big tanks

[hemi18]

out of curiosity...who has the biggest personal tank in the columbus area? BTY..they have to maintain it themselves to count..

[tabndust]

dont know if they are the biggest but uztaryn and norm both have 500's

myself along with a few others have 8ft 300's

[uztaryn]

I think Norm added like 5 gallons to his with the conversion to glass. But he and I both maintain our own systems. My complete system is over 1000g with my main display at ~500g. I know there are a couple of 600g tanks around but most of them are dead or maintained by professionals.

I can say from experience that the nicest looking large tank I have seen in person is Norm's. I only hope mine will be as nice someday. As for SPS tanks, I know that Brad has a very nice one and it is ~400g.

[hemi18]

thanks for the info..Norm if you read this do you have any pics of your tank you could post? thanks...

[jhornik]

Out of curiosity, I'm just curious how much it cost just to maintain those tanks! I have a 150 and that's expensive, I couldn't imagine the costs involved w/tanks that big! It's a dream of mine to own one one day, but that day is a long long way away I think!

[Legacy2005]

i would hope a large tank would almost become self sustaining at some point and would only need minor maintenance done to it. i think water and power would be your 2 largest expences. i cant even imagine what a power bill would be to run everything needed for a large tank.

[hemi18]

im me experience...i went from a 55 to a 220 and there was a major cost in upgrading. however i think to go from let's say 220 to 500 wouldn't be as big of a jump as from 55 to 220. it also depends how much stuff you DIY such as lighting system, stand, sump and so forth....im my case im looking to jump to around a 700-800 gallon range and im curious to know if there are any additional hurddles in that range as opposed to 200-300 range...thanks.

[Norm R]

Originally posted by hemi18
i think to go from let's say 220 to 500 wouldn't be as big of a jump as from 55 to 220.

I agree, once you get to a certain point, increases in size become less and less of a factor relative to upkeep and maintaining the system. Additional hurdles...beyond the obvious cost... and even wetter shirt sleeves, I'd say management of the resulting humidity in your home and making sound decisions on equipment purchases are the biggest challenges. One of the biggest benefits beyond the obvious, IMO, is that larger systems are far more forgiving. It takes a much bigger mistake to throw your parameters off, etc.. On the flip side, once they are off, it's much more dificult to bring them back in line. I also agree with the "self-sustaining" comment. I just more-or-less walked away from mine for almost 9 months and it quickly snapped back without much effort and only a few painful losses. Just my .02.

[uztaryn]

My system is pretty easy to maintain as well. I would say other than the PIA of cleaning acrylic there really isn't much to do other than maybe clean some sand off some corals now and then. I have everything automated and the system could almost feed itself if needed.

As for water and electricity, those do cost a bit but not that much. My electric bill is normally about $200-300 per month and I have a decent sized house and a hot tub on top of tank. Water bill gets bad in the summer, but I'd say more for the lawn than the tank. I change about 100g per week though so that does add up.

As for cost, my setup has well over $20k invested and that is prior to any livestock. Equipment is very important. You can't really have a ballast be down for a week or have a pump go out for a long time. I have backups of pretty much everything and have learned from some costly mistakes on how to have plumbing nightmares solved quickly.

Big tanks are not cheap, but they don't look cheap when they are done either. I imagine mine could have been done cheaper, but I would have ended up doing a lot of it again and again if so.

Evac systems, humidity controllers, drainage, all these are things I didn't think much about prior to the system's build. The first time you walk into your basement and see it raining, you will start to think about them pretty fast.

If you are planning a 700-800g display you are going to have a 1000g+ system and that is a lot of water. Plan, plan, and then plan some more and remember. If it can go wrong, in this hobby it usually does.

[uztaryn]

Oh, additional hurdles I forgot to list...

Floor Support (you will need to make sure you can support the load)
Humidity
Water mixing location
slop sink in sump area (a must, Norm was my inspiration on that one as well)
Be prepared to spend in excess of $3000 in stupid stuff like pvc ball valves and stuff like that.
Leaks will happen! be prepared
Never plumb anything when lowes is not open
never start any jobs on the tank that can't be finished before phishy's and lowes close
Salt gets expensive so buy it in bulk
Plan your fish choices well cause once they are in... they are in!

[walmart]

Originally posted by uztaryn

Never plumb anything when lowes is not open
never start any jobs on the tank that can't be finished before phishy's and lowes close

I think we all should think of this