So. What's the largest tank you could handle?

[celebrist]

My 450 is about the max I can keep while maintaining a semblance of domestic tranquility

 

[Ogertron3000]

I could go a bit bigger, maybe get my old 4x2x2 footer set up again but between work and family life i am happy with my 40G.
1 hour a week of water changing and maintenance to keep it looking good and a long slow stocking process of peaceful easy to keep fish is working for me at the moment. I am enjoying the hobby more than i have in a long time, nice and stress free.

 

[pacu mom]

For me, the limiting factors are:

4. Structural integrity of the house. I don't know how big of a tank could be placed on the poured slab in my basement, and don't want to find out the hard way. Ask an engineer, you say? Sure, go ahead; between covering their own asses, not knowing the details of my home's construction and simply disagreeing on the sum of 2 + 2, you will never get the same answer from any of them.

Big tanks definitely come with their own set of concerns. There was no way our big tank could go in our old house. We tore down the garage and built the fishroom by pouring a new slab over the old garage slab. An engineer drew up the plans. The area under the tank has extra rebar.


Someone mentioned being able to fit the tank through the door opening. We circumvented that by moving the stand and tank in before completing the walls. The tank will never leave the house. (the stand is constructed out of 3 1/2" tubular steel)

 

[ken31cay]

Big tanks definitely come with their own set of concerns. There was no way our big tank could go in our old house. We tore down the garage and built the fishroom by pouring a new slab over the old garage slab. An engineer drew up the plans. The area under the tank has extra rebar.
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If I had thought of this before I built my home I would probably have something similar to your in-wall setup. I only caught the fish keeping bug again in 2017 when my kids wanted and got a 55gal setup with glowing gravel substrate.

My current tanks are my limit and similar to jjohnwm my water changes for all three tanks are very simple; turn a valve to let water out (through a 1" bulkhead which ends up outside in my garden), turn a valve to let water in (water supply line which ends just above the full-tank water mark).

 

[krichardson]

Years ago I had an opportunity to grab a five hundred gallon tank at a great price but I let that slip through my fingers....at this point I doubt if I will ever get a tank of that size in the far future,it's about the biggest that I can make space for in my home....as for now,I am content to stay within the 265-300 gallon range.

 

[kno4te]

Think what I have now, 220g. Life ia catching up to me. I’ll live vicariously through the rest of the other members.

 

[Conchonius]

Well, I'm a renter in an extremely volatile economy - my country's fiscal troubles mean that two identical flats here may have vastly different prices, depending on how predatory the landlord wants to be, and it's common to move whenever you find a better deal. Consequently, I have to be ready to pack up my stuff at a moment's notice and don't see myself maintaining anything larger than a 75g. Perhaps in a decade or so I'll bite the bullet and buy a house, but until I commit, it's small tanks and small cats for me.

The flipside of playing musical chairs with houses is that there are a lot of cheap, lightly used second-hand tanks going around. If the opportunity presents, I can try out a 125g and sell it back at a small loss with the next move. Then again, my fish's activity levels vary from "pretend to be a log until nightfall, then pretend to be a log in a slightly different location" (plecos) to "only patrol the 1/4 of the tank that you know food comes from" (rainbow shark, which recently had a pretty nasty cyst but is seemingly on the mend and back at its usual antics now), so I'm not sure whether they'd even notice.