous star happens to be in the East and the East in 2011 is affected by the Wu Wang ( Five Yellow ), therefore placing a water feature there will actually activate the most dreaded negative star in feng shui which will bring disaster to my family! I unfortunately will have to wait till next year before I can plug my fountain back in. Oh well…

A great resource I would like to point you to is Joey Yap’s book, ” Your Aquarium Here ” which will guide you through all the steps except steps 5 ( there is, however, a lot of good info in the internet about which directions are affected in 2011 so that’ll help you figure out if you want to activate with water ) and 7 which unfortunately should only be done with a feng shui practitioner trained in date and time selection as this needs to be very specific to YOU, not something easily covered in a book… or a blog post…

I apologize that it’s frustrating, not being able to get your question answered now. But honestly, when it comes to water placement I would strongly suggest you do this with a practitioner who knows what the steps that I laid out above entail. It’s best to be safe than sorry in this case. If you can’t find one near you, there’s always me.