Very nice tank,I envy you a lot. I read an earlier post about this kind of tank costing a lot to build in Singapore, if you think Singapore is expensive try living in Japan, the cost of anything is phenomenal and I would think a tank would cost almost half a mil over here, also not to mention the cost of electricity here(so I will say again I envy you). I am building a 10,000g+ tank, it will probably be less than 20,000g, but I really am interested in your filter. How many g/h do you turn over? What do you use as a biological filter? Cheers.
Building My 50,000 Gallon Monster Mega Tank
- Thread starter arapaimag
- Start date
Thank you for your replyashdavid said:
I really do believe you about Japan being expensive (I learned a lot about the fact that Toyko is the most expensive city to live in the world, since my last girlfriend lives there).
I am very happy for you and your fish that you are building such a big tank
. This is a fantastic site because so many people are willing to provide suitable sized tanks for their Monster fish. 
Have you seen Frank in the Netherlands tank and his friends 3 biggies? Go to my basketball teams website for his tremendous website of tanks from 550 gallon to 26,500 gallons. look at the bottom of the index on the left side www.spitfirechallenge.ca How much do you pay for a litre of gas? kw of electricity?
John MFK with the 2,400 gallon arapaima tank, Zoodiver - Matt MFK and Frank from the Netherlands have far more knowledge in filtration than I do. I strongly recommend to anyone asking about filtration information to contact their websites or MFK for advice. They are avid hobbyists who go out of their way to be helpful.
My big tank has a low fish density and the 28,000 lbs of lava rock really assist the natural biological filtration. The pictures shown now only show a fraction of the Lava rock. I will give MFK some more pics in the future. I provide 10,000 gallon weekly water changes and I use a 600 lb sand filter (swimming pool with a 3 hp pump) and a high pressure air line at the 9 foot deep level.
By not feeding too often my tank can actually exist without any filtration from the sand filter at all. I have monitored my tank for a full 365 day period without any filtration. Just the airstone running. The fish were fine and I saved $1,200 in that period on the electricity bill by not running that particular pump & filter. The water was never as clear as Franks or Johns tanks but all my fish hobbyist friends found it was fine. Ad Koning and Stuart Grant both visited and operated a friends (Wai Hing Lam) submersible remote control dual vhs camera submarine in my big tank and the water was clear.
My 15K tank can not be left more than 4 weeks without running the filter (also a 600 lb sand filter with a 2 hp pump). The tank was not overstocked the first 3 years but now many of the fish have grown between 18" to 36" and it is now overstocked. SimonL a MFK member and a friend of mine is going into the tank and catch a couple of dozen in the late spring of 2006 to reduce the fish load. Over the summer I will put them outside in my outdoor ponds. I run a high pressure air line at 6 foot deep at all times. I give 4,000 gallon water changes on this one.
My electricity bill runs up to $1,200 a month to run my 123 tanks, heaters, lights (I use full spectrum with ultraviolet on most of my tanks and tropical birds), many pumps, 2 freezers and 3 fridges required to hold the approx 1400 pounds of frozen food I need to feed them. I also have several ponds one of which has a waterfall that is only 7 foot high but stretches across the pond about 60 to 70 feet and has 4 large pumps running the waterfalls. Due to the cost of running so many pumps (up to 3hp each) on this pond I have kept the number of hours they operate down.
My oil requirements to heat the tanks and water changes also run about $1,200 a month (before the oil price hike). Due to torn rotator cuffs from sport injuries I will reduce the number tanks by 70 smaller ones and add a few more 180's. So the hydro usage will probably be lower slightly due to decrease in lights required. My total gallonage in my 4 fishrooms will be reduced to about 76,000 total gallons.
A lot of people might think this is expensive but I used to ride & race motorcycles (not professionally) and spent a lot more on that hobby than this one.
I also have reduced the amount of light to my tanks because most of my big fish do not like bright light. Hobbyists tend to forget that many of the fish we keep come from sources covered by jungles or black tanic induced water, where the fish don't get much light. They really are uncomfortable in the bright light that many hobbyists provide them with. I plan to write an article on how fish eyesight differs from human eyesight in the future and why many fish prefer low level lighting.
I hope this helps you
Best of luck on building your new tank. Please write an article for Trust and Neoprodigy so that more MFK members will be inspired to also build large tanks for their fish. Thanks again to the founders of this great website
Please keep me updated on your progress of your new tank
nice!! what else can you ask for?Gas is too expensive and electricity is about 30 cents kw/h and with that my electric bill is about $700-900 a month. I already have a 1850g tank and with the filter included would be about the same amount of gallons as Johns arapamia tank at 2400g.arapaimag said:
I currently have two 900lbs sand filters (triton , imported from the states),I replaced the sand with filter media, plus I have a big sump that runs a few pumps as well. So I was surprised when your site only showed one sand filter as filtration.
I have seen franks site and I am waiting for that big tank to be finished so as I can see the filter that they are using. Anyway thanks for the help and I hope to see more pics from your tanks.
Well, that was a very humbling experience. Amazing is an understatement. What words can I describe seeing that tank. Not only am I humbled, I am also very jealous. Makes me want to tap into my retirement account, and some S&P investments. SIGH...It's very nice to "know" someone who has a fish tank attached to his house. Already showed it to my wife, she was just in awe just as I am.
How long did it take before the rust started setting in? What are your plans on preventing it from getting worse?
That is one inspiring setup.
:bowdown:
How long did it take before the rust started setting in? What are your plans on preventing it from getting worse?
That is one inspiring setup.
:bowdown:
Especially the part about having a hundred other tanks besides the megas 
WOW, what kind of fish do you have in there?
I see what looks like a tiger shovel nose and a few pacus and possibly a giant gourami.
I see what looks like a tiger shovel nose and a few pacus and possibly a giant gourami.
