Any growing pains?

[willember]

Hi, I am about this close -><- to buying a 180G from another reef central member. I currently have a 55G and 10G nano. What are the biggest suprises people had when first going to bigger tanks? I figured dealing with evaporation will be a biggie, and the shear volume of water changes. 20% of tank and sump is 42 Gallons. Thats is alot of water to change. Are you all doing that much water changes? Or does greater volumes require less changes? what else do I need to think about?

thanks in advance!
-WB

[houston220]

I had a 55 gallon several years ago and recently set up a 200 gallon tank.

I know I bought better equipment this time, but I am still amazed how stable the water chemistry is in the larger tank. I am changing about 30-40 gallons every two weeks on the tank. The biggest issue for me is evaporation at this point.

[adddo]

yup same here.. upgraed from 120g to 230g.. evap is a concern

[willember]

Is the problem the replacement of evaporated water or is it the effects of the evaporatorated water on the rest of your belongings/house?

[sarduci]

What stopped me from adding a 150 gallon sump to my 90 display was water evaporation. Without having a dedicated room to put it in, there's no way I could put something like that into place. It'd be crazy to dump all that money into it to watch your house fall to pieces.

[ratboy]

I expected more evaporation but what I wasnt ready for is the lawless zone at the bottom of my tank. My tank is 36" deep (380 gal) and even with long grabbers, I have hermits that have grown to amazing proportions and promptly began tearing apart the smaller hermits. I think they know I cant reach them!

[houston220]

I thought I would notice the effects inside the house but really haven't. Of course I am in an area that has normally high humidity and we leave the windows open quite often.

I still am replacing around 2-3 gallons per day because my sump does not have enough capacity. I am looking at an auto top off system to lessen the work.