Costs of massive tanks?

[Edward Menard]

heres my costs on my brand new system....hope this helps..

400 gallon tank-1500
stand with 3 front doors and a side door(for sump install-1000
sump 140 gallons-500
Led lighting-1000
Skimmer-700
pump-400
rock-3.00 a pound...i'll likely get 200 pounds
plumbing-200

Here's how I priced this all out...I talked to my local favorite shop and got a quote on tank and stand. then we sat down to go over what I wanted and how to do it the best way. They have someone building tank and stand in my apartment and then they are doing all the plumbing for me. Yes it will cost me but a VERY reasonable price. I consider myself very fortunate because these twin brothers are both marine biologists who actually want to help novices and up to become better fish and reef keepers...and I will support that as much as I can)

 

[goodtimes]

Around here there have been many large tanks ranging from 250-300 gallons being sold. These were complete setups with fish and coral and they've been priced $1200-$2500.

 

[DavidinGA]

heres my costs on my brand new system....hope this helps..

400 gallon tank-1500
stand with 3 front doors and a side door(for sump install-1000
sump 140 gallons-500
Led lighting-1000
Skimmer-700
pump-400
rock-3.00 a pound...i'll likely get 200 pounds
plumbing-200

Here's how I priced this all out...I talked to my local favorite shop and got a quote on tank and stand. then we sat down to go over what I wanted and how to do it the best way. They have someone building tank and stand in my apartment and then they are doing all the plumbing for me. Yes it will cost me but a VERY reasonable price. I consider myself very fortunate because these twin brothers are both marine biologists who actually want to help novices and up to become better fish and reef keepers...and I will support that as much as I can)

Your putting a 400gal tank in your apartment?!? I hope your on the ground floor...

 

[water is wet]

heres my costs on my brand new system....hope this helps..

400 gallon tank-1500
stand with 3 front doors and a side door(for sump install-1000
sump 140 gallons-500
Led lighting-1000
Skimmer-700
pump-400
rock-3.00 a pound...i'll likely get 200 pounds
plumbing-200

Here's how I priced this all out...I talked to my local favorite shop and got a quote on tank and stand. then we sat down to go over what I wanted and how to do it the best way. They have someone building tank and stand in my apartment and then they are doing all the plumbing for me. Yes it will cost me but a VERY reasonable price. I consider myself very fortunate because these twin brothers are both marine biologists who actually want to help novices and up to become better fish and reef keepers...and I will support that as much as I can)

Is that a new or used 400g tank for 1500? If new I'd be really nervous on its build you can't even buy one at that price through glass cages which is almost always the cheapest and not always built the best.

 

[Edward Menard]

Is that a new or used 400g tank for 1500? If new I'd be really nervous on its build you can't even buy one at that price through glass cages which is almost always the cheapest and not always built the best.

its a brand new tank and being built in my apartment. My fish store has a guy who does an awesome job very inexpensively. and I'm on a second floor...the building has hollow core concrete just like parking garages . I did check the building blueprints with my boss's husband who's a structural engineer...he said I could park an old buick in here with no issues

 

[Spaced Cowboy]

its a brand new tank and being built in my apartment. My fish store has a guy who does an awesome job very inexpensively. and I'm on a second floor...the building has hollow core concrete just like parking garages . I did check the building blueprints with my boss's husband who's a structural engineer...he said I could park an old buick in here with no issues

Not to be worry you, but the weight of the water alone will be comparable to "an old Buick", at least according to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Riviera. The car weighs 3998 lbs....

To a first approximation, let's assume the water displaced by the rock and sand is the same as the volume of water in your sump, then we have: water is 8.35 lbs/gallon, so 400 gallons is 3340 lbs. Then you have your rock, sand, stand, glass etc. For me (I'm installing a 400g tank next week) those come to 800, 612, 400, 800 respectively for a total of 5952 lbs. Lets say uncle Bob and his (ahem) big boned family come and stand in front of the tank for an extra 1000 lbs between them all. Now you're looking at a load of ~7000 lbs over a fairly small area.

I too had a structural engineer look at my house. My tank is on the ground floor, it has all the floor support beams running the best way (ie: perpendicular to the tanks long axis). The floor is being removed so that a whole metric boatload of rebar/concrete can be installed, providing support directly from the foundation up to the tank.

Now I'm not saying your boss's husband is wrong (I'm not a structural engineer either), and maybe what he meant to say was "two old Buicks stacked on top of each other", but it's also possible he didn't realize just how much weight was involved - the structural engineer I engaged didn't, until I pointed out the same above calculations...

If it's a question of the structural integrity of the building, it might be a good idea to go back to him and just confirm things. A lot of people don't understand the concept of "risk" properly, it's not the chances of something going wrong, it's the chances of something going wrong *multiplied* by the consequences. You're on the second floor. Manslaughter is such an ugly word, not to mention the financial implications.

Just my £0.02...

Simon

 

[Socaltoaz]

400 gallons at 8 pounds a gallon is 3200 gallons
Figure another 1000 pounds for tank, stand, sump and equipment
Couple hundred pounds for rock and gravel- you are at 4500 pounds on a second floor with no structural reinforcement.

Good luck!

 

[karimwassef]

$15-$20/gallon total if you do a lot yourself and wait for good deals
$50+/gallon if you're in a rush and buy most of it

 

[water is wet]

Lol. ..

 

[CHSUB]

its a brand new tank and being built in my apartment. My fish store has a guy who does an awesome job very inexpensively. and I'm on a second floor...the building has hollow core concrete just like parking garages . I did check the building blueprints with my boss's husband who's a structural engineer...he said I could park an old buick in here with no issues

my neighbor has a 15 foot, 5 foot deep swimming pool on his roof; 3 floor house, also built like a parking garage. however, it would not hurt to double check!

 

[EagleFF]

As I am putting together a 190 gal tank heres a rundown on what I vested in it so far:

DSA 190 gal tank 60" glass Pro....$ 970.00
Matching Black wood stand.........$ 425.00
Matching Canopy...................$ 330.00
Over Flow Plumbing kit............$ 80.00
Glass top.........................$ 75.00
LF1-200S sump W/ Skimmer..........$ 1299.00
20" Refugium......................$ 269.00
3 Canister/Reactor for sump.......$ 165.00
Shipping charge for lifereef......$ 300.00
ATO Container Life Reef...........$ 179.00
Coralife PureFlo II RO/DI System..$ 295.00
3 EcoTech Radion XR30w Pro(LR)....$ 2097.00
EcoTech Marine Reef Link(LR)......$ 99.00
2 EcoTech MP60w Water Circulator..$ 1240.00
Panworld 200S Pump(BRS)...........$ 295.00
Finnex Tit. Heater 300w X 2(BRS)..$ 84.00
Titanium grounding probe(MD)......$ 15.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------
$ 8217.00 ORDERED

Tunze 3155 Osmolator Auto Top Off.....................$ 188.99
Sicce Syncra Silent 1.5 pump(BRS).....................$ 70.99
aquaultraviolet 40 watt 3/4 in UV sterilizer (MD).....$ 418.49
Apex Neptune Controller (BRS).........................$ 549.99
IceCap Variable Speed Cooling Fan (BRS)(4)............$ 132.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL......$ 9577.00

I did get about 200 in discounts ordering through a very nice gentleman for lights,ecotech pumps.
and I figured another 1300 for sand and rock doing with dry rock

 

[Dmorty217]

If "massive" is a real requirement then anything under 1000g isn't cutting it. Tanks that large even doing it "smart" will cost you more than a new car

 

[A_CoupleClowns]

I hit $10000 and then stopped counting lol

This pretty much hit it on the head. Once you get to a certain point, it becomes painfully obvious its going to cost quite a bit more than anticipated. Never seems to fail when setting up a large reef. We have 1k into fish so far and have only bought a few tangs (7). We have so many fish still on the "list", and believe me momma's gonna get her fish, don't try and stop her :lmao:...

All for the love of reefing though, I would rather watch the tank than the tv any day of the week. I figure its better than losing money at the bar or gambling it away :lol::lmao::lolspin:

 

[DavidinGA]

Yeah if cost is a problem stick with like a 40gal breeder lol

 

[krjackso]

As a waiter at a very fancy restaurant once told me, "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."

Dave.M

very funny, and very true...

I had a 270 gallon build from scratch and I stopped adding after I got to $20k. Just hurt too much.

 

[Socaltoaz]

Cost is a relative term. This is a hobby and you should not sacrifice needed money on this hobby. Anything you spend on the tank should be after the "bills" are paid - mortgage, savings, retirement, college tuition for the kids, etc etc.

Dont blow your future on the tank. Fund the tank after the future has been secured.

 

[hobbzz]

I built my 300 reef for $5500 by buying high quality used equipment. High quality used stuuf is usually the same price as new junk. Also more reliable. That being said, in this hobby, the price of an item is not an indication of quality. And these days false advertising is rampant, especially in regards to lighting.

And as for all the people saying you can't afford it if you have to ask that's absolutely ridiculous. Hundreds of tank manufacturers and thousands of lfs across the country and you're supposed to assume you were quoted a fair price on a tank because you called 5 stores? That kind of attitude can lead to an irresponsible wasting of money.

And saying don't worry about the money because it's an expensive hobby is even worse. Socaltoaz had it right in his last post. A responsible person would worry about the cost and plan accordingly. You can't know what you can afford without thinking about the costs involved and your other financial responsibilities.

 

[karimwassef]

Hobbz, that puts you at ~$18/gal?

Confirmed my datapoint above! Thanks.

 

[A_CoupleClowns]

Cost is a relative term. This is a hobby and you should not sacrifice needed money on this hobby. Anything you spend on the tank should be after the "bills" are paid - mortgage, savings, retirement, college tuition for the kids, etc etc.

Dont blow your future on the tank. Fund the tank after the future has been secured.

Truth right here. Well said.

 

[hobbzz]

Hobbz, that puts you at ~$18/gal?

Confirmed my datapoint above! Thanks.

I was able to use a few things from old tanks, but I ended up switching out my first skimmer for something cheaper (price not quality. I also traded it) so I figured it was a wash. Also the things I transferred over were not necessities.