500 gal stocking

[treybomb]

Originally Posted by DAVE_15
yeah ur right........but who said i cant afford it (and that i dont have that much money)....well i need a bigger tank for christmas (for my eel).....im getting a bigger aquarium in my basement (not sure how big though but arounf probably 200-300 gallons...might be wrong...but getting something in there) i found some 5 gallon plastic boxes (3 and 2 2 gallon) which are goin to house thimbnail dart frogs in it (reticulatus for sure)...i have a 29 and 30 sw
im not saying you cant afford it but a 220 tank and a 500 tank are gonna cost a lot... not including the sand, rock, fish,equipment,test kits, lights, stand, canopy, etc,etc.........

 

[treybomb]

what im saying i guess is... just be practical in your decisions good luck

 

[mitzel]

no offense DAve but people might be a bit more helpful if you gave us an idea of what you have in your tank now . what you have had in there before. Telling us you have experiance and actually having it are two diffrent things. The bio load in a 500 gallon agresive tank is far more then a 29 gallon with clown fish. Just the logistics of water changes is a big diffrance. A 10% change is fifty gallons of water. times that by 4 times a month and your going to be buying a 40-50$ worth of salt a month add in frozen sea food to feed you fish/shark/ray . frozen squid is about ten bucks a package times two a month 20 more dollars. do you really have 70 bucks a month for maintanance of your fish. let alone what the actual set up cost would be for a tank of that size. you are looking at 1000's just in live rock. which you will need for bio filtration. pumps to filter the water and keep it flowing. sharks need a good water flow to stay healthy. 3-400 more bucks . live sand to cover the bottom of the tank hundreds more dollars. have you even thought of long term for the animals. some day you'll be moving out of your parents house. then what of the animals?

 

[aquapro_1]

If you build it big. Doesn't mean you need to fill it immediately. At least get paper & pen. Call around to get the best deal on a system. A commercial system is your best bet. Then when you cycle the tank, save!!!!! Again, do fill it all at once. Get all of one kind. then before you know it, the tank will be full. Not to mention, you will hopefully prevent from overloading your tank. The fish will have plenty of personal space & the second you see a fight...NO VACANCY!

 

[dave_15]

in my 30 i have one yellowhead
in my 29 i have a niger trigger (going to a bigger tank soon),2 clowns, 1 yellowtail damsel, 1 mandarin and a coral beauty

 

[tripleshot]

Originally Posted by mitzel
no offense DAve but people might be a bit more helpful if you gave us an idea of what you have in your tank now . what you have had in there before. Telling us you have experiance and actually having it are two diffrent things. The bio load in a 500 gallon agresive tank is far more then a 29 gallon with clown fish. Just the logistics of water changes is a big diffrance. A 10% change is fifty gallons of water. times that by 4 times a month and your going to be buying a 40-50$ worth of salt a month add in frozen sea food to feed you fish/shark/ray . frozen squid is about ten bucks a package times two a month 20 more dollars. do you really have 70 bucks a month for maintanance of your fish. let alone what the actual set up cost would be for a tank of that size. you are looking at 1000's just in live rock. which you will need for bio filtration. pumps to filter the water and keep it flowing. sharks need a good water flow to stay healthy. 3-400 more bucks . live sand to cover the bottom of the tank hundreds more dollars. have you even thought of long term for the animals. some day you'll be moving out of your parents house. then what of the animals?

I just had to look to see what a 500 gal tank would cost.$5,000 just for the tank!!!!!!!! :scared: :scared: :scared:

 

[fishntx]

if you plan on building a tank i wouldnt go no bigger than 75-100gal at least untill you get experienced or have an expert help you. also even if you did build a 500-700gal tank the glass or acrylic for the job is still going to cost several thousand dollars. thats not counting the equipment to run and maintain a system that large. even diy i estimate $7000-$10000 maybe more. jmo

 

[konrade]

Dave jw, but WHERE DO YOU get all of this money????? Man I'm the same age as you (13) and I can barely keep up with a 29!! Seems like all I do is work work work for my tank. It's worth it though

. Good luck with what you decide to do. Also, no one has talked about where you are going to put this tank. I mean, your going to need a big room. Not to mention that it might break. :help:

:help: