I'm purchasing a new house and the previous owners had this huge aquarium. I love fish and aquariums, but I'm afraid this may be a little too much to maintain. Thoughts? How much do you think monthly maintenance would cost on a tank of this size? Not sure if it's freshwater or saltwater.
Posted by jdaugh01
30 Comments
> How much do you think monthly maintenance would cost on a tank of this size?
If you only stock it with plants and hundreds of nano fish? Probably little to none. Just water top offs and occasional changes, and depending on the filtration, once a month or more for cleaning.
Though figure out what was all attached. If they left only the tank drilled out but took everything else. You’d probably just want to replace it.
Oh that’s cool and most of a fish tank cost is all front loaded once they are up and running there isn’t much cost aside from restocking which depends entirely on what kind of fish your keeping.
I bet they took all the plumbing and filter equipment and just left the tank because moving a big tank is expensive and it’s often easier to just get a new one as moving an older tank often breaks it.
You should put 500 tetras in it. And 80 corydorras
I’m so envious 😍. Freshwater tank with low stocking would be very low maintenance after setup. Plants, playground sand, a couple heaters, and a canister filter.
100 CPDs and then pretend to go trout fishing
It looks like you could research various aquarium filtration setups and make some choices from there.
Personally, I would set this up as a freshwater biotope, with lots of plants and natural hardscape, to provide good hiding places for the animals. You can choose a specific environment to duplicate, or make your own fantasy environment! Something like this would, as chak says, require minimal maintenance. IMO they’re also the most fun; the variety of freshwater species is vast!
Do you have prior fishkeeping experience?
Finally, a proper sized betta tank
1 Betta
Test it thoroughly before fully trusting it. Have tons of towels and a couple shop vacs standing by just in case
I’m in New York. I have a 125 gallon tank and a 100 gallon pond. I spend $80 a month in electricity alone during the winter months.
I’m looking to buy a house and this would seal the deal.
Is that 30 outlets in the back? Holy.
I feel like something that high tech was set up for saltwater, but once you rinse the salt off it should be just as easy and much cheaper to set up for freshwater.
Once you have the tank set up and stocked costs and labor are pretty minimal, if you don’t overstock it with monster fish the bioload will stay low enough that you won’t have to do water changes very often, water dechlorinator (if necessary with your water) and fish food will be your ongoing costs
Bigger fish tanks take less maintenance, my question would be if they left everything or if you gotta replace filters and such. Maybe make a friend out of your seller and ask them how to set it up.
What a dream tank!
Bro heres a thought. Ask the dude you’re buying it from. All of us has to guess but that guy lived it.
funny how the old owner took the lights and gadgets with them too, that’s stripped down like a car parked in a bad neighborhood for a weekend, but man that’s a lot of outlets, jealous
If I had to guess, $1500 ish to do a nice proper planted/aquascaped setup, then $45 a month after for electricity/co2/fertilizers etc. fish + fish food not included in there.
Doing a nice saltwater setup, 2x-3x that cost
Speaking from experience, a large planted tank with a heavy plant to fish ratio (think a big school of smaller tetras and some shrimp/snails for cleaning) can be little to no maintenance other than topping off evaporation and the odd bit of plant trimming.
HELL YEAH !!!!!! that’s literally my dream tank !! A big crossback arowana along with 3 motoro stingray would look so ccol!! I’d also like to make a big rooting structure at one corner like a flooded forest with big vallesneria around it (like that of the king of DIY, when he had that crossback arowana in that giant indoor aquarium) . Man, I have literally coutless ideas, wow I am so jealous of you 😭
It’s going to be a lot to maintain, but how could you not when this kind of opportunity presents itself?
I’d get a diamond back terrapin.
Maintenance on fresh water isn’t hard at all.
Get a bunch of plants- it helps.
Lord I’ve seen what you’ve done for others and I ask that next it be me 🙏
Holy im jealous! Maintenance will be cheap if you do freshwater (which I recommend if you are new to this). Looks like you have all or most of what you need to get started. Test the equipment before you do anything, and replace any broken equipment. Id replace the heater first thing and just toss the old one even if it works, or keep as a backup. Possibly do the same with the main pump. Costs will be low to zero just doing waterchanges monthly. Some cost for electricity to run the equipment but its negligible IMO. Best of luck!
I’m so jealous!
I’m so jealous dude you have no idea
Have you considered it could make an amazing reptile/herpes enclosure? I’m so jealous!
Generally, big tanks require less frequent maintenance. It’s harder to overstock them with fish and any wastes or toxins will take more time to build up.
There are a bunch of different ways to keep aquariums, though, with some being very low maintenance and others being very high maintenance. Tetras, danios, and other beginner fish tend to be hardy and inexpensive, and live plants help keep the tank naturally clean by reducing ammonia/nitrates that are produced in fish waste. Also research aquarium cycling.
Great find!
Put me in it, I want to swim with the fishies
That is so fucking badass. You can run fresh, or salt, but I’m guessing this guy was keeping saltwater fish. A saltwater fish tank can be quite a bit of money to maintain. Freshwater fish will be enormously cheaper and easier to maintain. I would have this tank inspected by a qualified professional before you buy the house – this amount of water leaking can be devastating in terms of damage.
If everything is good, my dream fish tank of that size would be large South American cichlids. Heavy filtration, low light, very naturalistic looking aquarium, with beautiful fish that have a lot of personality.
You should turn the upper shelves into a terrarium and marry the scapes into one display! Like branches cut to look like they go through the top of the tank and into the terrarium. Then stock the terrarium with geckos or tree frogs.