One huge tank, or several small ones?

[kerisb]

Not sure which way to go!!   I see many people have several tanks....and many have many many tanks!!     I have a 80 gal hexagon, a 40 gallon bow front, and a 40 gallon 5 sided corner tank.    My dilemma is I have three tanks in three different rooms........nice that there is a tank in each room...........however.....kinda hard to look at all three!       Not to mention I am finding three tanks alot of work and testing and so on!

I am thinking of getting one huge tank...........say over 100 gallons and maybe keeping the 80 gallon hex or the 40 gallon bowfront.

Just wondering there must be people in here that have gone through the same thing...........which way did you decide and how did it turn out for you?

My fish are.......oscars, jack dempseys, parrots, angels, clown loaches, crayfish, and numerous breeding  fishes for feeding........if I can bring myself to feed a pet to a pet!!

Any answers or ideas would be greatly appreciated........... I am currently looking at a 90 gal, 110 gal or a 135 gal !!!   oh yeah and I do have a lead on a 500 gallon...........but hh not sure my floors will hold it lol.

[nissannx]

I'm hoping to go the other way. I had many medium tanks then i switched to a big tank now im looking at going to a wall of small tanks. I am more interested in keeping species specific tanks now then a community tank

[Heidi]

We had numerous tanks ranging from medium (33 gal) to large (120). Then my hubby wanted to go Marine sooooo now we have 1 120 reef, 1 33 gal reef, 55 gal quarantine, extra live rock tank.  I too found it alot of work having numerous tanks and their up keep.  Only having 2 main tanks and 1 hidden tank is much easier to maintain.

[jetstream]

If you want a focal point in your living room, a big huge show tank is nice. If you want to breed different kinds of fishes, then you better go for smaller tanks. Lots of our club members have many big and small tanks. You'll find youself got infected by MTS virus if you joined OVAS too long! 

Cheers

[soleil1980]

Well, when I moved into my house I got a 125g for my living room...  not a year later I ended up buying a 110g for my bedroom lol  multiple tank syndrome ...  haha.  If you plan on keeping your oscars and jack dempsey you will need a huge tank!  I would recommend, if you buy the 500g to put it in the basement... I don't think any type of floors would support that. 
Good luck!

[kerisb]

MTS let me see are these some of the symptoms
  Spending more time with my fish than any other member of the family.
  Constantly worrying about how the fish and tanks are doing.
  Always scanning adds looking for another tank.
  hahaha measuring wall spaces to see if another tank could fit!!

For sure I want to keep at least one of the Oscars............but may end up getting rid of the other two and also probably getting rid of the jack dempseys!

Hahah yeah the 500 gallon is a definite NOOOOOO..........anything that goes into our basement gets neglected for years lol.

Would ideally maybe like 2 tanks around 100 gallons each..............one for the Oscar and whoever can get along with him, and one for the fish that don't get along with him...........as far as breeding..............if babies come along then they do....if they don't no big deal!!

[Fishnut]

LOL...I bet you'll buy your 2 100 gallon tanks, then find a reason to keep the others going and stocked with fish.

My biggest tank is a 180...which is housing my koi over the winter.  When their new home outside is built this spring, that 180 is going to be the focal point of our rec room...whenever we get around to renovating .

My smallest tank is a 5 gallon...I have 5 of them actually because I wanted to keep pairs of small species.

[sas]

Well you are certainly in the right spot on this site, no one on here will tell you
it's not a good idea to have multiple tanks . Especially one in every room of the house.
From what I can see most people get into this hobby heavily at first and then slowly get
down from multiple tanks to a few favourites.
Here's another point to ad to your MTS list, Do you make sure the tanks are in top
shape, (never mind the housecleaning) before company comes over.
You keep numerous packages of frozen fish food  in the freezer.
You get truly stoked when you spot eggs or new fry in a tank.

If you truly have MTS severely you set up a fish room, and spend all your time
in it.

Have fun that's the most important point, once caring for tanks becomes a chore
you'll quickly grow tired of them.

[asmackay]

I found fewer bigger tanks easier to maintain.  started with 45G, bought 75G then sold 45G and bought 220G and kept the 75G.  I find bigger is easier to maintain and attracts a lot of attention in the living room. 

[Blackstitch]

The biggest that I have is a 65 gallon, which has my cichlids in. The others are a 28 saltwater, a  25 gallon tropical, and a 10 gallon which has my cichlid babies in it. Just to think that it all started for me with one tank almost 20 years ago.

[kerisb]

Well think I have settled on 2- 80 gallon tanks, probably getting rid of my jack dempseys ( one is picking on the other real bad also).

May also get rid of one or two of my oscars (two of them get along well but the third one gets picked on alot and that one will not fight back at all).

For sure will be getting rid of one of my 40 gallons............but not so sure about getting rid of the bow front one.....it is a gorgeous tank!!!


Would have preferred a bigger than 80 gallon tank............but don't want to spend a fortune and finding it hard to find a big tank with a nice stand...........they all seem to have metal stands with four legs on them and I don't want all the weight bearing on 4 points on my floors.

[dpatte]

if its for display, get the bigest tank you can afford.
if its for breeding - choose many smaller tanks the same size - its easier to maintain
keep a few smaller tanks for emergencies / quarantine / etc.

Check my list of tanks below. Yes, I have a few show tanks.

[kerisb]

OMG how do you ever have enough time for all these tanks.    I only have the three and my husband complains about the time I spend on them.             

LOL I beleive you have a text book case of MTS!!!!!

[mike1567]

that is hard to answer as  i hard may small thank (10 to 40 gals) and  then i went out an bought a 200 gal tank, loved it, it's sitting in the living room working great, the bala sharks grew to over 8 inches long,the pleco is 14 inches, the siliver dollars were the size of my hand  etc .....

its been 8 or 9 years, the tank is still in the livingroom (unmoved), and still full of smaller fishes (kribs, parrots, barbs, pleco, etc) nice big community tank,
Once the 200gal was setup I then setup up all the smaller tanks (plus some) i have they were setup in the hallway, and have notice over the last couple few years that i spend more time and get more enjoyment out of the those tanks than the big one

would i do it again ? ... definitely!

[dpatte]

Larger tanks take less time, but it does need a schedule. I do general maintenance on 3 smaller, or 1 large tank per day (about 45 minutes). If i lose my schedule, though, then it takes me a week of dedicated work (about 3 hours per day) to catch up.

OMG how do you ever have enough time for all these tanks.    I only have the three and my husband complains about the time I spend on them.            

LOL I beleive you have a text book case of MTS!!!!!