Is there such a thing as too big a tank?

P

prickles

Premium Member
I know this sounds weird, but is there such a thing as getting too big a tank? My 300g broke and I am considering a 4x4x12 to replace it. That's (for me) a really big tank. I know many people regret buying too small a tank, but has anyone ever regretting buying too big a tank?

Speak up if you know someone or are someone that bought too big a tank?

Also what less obvious factors am i missing?

thanks!
 
I think the biggest fear with going really big is underestimating the total start up costs, monthly maintenance costs and power consumption. When we decided to move I was told I could get any size tank I wanted. I immediately started planning out something around 600g and then looked at what it would cost, which of my current equipment would not work on the bigger tank, then stocking costs and finally how much more time would I need to spend on it. As much as I wanted something in that range I realized while it would look awesome there was a great chance that it would end up being something that I might eventually regret doing. There are plenty of amazing tanks in the 300-400g range and those are still really big tanks. So I decided to go with 96x36x24 and make it rock (hopefully) instead of going with something bigger and just have it be mediocre. HTH and good luck with your decision.
 
Maintenance time is the only real concern I've heard expressed. A bigger tank means more cleaning, larger water changes, possibly more special feeding needs, etc. It has to be a labour of love or, like any material possession, it eventually becomes a ball and chain and that's just not what a hobby is supposed to be about.

Make sure you choose something that is going to fit in with your lifestyle considering all the many other demands on your time, energy and budget.

Dave.M
 
dave.m said:
Maintenance time is the only real concern I've heard expressed. A bigger tank means more cleaning, larger water changes, possibly more special feeding needs, etc. It has to be a labour of love or, like any material possession, it eventually becomes a ball and chain and that's just not what a hobby is supposed to be about.

Make sure you choose something that is going to fit in with your lifestyle considering all the many other demands on your time, energy and budget.

Dave.M
Click to expand...

What he said!!
 
You could google the Mr. 4000 tank, IIRC there was a lot of humidity issues that went beyond bad.

Also with large tanks, especially one that's 4 feet deep you're going to have to figure out different ways to clean the inside other than reaching in with your arm.

Also when you start getting to crazy large levels (1500g one you're mentioning) you need to really start worrying if the floor could support it, or hell if the foundation can support some 12000+ pounds.

But yeah... cost of running it would worry me.
 
I always advise folks to decide on a tank ... and then buy the next size up! Bigger is better! But there is a point at which bigger becomes a problem. Figure you are going to need to change 10-20% of the water volume at least monthly, maybe even every tow weeks. Your straw-man tank isn't far shy of 1,500 gallons, so water changes become quite an effort - and salt costs start to add up! I know for me, 400 gallons (96x36x27) was about my max.
 
I am in the final stages of setting up my 300 Gallon, 10' long x 2' x 2'. My current reef tank is a 90 gallon and I have a 125 Gallon that is a FOWLR that I purchased initially as my large tank upgrade and decided I wanted to go with something bigger so I purchased the 300 Gallon.

I am really liking the size of the 10' long tank and I am building a lot of things that will make my life easier as far as maintenance goes.

I ended up setting up a fish room.

I plumbed drains in my sump that do directly to the sewer drains. I have my Saltwater mixing station within feet of my sump and its set up to turn a valve and I can fill my sump back up with fresh salt water. Since my sump is not under my tank, cleaning the skimmer will be much easier. I also have an automatic skimmer cleaning head on my SRO 5000.

I went with a closed loop, because my current mp40's need to be cleaned every 2 months, so with a closed loop, there is no cleaning for the most part.

I built a canopy the lifts up 3 feet, so getting into the tank will be much easier than my 90 Gallon.

My ATO water will be coming directly from my 55 Gallon into my sump (with some precautions taken not to get stuck and keep filling)

I am building the Elliot Frozen Auto Food Feeder into a refrigerator so I can go on vacation and not worry about fish getting fed to much or too little.

I am trying to think of ways to make more time enjoying the larger tank and less time doing maintenance.

Ask me this question in about a year, and I might have a different answer :-)
 
Thanks for all the replies!

As for the floor, my structural engineer said it would need a 10-12" slab to sit on.

I was hoping to automate everything and also keep the utility costs down. Right now I'm running 1200w of MH's over my tank. I plan on doing solar tubes, which should cut down the power use significantly both in lighting and more importantly heat. I almost never have to run the furnace in my house and have to run the AC 11 months of the year. I know a ton of that heat is coming from the MH's and a friend in town cut his electricity bill by $330/mo going from MH's to LED's (same ones I have.) I may add some LED's or T5's for supplemental lighting or at night, but would try to keep that minimal.

I plan on using roughly 4 external pumps for flow. The LFS is recommending using some 5000gph pumps that use about half the wattage of my existing reeflo's. So that should equal out to what I have now approximately in terms of cost.

I am looking at a dialyseas for water changes. That should pretty much make that automated I hope. In terms of costs, 20% per month of my 300g is 60g. 20% of 1500 would be 300g. So I would go from using $12/mo in salt to $60/mo in salt. I don't know how much RODI it uses, so that is a question. I saw a vague reference to it using a ton of that to do its dialysis. Does anyone know about this?

I plan on draining the skimmer right into a drain (unless advised against it) and my tank will have a sink within a foot.

Perhaps my question should be framed differently. I want to do at least a 10'x3x3. Is there a significant difference between the 10x3x3 and the 12x4x4 after initial setup that would make me regret going that extra step?

thanks!
 
The depth will be a bit harder to light and a bit harder to reach. If you're a real hands-in-the-tank guy you're in for problems. If you're a set-it-and-forget-it type you may not mind the extra work if it's only occasional.

Dave.M
 
If you have the time and $ the answer is "NO" IMHO. I bought a 120X36X30h without telling the wife (replaced a 120X24X24) thinking she would not care. It arrived while she was out of town and I set it up (mostly) before she got back. Lets just say she thought it was too Big! haha
 
TankWater said:
If you have the time and $ the answer is "NO" IMHO. I bought a 120X36X30h without telling the wife (replaced a 120X24X24) thinking she would not care. It arrived while she was out of town and I set it up (mostly) before she got back. Lets just say she thought it was too Big! haha
Click to expand...

LOL, I built my stand 30" deep, just incase I wanted to go from 120x24x24 to 120x30x30
 
I used to run a 300 gallon, which for me is more than enough tank based on time and money I wanted to spend. I loved the tank, however, I had less time to actually sit and enjoy it. I found that a majority of my time was spent with maintenance, stocking/QT of new fish, and upgrading previous equipment. I sold the 300 gallon and downgraded to a 180g, which I am better able to manage on limited time. I actually get to sit in front of it and enjoy it for more than 10 minutes a week now.

But.....with that said, I still intend on going back to a 300-400 in the future. An obvious sign of the addiction to this hobby :)
 
People who say the regret buying a big tank really regret the maintenance and cost. I am convinced with proper planning, both can be minimized, but the bigger the tank, the bigger the chance to go wrong. With a 20 gallon, if you make a bad decision, you can fix it quickly by spending a small amount of money. With a 2000 gallon if you make a bad decision, it is hard to fix.

That said, there are some time and money constraints that can't be avoided. You can't build a cheap 2000 gallon SPS tank if you are paying $0.20 / kwh and can't use natural sun.
 
There is no such thing as too big a tank, you are only limited by how deep your pockets are. With bigger tanks much more preparation has to go into the build and equipment, since most big tanks and equipment won't fit thru your standard door openings or hallways. Large dehumidifiers, AC units to cool the water and a large (48kw) generator are three things that come to mind that require a lot of thought on placement and wiring etc... There is a thread under large tanks titled 1700g ocean, or something to that effect. He lives in Texas and has a lot of great pictures of what actually goes into and the equipment needed for a large tank
 
I bet your refrencing "Triple-S Fish Ranch - 1700gal", yes very impressive... but also obviously very expensive.
 
Damn Brad I wish my electricity rates were as cheap as 20c/kWh, if I use 130% of what they consider "baseline", due to my climate is 7.5kWh/day in the Summer time, then it jumps up to over 30c/kWh.

Needless to say I go over 7.5kWh on a daily basis (and I have 3.26kW of solar panels on my roof too)
 
I've asked myself this same question many times. The thing I keep coming back to is the amount of big tank build threads that end with the tank coming down. Even some that are up and running successfully took years to get there. It's not easy to change your mind and try different things either. Your investment in equipment is significant, you're almost married to it once you make a decision. I read where someone had tried a few different types of lights and made mention of $20k in different lighting. There's no way I could justify that. If you are going to go BIG, I'd suggest doing it in steps. Go deeper first, see if you like the deep tank. Figure out the lighting needs for that depth. Go wider, see if you can successfully do maintenance on a tank that's 4x4. See if you like the look of it, along with the workability. Work out all the details and if you're happy with everything, then going longer will be much easier. Maybe you'd hate a 4x4 tank for whatever reason. You'll figure that out at a fraction of the cost.
 
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