Help with Monster Tanks and cost of upkeep

[ahud]

I have been looking at tanks on customaquariums.com.

A 125g is the biggest tank I have ever owned. At what size do you guys think upkeep cost become significant?
A 144"x48"x24" is roughly $4500. That is the size that appeals to me, but I am worried about ongoing cost.

Can anybody share their costs on tanks larger than 300 gallons? Feel free to suggest any items that I should be sure to factor in.

Some of the factors that I am personally worried about:
-Humidity
-Electricity
-Water changes
-Damage to home with so much weight

I'm going to keep poking around these forums to find more data on costs. But thought I would start a thread as well.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I am interested in these things as well so have posted in order to help me follow.

I have only kept a large tank on a cement slab in the past back in the 1970's. I am reluctant to put a big tank on the floor over my current basement garage. Pretty sure some additional bracing will be needed if I do. I will add a link to an article about floor strength.

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article28.html

When I moved into my current house I ran into a humidity problem the first winter here in TN. House has a heat pump. Even with only around a hundred gallons of tanks I had a lot of excess humidity that first winter. Ice would form on the inside of the French door glass on cold nights then melt onto the floor the next day. My previous home had an oil furnace so the humidity was not a problem. The heat pump was an unpleasant change as I never felt warm.

I got a dehumidifier before the next winter. That has made a big difference. I only run it during the heating months. During the warm months I either open the windows or run the central air. Central air will pull dampness out of the air so a dehumidifier should not be needed.
In SC you should have fewer cold days than I do here at the north top of TN.

 

[ahud]

One more thing that could be helpful. Did anybody decide to go with a smaller tank due to other factors than money?

Such as:
-Number of people required to move the tank

-Insurance

-“What if” scenerios if you have a leak

 

[nzafi]

I am busy going through this and figuring it out. Your biggest costs will vary based upon your area. In the US water is extremely cheap so typically not a factor in cost really unless you are going huge. I would say electricity is the biggest factor. The equipment I would focus on is heaters and pumps. You can minimize use of heaters if you connect a drip line from your water heater frankly. For pump, look for low wattage ones.

You need to think through your specific factors though:
1) geography and impact on electricity and water costs
2) where will this sit. When you go bigger it is easier to potentially heat the room. If you are in a cold area and put the tank in an unheated garage you will have big costs.

In my case. heating is a bigger issue in summer than winter because the room I am using gets majority of the hot/cold air from my heating/AC. In the winter this results in a hot room that minimizes in the use of heaters. In the summer, the room is much cooler because of the AC and the heaters actually turn on more.

Another big cost could be food depending on number of fish and size, but typically not a factor unless you go huge. I would also think about small hospital tanks. I was struggling to just medical in a 180g tank and setup a 40g which was easier and much cheaper. If you do a 600g tank it will be extremely hard/expenisve to medicate a fish.

 

[skjl47]

-“What if” scenerios if you have a leak

Hello; One reason I hesitate having a big tank upstairs is having a leak. Many years ago a 55 gallon leaked out while I was a way a few days. It was on the wood floor above my basement garage. Saw the water when I pulled the car in the garage. I was lucky in that the floor did not warp but it was discolored. I was also lucky in that the only rug in the room was an area rug so I was able to get it up and dry it out.
More damage than I would have expected from 55 gallons. I was also lucky that the water leaked out slowly from a failed seam and did not let go all at one time.

You may have already thought about this but please do not consider putting a large tank on a carpeted floor. Wall to wall carpet will have a pad under it. Water will be spilled and once it gets under the pad it may not ever really dry out.

 

[ahud]

Here is where I am at.

I'm trying to decide between a fish room setup or one very large tank. So a lot of the concerns are similar. If I forgo the fish-room, then I would want a fairly large tank to make up for only having one setup. But just the thought of a large tank is pretty concerning. The weight, the water and power usage, and the embarrassment if something went wrong and caused damage to my home.

In the long run, the monster tank may even be cheaper than a fish room by the time you factor in having a dedicated room. I'm just trying to gather as much information as possible. My wife is a part of the decision as well. A 12 foot long tank just seems unreal, I wish I had somebody to visit to get everything in perspective.

 

[nzafi]

You will have the same weight issues with lots of small tanks. Wood frame house on a second floor can only hold so much weight. You can better distribute the weight but that's it.

Low cost option is to run hmf filter with an air pump. You can run probably 30 small tanks for less than the cost of a big tank that way.

 

[ahud]

One house plan that we like a lot has the office sharing a wall with the garage. One nice way to layout the large tank would be to have the tank resting on the garage floor, but viewable from inside the office. I think that would solve a lot of issues with weight, access, and humidity.

But my wife is rightfully concerned about such a large tank. If we ever moved, decided to renoovate, etc then the tank would be a HUGE obstacle.

But 12 feet is so sweet!!! That type of length would actually let me having a breeding pair of small-medium sized cichlids and see some somewhat natural behavior.

 

[Yoimbrian]

Some math for you:

Watts x 8.76 x $ /kWhr = cost per year to run. For me it's about $1 per watt per year.

For a tank that size if you run non- pressurized filtration (sump, etc) you are probably taking a 300 watt pump. For pressurized filtration (bead filter) probably 600 watts. Lowest wattage would be air driven jet lifters, but needs in tank filtration (sponge / HMF / box filters) at less than 50 watts.

Heat gets more complicated as it really depends on how warm the room is. If you have it in a cold basement you can easily expect it to be burning hundreds of watts. If the room temp is mid 70s obviously heaters will be minimal. One thing to note is (in my area) natural gas is about 1/3 the price of electricity on a per watt equivalent. With a tank that large if it's in a cold basement you may consider a water to water heat exchanger set up with natural gas.

Humidity can be solved with open windows or more electricity. On a tank that size you are probably talking 3-5 gallons per day of water loss. Running a dehumidifier that size will be about 500 watts. in addition, the stand alone dehumidifiers will dump that energy into the house, so add another 500 watts if the air conditioner is running since you need to remove the heat you just created to remove the water.

Lights are another guzzler of course. Most fish don't need bright lights, so you can likely get away with 100 watts of LED flood lights. If you want a planted tank, or corals, bump that 5-10x.

In MN water is basically free, unless you are doing discus and 200% water changes per day I doubt the money would matter.

All in all your electric bill could go up $300 per year (HMF, low light, warm room) or $300 per month (pressurized filter, high light, cold room).

Damage to the house / floor is a whole different story. But for this size there are only two real options - concrete slab or consult with a professional.

 

[ahud]

Hello; One reason I hesitate having a big tank upstairs is having a leak. Many years ago a 55 gallon leaked out while I was a way a few days. It was on the wood floor above my basement garage. Saw the water when I pulled the car in the garage. I was lucky in that the floor did not warp but it was discolored. I was also lucky in that the only rug in the room was an area rug so I was able to get it up and dry it out.
More damage than I would have expected from 55 gallons. I was also lucky that the water leaked out slowly from a failed seam and did not let go all at one time.

You may have already thought about this but please do not consider putting a large tank on a carpeted floor. Wall to wall carpet will have a pad under it. Water will be spilled and once it gets under the pad it may not ever really dry out.

Thank you for the reply!

So do you think I could avoid this issue totally if the tank sits in the garage near a floor drain?

The only trick would be making the tank look nice from the office. I hate to give up being able to view the tank from at least one side.