Please help ! Beginner with 700 Gallon Tank!

[arjunsud]

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for stopping by my post . I am a beginner with tanks. I have had a 120 gallon freshwater tank that I got and have really enjoyed it but have always wanted saltwater because it is more exotic.

Today I traded something worth 2,500 for a 700 gallon tank with everything included ( sump, protein skimmer, fish, live rock, lights,coolers,lids, food....)

I have almost no idea what the sump and protein skimmer really do. I saw the tank and it is beautiful and its 700 high so i was hoping to put sharks or maybe an octopus or something exotic.

I have a person that comes and does my tank maintenance bi weekly. Currently he is charging me $ 50 for each visit for my 120 gallon and said that for another 50 per visit he would maintain my saltwater 700 gallon as well.

From what I have been told, startup is one of the biggest costs and fortunately this tank is established and I will be getting most of the water ( transported in barrels).

I wanted to ask you all, what are the typical maintenance costs for a saltwater tank? Do you think that for 200 a month bi weekly I am getting a good deal on both my 120 gallon freshwater and 700 gallon saltwater?

Any advice you could share would be much appreciated.

Thank You!

 

[Bectan01]

Wow that's amazing - I would only dream of a tank that big! You said it comes with fish tho, do you know what they are? So it sounds like you leave all the care to your maintenance guy yeah? I would definitely be getting advice for adding livestock - off the bat I can say that an octopus is out, they do poorly in closed systems and I think are species only? Not sure though, their survival rate is as low as 6 months in home aquariums. You may be able to do a shark (depending on what already in there) there are a few people here who keep sharks, they will be able to give you more advice. Tell us what you have first and we can comment on suitable addition...

 

[Bectan01]

Oh and I guess paying the guy that much to care for your tanks is reasonable, it sure takes a lot of knowledge and experience to keep a tank that big so in a way your paying for that. I assume he tests the water, cleans things and does a water change?

 

[mr_X]

What are the dimensions of this tank? Maintenance costs will vary, due to your stock list/ bio load and overall feeding habits during the week. Predators can foul the water pretty quickly.

 

[Dav3]

And make sure the maintenance person actually knows how to maintain saltwater. Much different than freshwater.

 

[Delapool]

My goodness - does it come with a life jacket on the side in case someone falls in? How do you even shift it?

 

[TheTodd]

I would think that just the salt needed to do the routine water changes plus the RODI water (plus the time and equipment it would take to mix hundreds of gallons) would make $100 a month well worth it, if that is included. I absolutely agree that they need to know what they are doing if you are unclear about what to do.

Can't wait to hear dimensions...I still am thrilled by the size of my 240g every time I look at it. That is just about a water change for this monster.

 

[Animal-Chin]

First, lets see this bad boy!!!

A 10% water change a week would be 70 gallons of water. Most buckets of salt produce what, 160 gallons? Basically you're going to go through 2 buckets a month so that cost alone is about $100 depending on the brand you're using.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I operate about 600 gallons. Salt, electricity, food, maintenance and any upgrades or repairs, I spend about $200/month and I do my own maintenance. That doesn't include additional corals or fish.

I wouldn't do a shark tank, sounds cool, but with a square tank it isn't the best except for very small sharks, other than that, you can keep just about anything you're skilled enough to keep alive, except for the octopus. If it were me, this would be a tang tank.

 

[mrvincent]

Are you from quebec ? I heard about a guy in Quebec that just bought a 700g reef tank...

 

[arjunsud]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you all very very much for your replies! That was very helpful in putting a lot of things in perspective and I appreciate the help.

The tank already comes with a shark that is fairly long , it has a hermit crab and some other fish that I do not know for sure but they look beautiful. As the Tank is a High vs Long, I dont know if it neccesarily appears as big in terms of its profile.

The dimensions are 8 ft wide x 6 ft tall x 2 ft deep. I am supposed to pick this tank up from someone over the weekend but was going to ask you guys :

1) What are the key things that one would look at to make sure the tank is in good shape?

2) I believe the filled weight is about 6,500 pounds aproximately. The house i am living in has carpet and vinyl floors . Where would you guys recommend keeping it? What are the potential challenges you foresee with respect to damange to the carpet or vinyl? I believe it will be there for atleast 1 year if not longer.

With regards to live stock, the person I am buying it from told me that I can not do corals as ample light may not reach since it is a high tank. Hence he said he has 'live rock' and gravel and that if i wanted to get stingrays i would need to add some sand on top of the gravel.

From what the owner told me , his maintenance cost was primarily electricity, food and 2 gallons of water a day ( 50c per gallon ) that needed to be replenished due to evaporation ( he said he kept the top open as it allowed the water to stay cooler and replacing the 2 gallons per day were the same as doing a water change).

I dont know if this is true or he said this to make a trade but I thought i would see your thoughts and opinions about whether you think he was being up front and honest with regards to his costs.

Again thank you guys for all the help!

PS: Here is a link to some pictures , i uploaded it to my dropbox since I could not find a way to do it here.

Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life

 

[arjunsud]

No haha Arizona!

 

[tangs27]

There was a large sw tank on craigslist in phx about that size lol. Have you already set up the tank?

 

[arjunsud]

In the process of moving it now.

I posted a longer reply to what everyone said from earlier but it said a moderator needs to approve it and i cant see it on here ? do you know why that is happening ?

 

[tangs27]

That's weird. It might be because you just joined I know they watch closely on some things. I think it will stop once you get a certain number of posts.

 

[Animal-Chin]

Question, with 700 gallons do you have to reinforce the floor? That must be incredibly heavy, can a standard floor take that?

 

[mdw1974]

Wow 700g. That's a big tank. Please post a picture. I bet its wicked. I couldn't comment on costs as in the uk not many people to service a tank. Love to know what fish you decide on.

 

[arjunsud]

Hi Guys,

Thank you all for your replies! I posted this earlier but for whatever reason the site did not post it and said it needed to be approved by a moderator first? Either ways the tank already comes with sharks, hermit crabs and some other stuff fish that are very good looking but i do not know the names of.

The tank itself is 2000 pounds empty and aprox 6500 pounds full. In the house i am currently at, i have vinyl floor and carpet floor. Both are on a single level. I was wondering what you guys recommend for such a heavy weight? Will the carpet with something under it in case it leaks be better or vinyl floor? I am renting so i do not want to damage anything and i am trying to make sure i take all precautions necessary.

I believe that because the tank is 700 high, it is not possible to do corals because the light will not penetrate properly for them to grow and be healthy. The person I am buying this from said that his main costs were adding water which was about 2 gallons per day due to evaporation ( he did not put a lid on the tank as he said it got very hot ) and that was about 50c per gallon. Also he said there was electricity and food.

I appreciate all your responses where you were going over the costs as well, do you believe that this will be the case for me as well ie

Food
Electric
Water

The maintenance guys said he would do all the chemicals and the salt and stuff so i would not need to buy those myself. Also i wanted to ask you all, when you are looking for a tank what do you look for to make sure the tank is in good condition? I wanted to make sure that I buy something that will not necessarily need much from a repair perspective?

So this is the 3rd time i am posting this i think adding a drop box link is getting it flagged for 'review' so please forgive the repetition.

Thanks for all your help!!

 

[arjunsud]

how do i upload a picture from my computer?

 

[mr_X]

There aren't any chemicals needed for a shark tank. Again, what are the dimensions of this tank?

The floors are concrete with carpet and tile over it? I'd probably put it on the carpet, since the vinyl will probably have a big square dent in it when you break this baby down.

I also agree with Greg- I would take the sharks to the public aquarium and do lots of other, extremely colorful fish instead. Fish that don't need live foods. With this size tank you will be getting fish donated to you on a regular basis- most people can't keep fish until they are full grown due to the size of their tanks, but you can.