Need help deciding what tank size to get.

[Waterdog]

I want to upgrade to an larger tank with all the bells and whitsles including wet/dry with refugeum and all the other fun stuff that is needed. Im looking at the range of a 72 gallon bow front to a 180 gallon tanks to anywhere in between. Im concerned with the maintenance required to keep the larger ones going once its been established. I dont want to spend every waking moment playing with it and not being able enjoy it or go outside once in a while. Does anybody have an idea on how much time is spent maintaining a larger tank and also is there a cost difference between the larger one and the smaller ones. I know the start up cost are going to be different but Im more worried about how much I will have to spend in the long run after its been established.

[fishboy0070]

Obviously the larger the tank the more time it will need. If you set you tank up properly with all the fancy stuff you want you should have no problem with cleaning and maintance. Chemicals and additives will cost more for a larger tank. I have heard of people with 1,500 gallon tanks only spending 30 minutes on it per day. I would recommend the largest tank you can afford. Also you should look at length rather than width and height.

Refer to the sticky at the top of this page.

[salty dragon]

I agree with fishboy as to getting the biggest tank possible. I personally believe that the only difference in big and smaller tanks with reference to maintenance is the cost of supplies and the larger surface area to scriub from algae.

Just like any tank the more self suffecient you make te tank the more it will take care of itself as well as the extra money spent on bigger stuff that need less attention ie. a huge skimmer cup or an automatic drain off for the skimmer.

An automatic top-off system and an RO/DI (as you require by your city water) will also save you time (and money) from having to buy water at the store or LFS. All in all I spend about 20 min tops a day with my 180 including feeding. Once a week I do a water change (keeps me away from adding allot of supplements) 30 min tops. And twice a week I add phytoplankton or similar coral food at night. (5 min) everything is on timers (including powerheads and lights) so I do not need to turn on/off anything. Lastly an awesome clean-up crew for everything (ie nassirius for sand, turbos for glass and rock, hermits for rock and extra food, emeralds and zebras for algae hair algae control). The clean-up crew is all about research and preference though.

My advice so that you can still have a life and a killer tank is to plan ahead and make everything as self sufficient and as natural as possible and that includes a lenghty cycle time as well as bieng very slow in your additions. The faster you add stuff to the tank the faster the system tries to adjusts and the longer it stays "out-of-whack" requiring more maintenance.

This is just my experience and I hope it helps you some. Let us know how it goes and post some pics showing your progress.

[joanadam]

IMO a larger tank once established is much easier to take care of. Little things in a small tank can be catastrophic like water evaporation or accidental things. A bigger tank has much more room to compensate so less things go wrong. JMO

[rememberme]

I have just upgraded to a tank four times bigger than the one before and it is so exciting!!

Yeah, less things will go wrong as you probably know (well not less things, but they usually give you more time to deal with them due of the volume). For example; algae is not really a problem in my new tank. I used a few chemicals at the begining and put a bit of rowaphos in a powerhead cage (great stuff) have had no algae blooming yet!!

As long as you deal with possible problems at the start (prevent rather than have to fix it later) the larger tank shouldn't be too much work!!

Plus you get more fish inside! I spend about 10 minutes on a 180 per day. Plus mine is in a conservatory!!

Good luck with the choice - bow fronts are cool, but cheaper ones distort the view... Hope your pleased with the choise you make!

[The Bald Eagles Chick]

take some advice,waterdog, get the largest tank that you can get .eventually you will only want a larger one anyway. i learned this the hard way from bald eagle. get the biggest from the get go. your wallet will be happier that way (in the long run,anyway) :roll:

[Vince]

I agree with Joanadam. any little error in a small tank is magnified a hundred fold compared to a larger tank . The cost is more definately. But as far as maintenance i would say its about the same. I mean if you gotta scrub algae does it matter if its 10 minutes as opposed to 5 if you have good animal husbandry i doubt you will even notice the differance. MOst things will remain the same testing the water is still testing the water. adding supplements is the same maybe a larger qty but still the same. emptying the cup on your skimmer maybe it will be fuller. So I would go with as big as you can afford.

[Sandworm]

I agree as well, get as big as you think you can afford and maintain.. One thought though, make sure the floor will be able to hold it.. hehe

[Bald Eagle]

Funny you should mention floors. Have you ever seen a Leaning tank? Unfortunately I have, in my living room! This happened many years ago and I was trying my hand at plumbing a 135gl in my home. Everything went fine. I plumbed the tank. checked for leaks and went to work. My wife called me 2 hours later to tell me that the tank was sinking. I told her that , thats not funny! sure enough, when I got home, the tank was sinking into the floor! It turns out to be a power failure combined with a snail that got stuck in the airhole. Needless to say I no longer plumb tanks that way. :lol: