Where to buy big fish tanks? 500+ gallons (cichlid, breed, kind)

[rgomez912]

Would like to know of food dealers of big tanks for future project.

[foxywench]

food dealers?

generally anythign over 75 gallons has to be special ordered and anything over 200 gallons has to be specially made usually on site...
because of the weight a glass tank couldnt be transported and an acrylic tank of that size would be too easily scratched...
because of the weight for a tank that size youd probably HAVE to go with an acrylic or polymer based tank too.

what you planning on keeping in it?! i love large scale projects...
i was following the story of a guy who turned his basment into a 2000 gallon aquarium, he had to use the same polymer acrylic thats used in profesional large scale aquariums, he sealed the concrete walls on 3 sides with 10 layers of waterproof sealer plus multiple layers of clar aquarium silacon, then had a special bacground and sides made out of wire and spray foam, it gets carved, coated in concrete and dyed/painted. the front was a sealed wood frame with the sheets of polymer acrylic stuff industrial silaconed into place. set it up as a freshwater amazon tank if i remember right, there was enough room between the top of the tank and the ceiling of the basment for him to kneel, he built a special platform on one end with a ladder into his tank and put all his filtration equiptment in a seperate room next to the tank but easy for maintenence...
once it was all cured and set up and had his fish in (he didnt even use big fish he instead whent with angels, neons ect, just lots of them...) he would scuba in it! it looked amazing but now i cant find the link!

you havent seen anythign untill youve seen a school of 200 neon tetra swimming in formation!

[rgomez912]

I saw some videos on youtube of other peoples massive aquariums and just got me thinking on creating a freshwater tank of my own. I currently have a 20 gallon tank with only 2 gold fish in it and plan to slowly upgrade it as I go. To 30g then 50g up to 100g before creating a bigger tank. I am currently just researching larger tanks and what would be needed in creating one since the life support systems on some of the ones I've seen people make seem very technical and making a mistake could lead to the death of the fish in the tank.

I've seen some made from thick glass about 1/2 in thick.

Also maybe this is the link, Building My 50,000 Gallon Monster Mega Tank - MonsterFishKeepers.com

[andthentherewere3]

There is a site called monsterfishkeepers.com that discusses everything imaginable regarding large fish/fish tanks.

Oh wait, I just noticed the above member mentioned it. But that would be the best place to look for info.

[foxywench]

oh wow, thats even bigger than the one i saw, i couldnt imagine a tank that size.

honestly though with the cost of aquarium equiptment, if you want to go bigger id say go as big as you can afford as soon as you afford...
we played the small to bigger game when i was younger, starting with a 10 gallon and working up eventually to a 40 gal...but in the end we ened up with a small fortune worth of fishtank equiptment most of which was sitting unused because we didnt want 10 fishtanks all set up at once.
ende dup selling everything before we moved to the US...once here we wanted another fishtank but decided instead of making that same mistake we were just going to "go bigger" from the beginning. its saved us a fortune on equitment (costs more upfront of course...) we also got equiptment rated for tanks bigger than we planned incase we ever decide to go even bigger.

right now ive got my cichlids in a 39gal tall, but all the equiptment beyond the tank/hood/stand are rated for a tank up to 75 gals...
once i get my own place ill be on the look out for a 55 or 75 to set my cichlids up in and at least i can just transfere all my equiptment over (the 39 will eventually become a marine tank , i already have most of the equiptment i need for that lol and the tank is tall so perfect for settig up a small reef)
and we use my 55 (origionally my cichlid tank *grumbles*) as the over winter tank for my mums pond fish, its too small tank wise for the amount of fish in it but its just for the winter right now (hoping to make the pond larger this year and deeper and get a little pond heater so they can overwinter outside)
but the filtration on that tank will handle 200+ gallons.

i think going bigger NOW will save you money in the long run...if your planning a 500gal eventually
id make my next step a MINIMUM of a 55gallon tank, (a 125 would be even better) itll give you a much better idea of how to handle a larger tank...while still being easy to find all your needed equiptment (most pet stores stock or can easily get equiptment to handle up to 125gals...after that equiptment becomes harder to find...)

the biggest problem with a 500 gallon tank will be weight, this is why most giant tanks are done in acrylic or polymer based "glass" because the tank ends up about half (and often less than half) the weight of the same sized tank made out of glass...
MOST homes are NOT built in a way to sufficiently support the weight or a tank that large, especially if made out of glass.

i know a standard glass 180 gal aquarium weighs about 340lbs EMPTY, a 500gall glass aquarium would require thicker glass than a 180 so id say a good guestimate would be to to estimate a minimum of 1100lbs JUST for the tank.
then theres the cost of your stand unles it will be on the floor, plus the weight of your hood/lighting. so id say a minimum of 1500lbs right there...probably more as i dont think your want a simple wood stand for a tank that large...

then theres the weight of the water which weighs 8.5lbs per gallon, so right there is another 4250lbs...

then theres the weight of your filtration systems and additional equiptment so id say your now at about 6000lbs.

then theres substrate (you coudl go bare bottom to save weight but i hate bare bottom for display tanks lol) general rule of thumb is a minimum of 1lb substrate per gallon of water, so were now at 6500lbs.

then theres your deco...if your planning on doing driftwood, or rocks ect that will all add to the weight...too.

most homes floor joists wont support that kind of dead weight...do youd want a floor that is NOT joisted, youd essentially want a flat concrete reinforced floor to sit it on.

if you whent with acrylic youll end up at about 1/2 the weight of glass knocking you under 5750lbs...
but youll also pay about double the cost of glass...lol

definatly not a project for an apartment, older home, upper floor, ect..infact i think id probably want to build the house around a tank that size or build it its own room with specialized flooring lol.
and definatly not a project thats goign to be nice on your checking account lol...

would look fabulous though!

id LOVE a huge tank one day, but my max is 175gals LOL!

[rgomez912]

Thanks for the replays!! Just bought a desk from my local pet smart that is tested to hold up to a 80 gallon tank on top. The biggest they sell there is a 75 gallon tank that I will most likely get but I was also informed that another pet smart a few miles away has a 130 gallon tank but my stand would not be able to hold it

Now I just need to think on what kind of freshwater tropical fish to put in the 75 gallon I will be getting :s So many fish to choose from!!!

[foxywench]

what are you liking right now? anything color wise your like particularly, mabe an area you like.

my first suggeston would be to test your water, bigger tank means more water needed to top, if you want to be filling her up with your tap water knowing your NORMAL parameters will definatly be a big help. ph and hardness is what your looking at...

there are chemicals that can adjust your ph and hardness but honestly i dont like to use them, too much tweeking...
we have hard water ...so it was only natural to go with african cichlids...i dont have to worry about messing with chemicals to keep my fish alive...
if you have soft water with a more neutral ph you can go with south american fish...
it realy depends on what kind of tank you want to put together.

do you want a "natural" tank (meaning you pick a biome and base your fish selestion on that) or just a hey that fish is cool kind of tank...mabe you want to go with lots of small fish, or a couple of big fish ect...

big tanks are awesome because you seriously can do anything with them there perfect for going with some of the more interesting big fish...or going the opposite direction and doing large schools of brightly colored small fish, or a combiantion of the 2.

if you want fish with personality you cant beat cichlids...they actually come to the front when you walk in a room, my blood parrot likes his belly rubbed and all my cichlids eat form my hands. very personable...
but i also think in larger tanks the likes of a big ground of neon tetra looks stunning.

if you want something truly amaing and dont mind putting the time and money in Discus are the kings of the hobby, i dont think theres anything quite as stunning as a group of discus, and they are peacefull and absolutly just amazing, one of my favorite tanks was a discus tank with a school of 50 neon tetra, snakeskin discus, a group of 10 corydora and 2 bushy nose pleco and a group of 7 harlequin rasbora. i belive he also had a couple of sydontis in the tank too.
it was just fabulous and my dream one day is to have a discus tank but they are so delicate and incredibly expensive.

youll have to keep us updated on this one and provide lots of pictures as you go along...i love fishies and the bigger tanks are just stunning!

you MIGHT be able to bump up the stand you got to hold a little more weight with some additional support, if you know anyone that does carpenrty theyd be able to tell you if it can be reinforced enough to hold something larger...the other problem is also length and width of the stand.

also because of the weight, make sure its set up ideally against a weight bearing wall across multiple joinsts in the floor to distribute the weight
youll LOVE having a big tank once you get over the sensory overload of all the choices out there lol.

[rgomez912]

What I was planning on doing with a 500+ tank was to create a nice Reef system. I love the vivid colors a lot of fish have and would love a great selection of small and big fish which only a big tank can offer. I plan on adding plants to the tank and will hold off on getting the tank until I make a list of everything I will need. This tank is just the glass tank and top so I would need a list of heaters, filters, and so on...

I also will need a good water tester to find out what my local pH and hardness is. My local Pet Smart keeps all their tanks at a constant 8.0 pH so I might need to up my pH so the fish don't go into shock.

[foxywench]

oh a 500gal reef would be stunning! *drools*

if you want a reef look in the smaller tank look into the peacock cichlids, the males are amazingly colorfull (even with no females in the tank they stay in full color) very personable and unlike alot of african cichlids, they are generally quite peacefull (my 40 gal is supposed to be a male peacock tank but has become a mismosh cichlid tank as ive come across random cichlids that need my help. lol.

sand bottom, good HIB or canister filter (ive had better luck with HOB filtration) plenty of nice rocks, some nice plants here and there, either faux plants of make sure any plants are well anchored aroudn the rocks as cichlids like to dig lol
add a couple of sydontis catfish as scavenger/clean up crew (theres different types of sydontis, but there all pretty, peacefull and get along well with cichlids, and make croaky squeeky noises when removed from the water lol.

would definatly be able to give you the reef look without the equiptment that goes into a salt...

or you could say screw it since your starting form the bare bones anyway and turn this tank into a reef tank with the plans to upgrade to the 500 later. salt water is much easier to keep on the larger scale (anything over 55 gallons) depending on the kind of set up you want youd need good reef lighting if you plan to grow corals. and sump filtration system and a couple good powerheads, add a skimmer and tada...

it would definatly give you a feel for a salt tank, you could get some of your dream fish now (and have plenty of time to grow them to full size before upgrading the the 500gal) as well as baby corals...
then when your ready to go to the 500 gallon you could use the 75 gal which would be a healthy established tank to grow out frags for the big tank and even a frag/grow out tank to sell babies from your own corals, theres good money to be made on growing frags for re-sale. people want unusual and healthy corals and those can be hard to find in pet stores.

also in a 500gal i can imagine fish would be very happy and likely breed meaning your 75 gal would then also become a nursery tank

youve definatly got lots of options

[rgomez912]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUayfSruQu8

This is what got me started on wanting a reef system