How many animals is too many animals?

[ehh]

I currently have 6 tanks running, plans to set up 2 or 3 more and have 3 reptiles with plans of 1 or 2 more. My comfort level: can everything still be maintained if I get sick/disabled or lose my job. I travel allot for work and if my current tanks can't be maintained for a week or two by my wife, I have too many tanks. I also design filtration systems and everything with the intent to neglect the system if for some reason I can't maintain them for a few weeks.

What do you mean you design them for that? How? Just curious.

 

[Southjerseycichlidz]

I have 24 tanks sizes 29-220 gallon

 

[Shenanigans]

I simply mean low stock, over filtered. I still do water changes 2x a week but if I end up in the hospital, an fx6 on a 125 or 75 will pick up the slack and keep water quality acceptable. Live plants like pothos will also help keep nitrates down. It always gets brought up how to do minimal maintenance and there really is nothing you can do. Back when my tanks were way overstocked, I doubt some of them would survive multiple weeks of neglect. All you really can do is over power filtration and keep stock densities lower. But when people say they have to do 80% wc 2-3x a week, I have to wonder how the tank would fair of you physically couldn't do a wc for 2 or 3 weeks. There are also threads on here about creating an automatic wc system and those would be worth looking into for life's unforseen complications

 

[ehh]

I simply mean low stock, over filtered. I still do water changes 2x a week but if I end up in the hospital, an fx6 on a 125 or 75 will pick up the slack and keep water quality acceptable. Live plants like pothos will also help keep nitrates down. It always gets brought up how to do minimal maintenance and there really is nothing you can do. Back when my tanks were way overstocked, I doubt some of them would survive multiple weeks of neglect. All you really can do is over power filtration and keep stock densities lower. But when people say they have to do 80% wc 2-3x a week, I have to wonder how the tank would fair of you physically couldn't do a wc for 2 or 3 weeks. There are also threads on here about creating an automatic wc system and those would be worth looking into for life's unforseen complications

Ah smart man.

 

[jwh]

I've scaled back from 6 to 4 tanks this year, 2000l, 840l, 2x757l, enough for now

 

[Frank Castle]

How many do you think is too many? Obviously, the rule is that once it feels like a job versus enjoyment to take care of them, it's too much. But what's your magic number. On the thread "how many animals do you have", I said that I wanted to have somewhere around tens of thousands of gallons of tanks, along with tons of reptiles and birds. I have since downsized, as that many tanks would be a ton of work. My new list would all be in one room, after I move in on my own, and all the applicable ones will be tied together (within, say, 50 gallons of each other) and the ones that can't be tied together will be hooked up to a sump to make water changes as easy as possible. My list is now:
-1,200 gallon ply tank, housing amazon/SA/CA monsters
-65 gallon planted tank
-55 gallon brackish tank
-55 gallon FOWLR
-150 gallon reef (entirely zoas and palys, possibly LPS as well though)
-Rack of 6 20 gallon planted tanks
-180 gallon low-tech planted
-180 gallon bichir tank
-210 gallon bichir tank
-900 gallon FW ray tank
-29 gallon (biocube, likely) reef
-125 gallon FOWLR
-300 gallon FOWLR
-300 gallon puffer tank
-400 gallon turtle tank
-65 gallon reef
-20 gallon planted
-150 gallon planted
Potentially two stock tanks, both 8' in diameter, tied in together housing benthic sharks, no larger than that though
Reptiles would consist of a large wall of wooden cages (24 in total, focusing on a collection of mostly insectivorous medium-large lizards), a few medium glass tanks (from 30 to 65 gallons), a few 10 and 20 gallons, and then a rack of 10 18" exo terras for PDFs.

Sounds like a lot, gallonage in the fish room would be 6,000 gallons. This may seem like a lot however this is the sump size of some people's tanks on here. Does this seem like too much to you?

If you had the money for whatever collection you wanted? How much would you get?

Are you back at this AGAIN???!!!

 

[Allan01230]

I have always kept just one. Right now I have an 85 and thats just the way I like it.

 

[pops]

ok. I have 7 cats, 7 kids, 3 tanks, 2 dogs and a wife. my plate is full enof.

 

[convict360]

I currently have a planted tank (70ish litres) and a 10 litre shrimp cube, then a hospital tank behind the scenes. This is enough for me, though it's my gf that wants to set up my empty 90, I'm indifferent towards it lol

 

[Thekid]

ok. I have 7 cats, 7 kids, 3 tanks, 2 dogs and a wife. my plate is full enof.

You must have a huge plate to fit all of those on. I can only imagine the size of that smoker.