Estimate for automated 600 gallon reef

[andywar]

I just setup a 90 gal. buying everything new, brands included Red Sea, Ecotech, etc...
Spent $7K including livestock, and took advantage of "good" deals on-line.

[this is me]

50K easily.
For a tank this big. 10K will be spent on HVAC to keep the humidity down and as a temperature control.

[Mishri]

depends on where he lives.. here I could get away with a vent with a fan in it.. my basement doesn't get above 68 degrees even in the summer here (which is where my tank is).. I don't even have AC... dry climate also helps. backup generator for the whole house is between 2-4k (without installation cost). Also, cost of installation changes depending on region, even if I went with an over sized commercial grade AC it wouldn't cost 10k, about 5k here. centrail air conditioning here only costs 2k including install.

[Hal]

Having set up my 250g tank not too long ago for about $12K, I'd say you're looking at about $25K for a 600g. That assumes decent equipment bought new and that no HVAC changes are needed. Buy as much as you can on the 15% off sales that happen several times a year. If you have a online vendor that you like, call them up and negotiate a deal for everything.

I'd skip the Genesis Renu and spend that money on an Apex controller and DOS doser for automatic water changes. Same cost and you get a controller and waterchanger.

You're looking at a huge skimmer for a tank that size, and lots of lighting. I'd use 2-3 MP60's for in-tank circulation. I also recommend looking into algae scrubbers. There's two great threads stickied in the Advanced Topics section. It's a little expensive up front, but you eliminate the need to run GFO, which is expensive.

You didn't say what you're doing for location of your sump. If possible, do yourself a HUGE favor and put your equipment in the basement. You will thank me later.

I assume you're going to build a water mixing station. There's a great thread on those too.

[ClarkiiGriswald]

Originally Posted by RonMidtownStomp

You've received good answers so far. A lot of the budget comes down to your choices in equipment. I put together an old Geo skimmer for about $150 for my system. You could easily spend $3k on a skimmer for a 600 gallon system, or find something used on the dry good forum that would work just fine for $400.

600 gallons is a very large system and you could easily meet your requirements for much less money on a 300 gallon system. If you want bigger, then 600 gallons is a 96x48x30 aquarium. That's really, really big. A 96x36x24 aquarium is also really big at 360 gallons. The build cost would probably be about 30-50% the price for the 360. Even a 96x30x24 would be plenty of size for the fish that you want.

It's 8 LED fixtures, and again it's a question of whether you want to go with Ocean Revives at $160/each or Radions at $800 each. The difference is $4600. Will the Radions look better? A little bit. Is it worth $4600? I don't know. Is $4600 a lot of money to you?

If you are going to go with a 600 gallon tank and there is any way that you can do it as an island with center overflows like Socaltoaz' tank and mine, I can't recommend it enough. Being able to walk all of the way around a tank is a much different experience. If you want high end, look at Socaltoaz' build thread. He went with incredible equipment and did an awesome build. If you want budget, used equipment, pieced together .. look at mine!

Note that your coral list is pretty hardy and all what I consider beginner corals. They are going to be really forgiving and if you're going to spend the money to have a high end system, you could easily expand that coral list.

What I'm most interested in is having a stable system that is large enough to allow these fish to comfortably live and grow properly. What length of 300 gallon would you recommend?

[mike810]

I highly suggest you take the time to do research yourself. Building a tank this big takes a lot of planning. I spent several months researching tank builders, sumps and equipment. I just setup a 8x3x2 tank and will have some of the fishes you listed but plenty more and I am sure they will be comfortable.

i automated everything for this tank so I can spend more time enjoying it rather then working on it. All top notch brand new equipment. I easily spent more than 30k. The tank and stand alone was 11k. Royal exclusive sump, skimmer, pumps, media reactors, ato container and dosing containers, another 7k.

It is more satisfying to research and build your own tank so you know all the ins and outs rather then Relying on a lfs to spec and build a tank for you. I just want to clarify that I don't actually mean you build your own glass tank. Just take the time to spec things the way you want with the equipment you want.

[jccaclimber]

I just got water in my 600 today, although the tank is not ready by any means. We were talking about what we would charge to put this up for someone else and estimated between $60k and $100k. I'm doing it all myself and will be under 10k, possibly under 5k. That said, the tank was free (needed a repair), I made the stand, I'm doing all the work myself (with free help from fish friends), most of the rock was bought locally (under $1/pound average), and the fuge will be lit with sunlight. I don't have the "making the stand pretty" cost accounted for yet as I'm not sure how I want to do that/who I want to hire/exactly what I want it to look like). This does not include livestock.

Fortunately most of my equipment came used, but had it not been I'd be down $8k just in lights for the display.

Some things to keep in mind, and research/decide for yourself.
1) Do you want an acrylic or glass tank? This is a big decision. If it's acrylic you will deal with looking at or removing scratches at some point and you can't just razor blade off the coraline. If you move glass, you don't just pick it up and move it.

2) Moving a tank of that size may not be a trivial task. I've moved my 300 on to a stand with one other person (96x24x30, 3/4 acrylic). On the other hand, I had 14 people, 12 of whom are full time roofers, try to move my 600 20 feet across the yard and we couldn't get it off the ground. Of course it's 3/4 glass and has permanent rockwork on 3 sides.

3) Maintenance can go two ways. If you are the sort that changes 25% of the water twice monthly you could easily be spending $400+ per month just on water. No lids and yes, evaporation will be huge. On the other hand, you could have a huge sump with macro to suck out the nutrients, maybe use a denitrator, dose, and change 0 gallons per month. Of course that equipment has a different set of short and long term costs. Put lids on all of that and not only are you cutting down on top off water but your A/C bill will thank you.

4) Account for food in your bills. I used to feed pellets and was quite happy. I added a tang (170 gallon) and so I added nori (I get this at H-Mart). I started experimenting with frozen foods in place of pellets and have discovered that I'm much happier with how my fish look on the frozen diet, but it means with my fish load I could easily spend $50/month on food.

Fish are:
1) Desjardini, 6" tall
2) Flame angel
3-4) Pair of ocellaris clowns
5) Mandarin (lives off of pods in the tank)
6) Pink spotted watchman
7-10) Four blue chromis

[RonMidtownStomp]

Dimensions are such a personal choice.. I would like 8x3x2 but you might prefer 8x2x3. You really have to see tanks and decide what you like.

[reefzone123]

love the fish and coral list. should come together brilliantly.

[reefzone123]

I say just go for it. GL