Advice needed for big tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
P

pjsammut

Gambusia
MFK Member
Dec 15, 2011
195
0
16
Malbourne Australia
Hi all

I am planning a big tank at the end of this year. I currently have 2 180 gallon tanks in my appartment. If all goes well I will be buying a house at the end of this year. I know thats a bit away but want to get some feedback on what challengers I'll face if I decide to setup the tank inside my house - rather than a shed or garage.
I have settled on a 10'x4widex2.5high. The 2.5 high should allow me to fit this through most standard doorways etc. And I like the footprint. I live in Melbourne Australia so large tank builders are hard to come by. I've been quoted $5k for a glass tank, and 15mm glass all round, centre overflow ( external) , 5×2 sump and cabinet. Tank will be drilled etc. Not sure if thats a good deal, can any of my fellow aussies chime in?
I would like to know, preferably from people who have done this or doing it, what challenges do I face keeping a large tank indoors? What is maintenance like, is it hard to do water changes, how about heating etc? Any tips to make it easier to maintain?
Should I consider this at all?
I know its a bit of a if a wide topic so feel free to comment and any advice would be most appreciated.

Sent from my GT-N7105 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
Weight is usually the deciding factor on where you can place a large tank, unless of course your house is built on a concrete slab.
Set your tank with auto water change and you wont have to worry about water changes. That leaves you with just having to occasionally vacuum the tank a refill the water you removed.
Heating will depend on where you keep the tank and the ambient room temperature.
I have 1200 watts of heaters on my 500 gallon that is in my garage. The garage heat is left on 55* and the tank set to 78*.
The tank has been costing approximately $75. A month to run, heaters, pumps, lights, and heat running in garage.
 
Most newer houses here are built on concrete slabs. I guess I have to worry about if I have tiled or wooden floors over the slab, will I have to remove them in that area or will it be ok given the tank is on a cabinet?
Given the tank is going to be inside and part of the living area it had to be quiet, low maintenance, low mess and odourless.
My wife gets annoyed at smells.
Any ideas on how to best achieve this given I want to use a sump?
I run 2 180's have lights on a timer from 8am-8pm. They have canisters each ( 1 fx5 and 1 ehiem 2260 each) and 300 watt hearers. My power bill is $600 every 3 months so hopefully its not a too much of a jump up.
With automatic water changes, what is the ideal quantity changed over per day? Is 50%-75% tank volume sufficient? I know it depends on stock which will be
13 s. Leucasticta
4 g. Abalios
3 g. Steindachneri
2 a heckalii
6 g.tapojas
4 uaru ( may get 2 more)
2 severum
And some dithers.

Sorry for the million questions, thw largest tank I have owned was 240 gallon.
I appreciate a your advice.

Sent from my GT-N7105 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
Sounds like a fair price, and I like your stock list!

I wouldn't worry about fitting the tank thru doorways, a glass tank of that size is bordering on immovable (you're talking 450-500kg of glass!) so it would be best to get it made on site in a place you intend to stay for many years. Also unless your stand is quite low you probably won't be able to get that through the doors anyway. I think your idea of removing the flooring under the tank is a good one, that way you can make sure the stand is dead level on the concrete slab.

Water changes will depend on your stock and how the tank is set up. Obviously buckets are out of the question, and if possible some sort of automated or semi-automated set up will be well worth while. Even just having a drain in your sump so you can change water by running a hose into the tank would make WCs easier. Otherwise a long siphon hose to reach a drain or out the window is a must-have.

4 years ago I bought a house and set up a 1400L tank (plus a couple of others) and ended up selling it all off a couple of years later because we wanted to move back to our home town. We're settled again and I'm in the process of setting up another big tank, and doing it properly this time as I know we're going to be here a while. Take your time looking for a house and find something that suits all your needs, including a spot for the big tank! Mine is going in a dedicated room which backs onto the garage, the tank will be plumbed through the wall with the sump in the garage so the tank room is nice and quiet and I can access the sump easily without crawling under the tank in a cabinet. This also allows the tank to be on a stand ~450mm high so it is easier to access for maintenance and so it is the right height for viewing while sitting on a couch. This is how my old tank was set up and IMO its the way to go for a large tank!

Hope that gives you some ideas, have fun house hunting!!
 
David R said:
Sounds like a fair price, and I like your stock list!

I wouldn't worry about fitting the tank thru doorways, a glass tank of that size is bordering on immovable (you're talking 450-500kg of glass!) so it would be best to get it made on site in a place you intend to stay for many years. Also unless your stand is quite low you probably won't be able to get that through the doors anyway. I think your idea of removing the flooring under the tank is a good one, that way you can make sure the stand is dead level on the concrete slab.

Water changes will depend on your stock and how the tank is set up. Obviously buckets are out of the question, and if possible some sort of automated or semi-automated set up will be well worth while. Even just having a drain in your sump so you can change water by running a hose into the tank would make WCs easier. Otherwise a long siphon hose to reach a drain or out the window is a must-have.

4 years ago I bought a house and set up a 1400L tank (plus a couple of others) and ended up selling it all off a couple of years later because we wanted to move back to our home town. We're settled again and I'm in the process of setting up another big tank, and doing it properly this time as I know we're going to be here a while. Take your time looking for a house and find something that suits all your needs, including a spot for the big tank! Mine is going in a dedicated room which backs onto the garage, the tank will be plumbed through the wall with the sump in the garage so the tank room is nice and quiet and I can access the sump easily without crawling under the tank in a cabinet. This also allows the tank to be on a stand ~450mm high so it is easier to access for maintenance and so it is the right height for viewing while sitting on a couch. This is how my old tank was set up and IMO its the way to go for a large tank!

Hope that gives you some ideas, have fun house hunting!!
Click to expand...

David, thankyou for such a lengthy and informative response, I appreciate it.

Re removing the flooring. I am pretty sure if I left tiles or floorboards they will still crack under the full weight of the tank irrespective og the stand and concrete slab. Can anyone confirm this?

Really great idea getting the tank made in place, I don't know why I didn't think of it! Thats the very reason its fantastic to be part of this community. I'll definitely do this.

I got married only a couple years ago and am so lucky to have such a supportive wife. She calls our fish fish the kids and is all for a bettet home. This is also my first house so cant see myself going anywhere in the next 5 years as we're planning children in the next few years so want to make sure this gets done first!

I am planning a center external overflow to the sump as mentioned, I am also planning a pond filter on either end with external pumps and uv's to take care of extra mechanical and bio. These will most likely be 10000 litre jobs and they also come with backwash features that I could hard plum to the the house drains. Do you know if anyone has done this before? They are just larger capacity canisters anyway so is there any reason this wont work?
Something like this:

Http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=200811459209

Thanks regarding the stock. Love peaceful SA cichlids. We are fairly limited here in Australia. My current stock are kind of outgrowing the 180's so will go into the 750 gallon, they will love it!

Sent from my GT-N7105 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
According to this 15mm glass would have a safety factor of 2.6 for a tank that size, which IMO is fine, and if you reduced the height to 700mm from 750mm it would be over 3.

Glad to hear the wife is on board, I too am lucky/sensible enough to have one who is supportive and interested in the fish, I couldn't handle being married to someone who makes my passion a constant battle like some of the stories I hear!!

The pond filter idea has some merit, certainly with a tank that size you want to have plenty of turn over, but my theory with filtration is KISS. I intend to have the mech and bio handled by the one sump with four filter socks so that cleaning/maintenance is easy. Remember that every pump you have running is going to be consuming power 24/7 and costing you money, I'm all in favour of over-filtering but it does come at a cost, that would be the only downside IMO. I've got no idea what you have available there, but if you're interested in something to run as a closed loop look at a bead filter, Ultima seems to be the most common one people use in the US but there are other brands too, they're usually sold to filter big ponds and do both mechanical and bio. They're easy to clean too as they have a backwash function.

If you think you're limited in oz try keeping cichlids here! In terms of eartheaters we get altifrons, leucosticta, balzanii, heckelii, steindachneri and brasiliensis, that's it!! I understand plecs are very expensive there, but then you're lucky enough to get rays....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom