8x2x2

[tetraqueen]

Please can anyone advise me for/against forking out a lot of money?
Before we do do I would like to know some pros and cons from others who have managed them
Apart from weight etc and loads of h2o

 

[my fat fish]

well a bigger tank is always better like i say

the soultion to polution is dialution (whitch means the bigger the tank the less risk of a big outbreak of desease)

 

[ahkiu]

everyone likes a big tank and apart from the obvious advantages, ( a much bigger variety of fish is open for you to keep, keeping good water parameters should be easier but this of course depends on the type and number of fish, however really you should maintain a regular water change protocol like on smaller tanks).

Disadvantages i suppose are really mostly with the husbandry side. If you do a lot of aquascpaing, maintaining plants would probably take more time. With a big volume of water, supplements also cost more for instance, if i wanted to dose the tank with melafix say, in my 125l tank a capful or so may be sufficient dose for a day and 1 bottle will be enough for the full course, in a big tank it might need a whole bottle to dose the tank sufficiently for just a day. I think generally as you would expect, keeping a larger tank will increase costs (water, electricity, supplements etc etc) and time You say not to mention the large amount of water, but doing water changes can be quite tiring if you use buckets like me

Other things you might want to consider are, will you be decorating your room in the near future etc? IF you're thinking of painting/wall papering the room where the tank is going to be, you might want to get those sort of things done first because it's far more of a hassle trying to move a large tank once you've established it.

Having said all that, i think it's all worth it in the end, nothing beats having a big tank

 

[dc3]

Do you really need a big tank? I know it's an unfair question, but sometimes you just run out of plans in a realistic sense. Don't get me wrong - I can fill any tank given the chance, but there comes a point where unless you're planning on new livestock or your current fish need more room, it's not really worth putting the money down on a huge tank like that. It's a lot of money, not just in terms of the initial cost but maintenace too. imagine a 30% PWC on a beast like that...

 

[MojoDex]

big tank = bigger fish

or if u like small fish

big tank = ALOT more fish

i fail to c any problem

 

[CFC]

The only problem with big tanks is once you are used to the size and it starts to feel small again the next step up is HUGE and then it gets really costly.

Things do get expensive if something goes wrong and running bigger filters pumps heaters and lighting does cost more but if money isn't a big issue then the benefits of a bigger tank far out-weigh the cons.

(BTW melafix doesnt need to be expensive, just make your own by mixing 100ml of pure water (R/O or distillled) with 1ml of pure tea tree oil, its the same thing without the chemical to bind them and a fancy bottle, call it "organic" melafix if you like).

Water changes can be made quicker and easier using a hose, just syphon the water straight out of the back door to get it out and then connect the hose to the tap and fill the tank back up. Using pond dechlorinator means you use less, i use a brand intended for koi ponds and 1ml treats 70 litres of new water so a 1 litre bottle lasts me over a year (and i change about 200 gallons a week!!).

Keep a small tank to quarentine new fish for 3 weeks before adding them to the big tank, this way you have less chance of infecting your big tank with a disease and having to treat a large volume of water.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I would say that larger tanks definately have a lot more advantages to small tanks, but there are still some disadvantages i can think of;

a. If you want to plant or decorate the tank a lot it can be very expensive as there is so much space to cover before the tank starts to look more complete, for example when i got my large peices of bogwood (around 3ft long each), they cost me around £60s each. I've also spend so much on sand, plants, rocks etc...But there are many ways you can still save money decorating tanks- for example, a lot of the rocks in my tanks were picked up at the beach .

b. Water changes take longer and cleaning the tank can be a lot more energy intensive. If you have a 2ft high tank, i can tell you that you arm gets really tired after 1hr of decorating the tank etc lol. I have to stand on a bucket when i clean my tanks as i'm too short to reach the very back at the bottom of the tanks lol .
However if you just have the one large tank to worry about, then tank maintenance becomes a lot more simple and organised than if you had many small tanks to look after.

c. I agree with CFC that after a while even a large tank will start to feel like nothing special size-wise after a while, i remember when i got my first 125gal i was like "OMG its so BIG!" and now i'm like "Hm, it would be nice if it was 6ft long and not 5ft long..."....

d. Getting decent filtration that properly filters and cleans the tank can be a pain in the bum if its a really large tank filtration can start to get very expensive, all my tanks are technically over-filtered but if i had less filtration, stagnent area's would start to form in the tanks. If you are considering an 8ft long tank then i would definately have at least 2 very powerful filters which can more than handle the amount of gallons in the tank, one situated at each end of the tank.

 

[tetraqueen]

Many Thanks for that, hubby is already rubbing his fingers with the pennies.
We had just decorated and although my Rio 400 has started to bow there is no damage.

We would of course have to put the eight feet in the dining room where we hardly sit maybe good for fish I will see.

The other thing I am scared of is BIG FISH.
thats another New topic ....Perhaps if I need to start a new thread someone will move it.


Gibbiceps get huge and so do Bala sharks if sea world etc not to mention the lovely ones my lfs have but I am squirming at catching these big to me fish which are tiny in comparison to take back.


I usually get to it but I still look and with pride say @boy they are beauties for me to have looked after. Then I look and say reality check.


I guess I have a couple of weeks then it sure will be decision time.

Do big fish like Bala sharks Gibbiceps or clown Loaches get aggressive???

No Paranhas are not for me.

 

[Fella]

Scraping algae off the glass is the major disadvantage for me.

 

[mark7616]

Balas gibbiceps and clown loaches are not by comparrison big if you are talking about big fish take for instance my fire eel which will grow to 20-24", oscar 16", sorubim lima 18", and lots more fish that will grow huge dont get me wrong balas do grow big but I would say you have alot more options other than them before you think hmmm ill get an 8ft tank you need to be thinking what would I like to keep then work out what tank you need. I bought my 5x2x2 for my oscar and lots of other bits but I have ordered a 6x3x2 as I want rays and an arowana, thats how you need to be thinking.

 

[vinylman]

If your tank has started bowing, you'll need a new tank sooner rather than later. Once they start to bow, only one thing is going to happen - the pressure on the weakest part of the tank will increase until you have an indoor swimming pool. Can you take some water out to try and ease the strain?.

 

[The-Wolf]

The only problem with big tanks is once you are used to the size and it starts to feel small again the next step up is HUGE

I'll second that, my 100G is already looking small to me now

call it "organic" melafix if you like.

nope I'll call it melafake

I do however use pond melafix which is a 5% solution, not 1% as with melafix,
so the dosage is 5 times less thus the bottle lasts 5 times longer for a very
similar inital price but the savings are greater.

API MelaFix 473ml £10.99 Source
API Pond Melafix 473ml £17.99 Source

 

[roseykat5]

what u mean the tank starts bowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

now u r scaring me

 

[CFC]

The only problem with big tanks is once you are used to the size and it starts to feel small again the next step up is HUGE

I'll second that, my 100G is already looking small to me now

call it "organic" melafix if you like.

nope I'll call it melafake

I do however use pond melafix which is a 5% solution, not 1% as with melafix,
so the dosage is 5 times less thus the bottle lasts 5 times longer for a very
similar inital price but the savings are greater.

API MelaFix 473ml £10.99 Source
API Pond Melafix 473ml £17.99 Source

Why not just add 5ml of tea trea oil to 100ml of water then? Whatever strength you buy melafix at all you are doing is buying a large ammount of water some emulcifying chemical ingredient and a tiny ammount of tea tree oil, £10 or £20 for that seems a lot to me when you can buy the enough to make 4 litres of 1% solution for about a fiver.

 

[mark7616]

See I like CFC`s way of thinking i have a pond dechlorinator that connects to my hose pipe