Cost to build large tank?

So a friend of mine is enamored of my 58 reef I've started to set up. He built his house about 10 years ago with a large in wall tank area, but didn't have the time or money to put the tank in. Now he's well settled and wants to procede. The dimensions allow for a ~450-475g tank, 12' long 30" deep, 20-24" wide. he's been asking me to find him some ball-park figures for a complete system.

Glass or acrylic front, but we're gonna do the back wall, one end, and the bottom in CMU block. I'm not sure what to line with, any suggestions? I was thinking a good 100% solids epoxy resin, maybe even face it with glass/acrylic sheet. We're both competent builders, so this is just for material costs.

As for stocking, that's not part of the estimate I was asked for. He's experienced in keeping a FO marine tank and will probably end up with a ray/shark tank, but who knows.... he just wants to get the tank in this summer.

Any figures would be greatly appreciated.

-Doug

 

Tank: Don't know----in the thousands
Skimmer: Easily in the thousands
Base rock: three or four thousand tops
Sand: A lot.
Lighting: Oh my Lord, I am having heart palpitations just thinking about it. Thousands.

Total: A heart attack.

 

Oh...I forgot the sump/fuge system. Much more......

There is a guy that has a 600g system on 3reef I will try to find. Lots of pics. His total water volume I think is around 1200g. But that would give a good idea of the complexity. His was really cool. Could be made simpler I presume. Don't know.....Biggest tank I ever had was (is) 90g.

 

and the on going costs, chems, salts, electricity etc etc

 

Here is the thread I was looking for. It is amazing.....

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/first-reef-tank-ever-600gal-display-1300gal-system-41056.html

 

I would be more concerned with ongoing costs, like electricity. Just running the lights on a reef compared to a FOWLR is huge, on a tank that big it would be pretty easy to put 5-6 400 watt metal halides maybe with a bunch of T5 supplements that's a few thousand watts of light only. Over the course of a few years I bet it could easily outweigh the initial setup cost.

Depends what he wants to keep though. Keeping up with ca/alk/mg, not to mention salt for water changes is another big one which was already mentioned and is hard to say without knowing exactly what he wants to keep. I would definitely get in touch with someone who runs a large tank directly, everything else is just speculation, maybe check the build threads.

 

Hey guys, believe, build a tank here in Brazil is much more expensive than USA.

I think the costs is worse with lighting and filtration.


Hug

 

A S@%T LOAD!!!! BE PREPAIRED FOR THE SHOCK OF YOUR LIFE!
before you tell him though, make sure that he has taken his blood psi meds

 

minimum set up at least 8-10k

 

Just on a build, if done properly, I would say in the neighborhood of $15-$20,000