Big Tank Opinions
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- Thread starter pelicansreef
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pelicansreef
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- Chesapeake
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- Virginia
Indeed! We are big on passing our passion for the hobby on to all of the young one's. My avatar is a picture of our granddaughter and two of her friends standing in front of our reef looking at the fish and corals. She can tell you what type fish they are and what they eat. She also gets to name them.
We have a number of Young people that come by and love our tank. My son in law has freshwater fish tanks and I provide all of his RO water for water changes.
As far as what happens to the tank if something happens to us I am not sure. My son in law would love them but may not be able to afford to maintain them. we have several connections to local Fish stores and instruction to our kids about which one to trust if something were to happen to us.
We have a number of Young people that come by and love our tank. My son in law has freshwater fish tanks and I provide all of his RO water for water changes.
As far as what happens to the tank if something happens to us I am not sure. My son in law would love them but may not be able to afford to maintain them. we have several connections to local Fish stores and instruction to our kids about which one to trust if something were to happen to us.
Sleepingtiger
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OMG, you guys are so awesome. I can only hope to be like you guys when I get older.
The days of lugging 5g jugs from LFS are over. Even though I did see a guy load 15 jugs onto his truck last week.
Anyways, I hope you're no longer lugging jugs.
I would definitely do it. Besides the fact that its a 400g aquarium. Its something you and your life long partner can enjoy together. Nothing is better than that. Whether its 200g or 1000g. Most of us here has a partner who has little interest in what we enjoy. All i get is a lot of eye rolls and complaints about money. My aquarium is viewable from the kitchen, dinning room and great room. Not once has my wife acknowledge we have a beautiful aquarium. All i got is "when are you selling it". Anyways.... I would do it just so you and your partner can spend more time together.
The days of lugging 5g jugs from LFS are over. Even though I did see a guy load 15 jugs onto his truck last week.
Anyways, I hope you're no longer lugging jugs.
I would definitely do it. Besides the fact that its a 400g aquarium. Its something you and your life long partner can enjoy together. Nothing is better than that. Whether its 200g or 1000g. Most of us here has a partner who has little interest in what we enjoy. All i get is a lot of eye rolls and complaints about money. My aquarium is viewable from the kitchen, dinning room and great room. Not once has my wife acknowledge we have a beautiful aquarium. All i got is "when are you selling it". Anyways.... I would do it just so you and your partner can spend more time together.
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pelicansreef
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- Mar 18, 2021
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- Chesapeake
- What state or country do you live in
- Virginia
Thanks, I am a very lucky person, my wife may actually like the hobby more than I do. We have been together over 40 years and it has been a crazy ride all the way. We have reached a point in our life where we try to use our shared interest in the hobby as a reason to travel and go looking for new corals and fish. Our current tanks (220 and 90 mixed reefs) are getting full and we are thinking about the next 10 years. Our Kids are grown (49 and 43) and have there own lives. We see them regular and love them dearly but we also understand they have their own life to live and can't be at our beck and call every weekend or holiday. They also have in-laws and other family and have to share holidays and such with them as well as with us.
We rarely think much about how old we are unless one of the kids tells us to act our age (lol) We have lived thru being young and poor and we lived thru several serious health scares. We also have had plenty of experience with being less than thrilled with each others choices along the way. Fortunately we got to our retirement years and still really like each other. We have a reasonable retirement and can afford to live a good life without any real worries.
We rarely think much about how old we are unless one of the kids tells us to act our age (lol) We have lived thru being young and poor and we lived thru several serious health scares. We also have had plenty of experience with being less than thrilled with each others choices along the way. Fortunately we got to our retirement years and still really like each other. We have a reasonable retirement and can afford to live a good life without any real worries.
o2manyfish
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I'm less than 2 decades behind you, retired, and have a 1500g system with a 560g display tank. I don't want to say the bigger you go the easier they are. But the bigger the water volume the less worried you need to be about staying on top of things. I have lots of automation, I am a lazy reefer. 2 Years ago my Dad had a heart attack and I walked out the door for 10 weeks to take care of my Dad. Other than a heater failing, and a CO2 tank going empty the tank ran without issues for the 10 weeks. And when I got back home I jumped from a 20lb CO2 tank to a 50lb and solved one issue.
My Dad is healthy again, and today is his 80th birthday. He spends alot more time and physical energy maintaining his 2500g Koi pond than I do on a 1500g sps system.
I would say the only critical issue is the dimensions of the tank. Don't go too Tall, or too high on a stand, that you have to contort your body to get in and out of the tank for maintenance.
A year ago in an emergency we had to swap a 400g for a 560g tank. The new tank is 120x30x36. And that 36" height is killing me. The tank is beautiful, but I can't reach anything in the bottom 1/2 of the tank. Even with an assortment of tongs. Even mounting a clam on the sand bed is a 20 minute flury of foul language and yelling. We are trying to arrange to install a 120x60x30 tank and hopefully that will get rid of the hatred of heights I now have.
At some point health is going to come into play. So plan ahead for that with your automation. Can your tank run 2 weeks without any help from you? Look at that as your minimum mark. Build everything for 2 weeks. Also build everything for an idiot. Invest in a commercial label maker and start labeling everything.
Every pump has a label identifying it where it comes out of the water, and again where it gets plugged in. Every automated outlet has a number and a label identifying what gets plugged into it.
My system is in 4 locations and has 5 dedicated circuits. I have multiple GFI outlets in each location and each GFI is an audible GFI so it beeps when it is triggered.
You have to plan for an instant when you are away and you have to walk a dumb neighbor thru fixing something on your system. That's why you need to label everything.
Also make friends with 1 or 2 local maintenance people. It's worth wasting some money now to pay them to do something trivial on your tanks so they are familiar with them. And then when you are in a bind and away from home you have someone that has some idea as to what they are looking at.
Any of those lil things that you know how to fix - I jiggle this, I smack that, this outlet doesn't work - Get rid of all that crap - Any new equipment invest in better quality because it will pay off. I use Jebao prop pumps in my frag tank, but I also only expect them to last 9-12 months. I use Tunze in my display tank because they last as long as I keep my cars.
Dave B
My Dad is healthy again, and today is his 80th birthday. He spends alot more time and physical energy maintaining his 2500g Koi pond than I do on a 1500g sps system.
I would say the only critical issue is the dimensions of the tank. Don't go too Tall, or too high on a stand, that you have to contort your body to get in and out of the tank for maintenance.
A year ago in an emergency we had to swap a 400g for a 560g tank. The new tank is 120x30x36. And that 36" height is killing me. The tank is beautiful, but I can't reach anything in the bottom 1/2 of the tank. Even with an assortment of tongs. Even mounting a clam on the sand bed is a 20 minute flury of foul language and yelling. We are trying to arrange to install a 120x60x30 tank and hopefully that will get rid of the hatred of heights I now have.
At some point health is going to come into play. So plan ahead for that with your automation. Can your tank run 2 weeks without any help from you? Look at that as your minimum mark. Build everything for 2 weeks. Also build everything for an idiot. Invest in a commercial label maker and start labeling everything.
Every pump has a label identifying it where it comes out of the water, and again where it gets plugged in. Every automated outlet has a number and a label identifying what gets plugged into it.
My system is in 4 locations and has 5 dedicated circuits. I have multiple GFI outlets in each location and each GFI is an audible GFI so it beeps when it is triggered.
You have to plan for an instant when you are away and you have to walk a dumb neighbor thru fixing something on your system. That's why you need to label everything.
Also make friends with 1 or 2 local maintenance people. It's worth wasting some money now to pay them to do something trivial on your tanks so they are familiar with them. And then when you are in a bind and away from home you have someone that has some idea as to what they are looking at.
Any of those lil things that you know how to fix - I jiggle this, I smack that, this outlet doesn't work - Get rid of all that crap - Any new equipment invest in better quality because it will pay off. I use Jebao prop pumps in my frag tank, but I also only expect them to last 9-12 months. I use Tunze in my display tank because they last as long as I keep my cars.
Dave B
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pelicansreef
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- Mar 18, 2021
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- Location
- Chesapeake
- What state or country do you live in
- Virginia
Glad to hear your Dad is doing better, even happier to hear he has a 2500G Koi pond. when I was a kid I thought anyone that was 80 was on their death bed. As I get closer to that age I realize although I an not as quick as I was 30 years ago I can still do anything I want to do with a little thought toward working smarter not harder. My wife and I have perplexed our kids for years. They are still a bit taken back when they realize they can't keep up with us weather it is working playing or just having a good time. They keep expecting us to slow down and act our age. (LOL)
As I have gotten older I have automated most of my Tank and still look for ways to make the mundane parts of the hobby a little easier. Part of the idea of going to a bigger tank was that it actually gives us a chance to redesign some of our system components for a more reliable and simpler system. Doing that lends itself to a better hands off operation and makes tank sitters a little easier to work with on the phone. Your ideas have given me some real good places to look for system reliability improvements. Labeling the pumps and lines to indicate flow direction and destination are excellent. Thanks for the tips.
Spend all the time you can with your dad, Once their gone you will wish you had spent more time with him no matter how much you already do.
As I have gotten older I have automated most of my Tank and still look for ways to make the mundane parts of the hobby a little easier. Part of the idea of going to a bigger tank was that it actually gives us a chance to redesign some of our system components for a more reliable and simpler system. Doing that lends itself to a better hands off operation and makes tank sitters a little easier to work with on the phone. Your ideas have given me some real good places to look for system reliability improvements. Labeling the pumps and lines to indicate flow direction and destination are excellent. Thanks for the tips.
Spend all the time you can with your dad, Once their gone you will wish you had spent more time with him no matter how much you already do.
