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Why are there no "monster" planted tanks ?

ian_m

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If you read various other forums, there are people out there making some quite massive aquariums in their houses (and sheds).

For example:
This 20 foot marine aquarium, 5,500 litre
UltimateReef.com - View Single Post - OMC: 20ft long x 2ft wide x 4ft high And 7ft x 7ft x 4ft Triton

or this 1,200 gallon
Dave's 1,200 gallon double reef drop off - UltimateReef.com

or even this 50,000 gallon (OK in the US, land is cheaper etc etc).
Building My 50,000 Gallon Monster Mega Tank

Why don't we not seeing massive planted tanks on this forum ?

Around 500 litre (Juwel 450) odd seems about the most common maximum on this forum ?

Is it because maintenance of a huge tank would become a full time job ?

Can't be water change issues as some of the marine tanks change 100's litres of RO water a day !!!!

Getting x10 filter flow and enough CO2 in the water becomes a major plumbing problem ?

Plant layout in a big tank will be an issue, tweaking plants will be hard in a deep tank.

Would need a tree as suitable aquarium wood ?

Any thoughts, I am awaiting to be corrected ?
 
they are doable but like you say maintenance would be massive and think that the nature of a planted tank means rescaping normally every year so cost of plants of a big tank would be unreal, where as marine tanks tend to be stocked and left.

Oliver Knott and Tom Barr also maintain some pretty large planted tanks, oliver's tanks can be seen on his facebook page.
Oliver Knott | Facebook



 
Personally, I'm not a millionaire, that's my reason. Not enough finances, nor time on my hands. However when I win the lottery ill journal my effort :)
 
If I had the money spare, I'd almost certainly do something like this, but as mentioned above, the outlay must be staggering. Plus I'm on a water meter :lol:.
 
If I had the money spare, I'd almost certainly do something like this, but as mentioned above, the outlay must be staggering. Plus I'm on a water meter :lol:.
If you had that much money & tank, water meter would be least of your costs.....

Actually 100litres of RO a day, assuming 4:1 waste -> 500litres a day @ about £4 per 1000litres on a meter is -> 500/1000 * 365 * 4 -> £730/year on water, which in the scheme of things is not too bad.

Compared to for example 20Kg of sea salt @ £50 will do 600 litres of salt water thus one year is -> 100/600 * 50 * 365 -> £3040/year in salt.....

Compared to typical Ferrari insurance of £20k/year....
 
also consider lighting for a massive planted tank. the higher the water column the more lighting intensity required for plants to thrive. Apart from the electricity cost, thats a massive amount of heat to dissipate.
 
I have owned a Big 400G fully planted tank in the past. And the costs can amount quickly when you are using that much electricity on a large tank. I admit that I went overboard on the filtration and lighting. And learnt alot from the experience.

Picture014_zpsbdabba3a.jpg
 
I guess there are about as much large planted tanks as reef tanks but not on this forum. I know a few on Dutch fora and maintain a 720L at my work at in a car showroom. My excuse is that the 250x100x72 I almost bought for a bargain, didn't fitted through my window (4th floor). But definitely will buy a bigger one when I buy my own place. That said, I'll probably keep a small 90cm high light tank as well because the big tank will definitely be low light because of the amount of maintenance.

This tank included sump willed with media for €750,-:
2yozaz5.jpg
 
I don't consider it a 'monster' but I previously had a 700l tank.​
The average house in the UK is tiny- Average Home Sizes Around the World | Apartment Therapy
Also, electricity is very expensive here so you would want to heat it with the boiler, I saw someone on Monsterfishkeepers do that before.​
There is also the fact that a lot of Americans have the 'bigger is better' perception which I actually respect in regards to fish keeping, however there is always someone who asks what the bare minimum size is for an Oscar etc no matter where you live.​
 
I think for normal people not so much into plants like us, a saltwater is more breathtaking, and that is why people with loads of money go for these aquariums and not a planted tank. I think marines are more commercial maybe because fish are more colourful and people are normally into fish and not so much plants.

Also Im sure there are less companies that build fresh water tanks for clients and many more salt water ones. This might be due to the demand, so not the cause but the effect.
 
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I am not where i want to be yet but my tank is 1500lit. Maintaining this as a high light/CO2 tank is not only expensive but takes a lot of time too. If i had wanted to stay in the high light side i would have had to change a lot (plumbing/filtering) as it was designed for discus. For now i reduced the light and try to get it full of low light plants but at 75 cm waterheight it's not that easy. See my journal.
 
I am not where i want to be yet but my tank is 1500lit. Maintaining this as a high light/CO2 tank is not only expensive but takes a lot of time too. If i had wanted to stay in the high light side i would have had to change a lot (plumbing/filtering) as it was designed for discus. For now i reduced the light and try to get it full of low light plants but at 75 cm waterheight it's not that easy. See my journal.

I think for this kind of tanks is when most things we just overlook become crucial. Like the question of: What if I dont do 50% wc weekly. Ive got to the conclusion that if you want to do less water changes all you can do is make your plants grow slower and this is not what we want specially in such a big tank.

By the way keep it up and posting on that big tank. If I have my own house one day Im sure Ill do something alike.

Good luck.
 
One of my dreams for after my pension still is a large greenhouse with orchids (i once had almost all Cattleya spp) and a large south american tank. Somewhere to sit and enjoy when it's cold outside, I love large greenhouses.
 
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