Another thing to consider,I hope you have a good building contractor on hand as a 1000 gallon tank weighs over 8 tons filled,so your flooring would need to be reinforced !
Cost of maintaining a 1000 gallon reef aquarium
- Thread starter slacker11201
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Large tanks are heavy yes but that weight is spread out over a very large area, almost to the point of you just standing in a square foot.
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I have a 1000 gallon marine aquarium (plus 200 gallon sump) built into my office 25 years ago. It has always been a fish only aquarium with an artificial reef. Several years ago I was also curious as to the costs of maintaining it which included periodic fish additions, sporadic equipment upgrades, emergency medications as well as the typical weekly and monthly general maintenance costs. The average over the years (and I do ALL the maintenance myself - no outside service) worked out to just under $1,000/month. This is not a cheap hobby but has always been a labor of love. It has always given my office the WOW factor. Hope this helps
Gonna have to disagree with ya there buddy. Even if you crammed 25 people into your living room your talking 2 tons max. 8 tons is like parking two f350s side by side in that same room. Not to mention the force of the aquarium will be exerted constantly, whereas i doubt the 25 people will stay long. Well i guess i did mention it. Anyway, bottom line is you're gonna need some reinforced flooring.
The foods can get expensive as well depending on how specific coral feeding you wish to do, so a lot depends on the system. FWIW my 120 (with my ex gf buying the custom miracles tank of 3,000) total added up to around $30,000 after a couple years. I just built a 60 cube and got the stand and tank for free, along with some equipment from a friend and added up the other expenses like livestock and it was around $8,000 just to get it started. The LFS has a 1500 gallon tank that has just been a nightmare. I wouldn't own a tank like that if I got paid. Years of dialing in equipment.... And the cost of 2 part and supplements is insane. I am friends with the manager and their cost just for additives is min 500/month. They used to have 4 1000w MH but switched to LEDs so that saved a lot. And the tank failed at one point, the security cam made the national news several years ago seeing 1500 gallons of reef on the floor.
Here is a shot of my 120. Sorry can't give you exact running costs, but I would say if you are not equipped to spend 10k a year on upkeep for the 1st couple years and then at least 5k plus it's not going to be a very nice tank. Sure some keep them cheaper, but it's hard to really have a top notch system on the cheap.
EDIT: Ah dang it, didn't see how old this was.....
Here is a shot of my 120. Sorry can't give you exact running costs, but I would say if you are not equipped to spend 10k a year on upkeep for the 1st couple years and then at least 5k plus it's not going to be a very nice tank. Sure some keep them cheaper, but it's hard to really have a top notch system on the cheap.
EDIT: Ah dang it, didn't see how old this was.....
I agree whole heartedly with the comment above. When I told my architect I was putting a 1000 gallon aquarium with a 200 gallon sump in my office (2nd floor new building) he immediately designed the floor under the aquarium (poured concrete rebar reinforced floor) with "extra" vertical steel supports to support it from the ground floor below.
Thought you might like to see a picture of the aquarium from the above post. It is 24' X 3' X 2' fish only/artificial reef. I have an entire 6' X 12' room at the end of the aquarium that is dedicated to all the mechanical equipment, quarantine tanks, 8 reactors, protein skimmers. biopellet reactor, sumps, supply storage, refrigerator for foods etc. The water changes are 250 gallons every two weeks and are mixed in a 250 gallon vertical tank for 3 days prior to the change in this room. Everything is plumbed for easy water changes.
