Any saltwater aquarium folks here?

[Hawgman]

Ok, so this is my other big money habit..uh..I mean hobby. Salt water aquariums. Specifically reef tanks. At one point in time my dining room was nothing but tanks. But it finally got to be a pain in the ass to keep up with so I consolidated everything down to one tank.

The current setup is a custom built tank. Made out of 3/4" Starphire glass. It is 48" wide, 36" deep, 36" tall, 200 gallons. I wanted to basically have a big cube. Running 800 watts of metal halide lighting. Has a 2400gph closed loop system for circulation, and 1300gph on the filtration pump. And yes.. it eats some electricity! In fact, it has it's own cooling system. Has a 1/3hp chiller system that water pumps through to keep the tempature at 79 degrees constantly.

Anyway, here are a few (actually probably way too many) pics.

Here is the tank itself. Actually looks quite different now as you will see in some of the later pictures. This was day 1 when I transferred everything that I was going to keep out of the other tanks in to the new setup.

Here are a couple of shots of some of the plumbing underneath. Yes, it is a maze of PVC

And here are some shots of the residence.

My herd of clams...

My camera is far from being the greatest in the world, but this is my attempt at doing some macro photography

This guy here is one of my favorite animals in the tank. This is a Queen Conch that I have had since it was about the size of a dime. Currently it is about 5 inches long.

Much dig my aquarium. Spend more time watching it than I do TV. It is extremely relaxing to say the least. Of course when something goes wrong it is also one of the most stressful hobbies I have ever had!

 

[don_w]

Damn you Doc!!! I just looked at all those pics about 3 times, and now I'm looking over my new house floor plans to see if I can put one of those somewhere. Pretty kewl...

Quick... tell me how much fukkin money it would cost me so I can change my mind.

 

[SixtySix]

Quick... tell me how much fukkin money it would cost me so I can change my mind.

Thousands Don, Thousands. Lot's of maintenance and more money....
800 watts of juice running all the time ain't exactly cheap either...
Did that deter you Don?

 

[echoinsilence]

Thousands Don, Thousands. Lot's of maintenance and more money....
800 watts of juice running all the time ain't exactly cheap either...
Did that deter you Don?

It sure deterred me, but that is really cool, I wouldn't mind doing something similar someday

 

[Hawgman]

The tank cost me about a hundred bucks a month in electricity. And yes, that is a realistic amount of what it actually cost, determined two different ways. First by calculating the power draw of each piece of equipment and multiplying that by the amount of time each piece of equipment runs, multiplying that amount by my per kwh charge. Then just to see I also bought one of those devices that you plug in the wall then plug something in to, put in your electric rate, let it run for 24 hours, and see how much it draws. Both methods came out REAL close to the same.

The instant chunk of cash comes from the initial setup. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of $3000 in the equipment alone. All of which has to be in place before you start populating the tank. Obviously this can vary depending on what size setup you want, and what you intend on keeping in it. If you want to go with a reef tank, it is going to cost you more than if you wanted to go with a fish only tank, or a fish and live rock tank. Because lighting requirements, water circulation requirements, and temperature requirements are quite different for a reef than they are for just fish.

Last is the livestock. Again, just depends on what you want as to how much to spend. If you are doing fish then it is not too bad. Don't get me wrong, there are fish that costs hundreds of dollars a piece. But it is still cheap depending on how many you end up with. Coral on the other hand, that shit is expensive. To give you an idea, my clams were around $65 a piece. Got them when they were only about 3". And they are of the "medium" price variety. There are pieces in my tank I paid over a hundred bucks for, there are pieces in there I paid 20 bucks for. But the one thing about a reef is you only add things one or two pieces at a time, and you wait a month or so between additions. So the cost to populate a reef tank doesn't seem quite so bad since it is spread out. Add it up in the end and it scares the hell out of you though!

Maintenance is pretty simple. It's an eco system. You get it set up and the best thing you can do to it once it is balanced is leave it the hell alone.

 

[Buckman]

Nice setup you have. I used to raise/breed/sell African Cichlids and got to the point of having 10+ tanks. The showcase was a custom built 400 gallon tank.
It got to the point where it no longer felt like a hobby, but a chore, so eventually sold everything off.
A saltwater setup is another beast entirely, and a properly setup tank takes a ton of preparation, patience and skill.
Kudos to you, it is a GREAT looking setup.

 

[don_w]

OK... not sure I want to invest that kind of money into it. Maybe I'll just have hawg set up a videocam, and send me about a 2-hour DVD. Then I'll put it up on the plasma.

 

[Hawgman]

OK... not sure I want to invest that kind of money into it. Maybe I'll just have hawg set up a videocam, and send me about a 2-hour DVD. Then I'll put it up on the plasma.

hehe.. kinda like the yule log DVDs that people who don't have a fireplace play at Christmas

 

[LAK3RS]

Seeing that in person was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen! Those pics don't even compare to what it really looks like! It's soo sick, everything in his tank is alive, everything!!!

 

[WELLS]

Hawg My Buddy Phil Has A Pool In His Basement With 2 Sharks Lol His Dad Spends Over 100k A Year On Their Salt Water Tanks And Keeping Up The Shark Tank Ill Have To Ask Him What Type Of Sharks They Are. Salt Water Tanks Are Bad Ass Though.

 

[don_w]

hehe.. kinda like the yule log DVDs that people who don't have a fireplace play at Christmas

I have one of those DVDs, too.

Hawg My Buddy Phil Has A Pool In His Basement With 2 Sharks Lol His Dad Spends Over 100k A Year On Their Salt Water Tanks And Keeping Up The Shark Tank Ill Have To Ask Him What Type Of Sharks They Are. Salt Water Tanks Are Bad Ass Though.

Frikkin sharks with frikkin lasers on their heads...

BTW...




:worth: Show us the sharks!

 

[TexasKyle]

Frikkin sharks with frikkin lasers on their heads...

 

[Hawgman]

 

[WELLS]

Ill Have To See About That The Next Time I Go With Him To His Parents House. They Live In Overland Park Ks Though. They Are Only Like Maybe 3 Ft. Long Though Still Fucking Cool Though.

 

[Hawgman]

I've been to Sprint Central several times. Have friends that work there. Actually I have friends scattered pretty much all over Kansas.

 

[don_w]

Actually I have friends scattered pretty much all over Kansas.

Damn tornadoes...

 

[Dex]

Ill Have To See About That The Next Time I Go With Him To His Parents House. They Live In Overland Park Ks Though. They Are Only Like Maybe 3 Ft. Long Though Still Fucking Cool Though.

Thats where I lived in Kansas.

Nice setup Hawg. I've always wanted to do something like that.

 

[Black_GT]

That's a sweet set up. All I have is a turtle and fish in a 20 gal.
Your tank>my tank.

 

[08GOGT]

Damn tornadoes...

 

[ZmanM3]

The ex had a salt water tank with coral. It was pretty sweet but again expensive. That and I couldn't convince her to get a shark for it. It would have been cool watching a shark eat the other fish.