How many tanks is "too" many?

[Stang67]

So, I have been thinking about starting another tank and I just need some validation from others in the hobby. I currently run a 40g Nem tank in my home office, 180g mixed reef in the living room and a 40g FW planted guppy tank in the dining room. I want to add a 150g FOWLR to the living room as well. I don't know whether this makes me a "crazy fish lady" like my man thinks I am or not. I am 95% sure it's going to happen I just need that "encouragement" to enable me to blame you all when things go sideways. Which they somehow always do. Thanks for playing.

 

[fishguy242]

One can never have too many tanks...

 

[AlyciaMarie]

 

[Nano_Man]

When it becomes a lot of work
You should have time to sit back and enjoy your reefs . But if you can afford your salt bill and everything else. Maybe you need to buy a fish shop.

 

[kvansloo]

How many tanks is "too" many?​

Is this really an issue or a thing?

 

[paragrouper]

How many:

Me: as dictated by space and resources—maybe another will fit.
My wife: 1 is enough

 

[Lavey29]

When you get served with divorce papers.

 

[GARRIGA]

Having taken cared of a fish room and large collection of snakes. My available time dictates how many anything vs space available and a few larger tanks easier to manage then more smaller taking up same amount of space.

 

[JoJosReef]

If anything I'd say you have too few tanks. And don't worry about the Crazy Fish Lady moniker. That holds water about as well as a Gen 1 Red Sea tank. As long as you're not sitting in front of your tanks conversing with yiur fish... Oh...

 

[Reefer Matt]

I have five myself. Cycling a sixth. I stopped making display tanks and just do frag tanks now. This allows me to have more coral, as I collect them. Only drawback is no vacations longer than three days. I think every Reefer should follow what their budget, accommodations, and time allow. Then proceed accordingly as long as the maintenance gets done. But no such thing as too many tanks to me! Lol!

 

[Luigi Reefs]

The best way to answer this is to ask yourself, when life gets tough, could you properly take care of all the animals in your charge?

Sure, it is easy to take care of 15 tanks when life is good, but what happens when life, inevitably, kicks you in the face? Will you be able to look after everything with a sick kid? Or a sick parent in the hospital? Or when work gets overbearing, and you are coming home late at night for months at a time? Things happen all the time in life. And unexpectedly. People often don’t think about when things get rough.

If the answer is “Yes, I have the right amount of support to help me in those situations”, then keep it going. However, if you had to pause and think about it, then perhaps adding more responsibilities may not be the best choice at that moment.

Just my thoughts on this anyway.

 

[F i s h y]

MTS is a real thing. (Multiple Tank Syndrome)
There is a support group.
We meet once a month, it is not anonymous.

That being said, as someone that has gone from 1 tank to many tanks (at one point more than 7 or 8) and now at 2, if my clownfish grow out tank is included, there was a point that I got to where it just wasn't fun anymore. I was spending way more time trying to keep up with the tanks than I was enjoying them. I decided at that time i was only going to have my reef. Then my clowns had to lay eggs and I had to try to raise some. So up goes another tank. @Mrs.F i s h y wants Jellies and Sea horses at some point. So I see more in my future.

 

[RSNJReef]

I had 7 tanks going at one time before my wife and. I had the talk that this is too much, and she was right. Now I set it up as 3 systems with one doing automatic water changes on its own. She’s ok with that now because she knows that between her, the kids, and the tanks, they are my outlet for peace, so she willingly supports it.

Like others said, it depends on how much time you spend enjoying the tanks versus how much time you work on it. If you barely have time to enjoy your tanks now, skip the new one.

I’d recommend if you are going to set it up, spend the extra money to make it as self sustaining as possible (if it’s a fowlr, overdo it a bit on the filtration so you don’t have to do water changes as much).

This is a hobby, but if it becomes a burden, then, what’s the point?

 

[vabben]

I have 3 running, 120 DT, 60 Frag, 40 holding tank. I just acquired a 90 gallon and sumps in a breakdown that are currently soaking in citric acid.

I'm thinking about adding the livestock from my 40 to my 60 to eliminate one tanks worth of maintenance. The 40 currently has a pair of clowns, one damsel, and a small snowflake eel that all came from the local Petco selling all their livestock at 75% off due to updating their fish section. Or maybe keep the 90 and shut down the 40....

 

[Stang67]

MTS is a real thing. (Multiple Tank Syndrome)
There is a support group.
We meet once a month, it is not anonymous.

That being said, as someone that has gone from 1 tank to many tanks (at one point more than 7 or 8) and now at 2, if my clownfish grow out tank is included, there was a point that I got to where it just wasn't fun anymore. I was spending way more time trying to keep up with the tanks than I was enjoying them. I decided at that time i was only going to have my reef. Then my clowns had to lay eggs and I had to try to raise some. So up goes another tank. @Mrs.F i s h y wants Jellies and Sea horses at some point. So I see more in my future.

Vicious cycle.

 

[Stang67]

I have 3 running, 120 DT, 60 Frag, 40 holding tank. I just acquired a 90 gallon and sumps in a breakdown that are currently soaking in citric acid.

I'm thinking about adding the livestock from my 40 to my 60 to eliminate one tanks worth of maintenance. The 40 currently has a pair of clowns, one damsel, and a small snowflake eel that all came from the local Petco selling all their livestock at 75% off due to updating their fish section. Or maybe keep the 90 and shut down the 40....

Thinking may break down the office tank myself.

 

[Mschmidt]

Location and tying them together plays for me too. At one point I had 8, most freshwater. the system became drag the syphon outside and drain them all out there, drag the hose in the house and refill adding water conditioner. feel bad because it's the winter and the water from the hose is 50 degrees. If one water change, doser setup, ato... covered 3 displays, or a display and a frag tank that would be a different story from three systems.

Now down to 3, up from it's 5-year low of 2. FW, except for (quarterly) water changes and top offs (probably should scrape the glass at some point) is automatic, feeding, lights, co2 if i get that working again.
Reef is as automated as the budget allows. I have added a nem tank next to the reef so water changes go from the nems to a bucket, refill the nems from the reef, refill the reef. I was planning an office frag tank for a while, have all the parts, just never got it wet. It would have been too much to remember, no ato, no dosers and I'm not in the room every day, so feeding would be when I remember.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

You can always make room for one more tank.

 

[Extremeengineer]

The struggle is real I have one tank now, a 75g, but I've already measured and am logging what I need for a 150 to go in the same place, as the fish I want don't humanely fit in a 75 lol. So then I thought a lot about the 75, and decided that I should not keep that running, I will move what I can equipment wise, and then get rid of the 75. I do think that keeping a small AIO somewhere, like maybe the Nano XL, is in the cards however lol. For me, and the OCD maintenance I do, the time for many tanks would just be too much, and I don't think I would enjoy it. If I go on vacation, I need a simplistic plan for the house sitter, not a complex set of instructions for each tank, so I think for me 2 is the manageable number at this point in life, one bigger, one smaller.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Currently 4. And honestly I'd do more of i had the space. So many cool things don't mix well together so to have them all you need separate setups. Would definitely set up another if a good deal on a bigger tank came my way. I'm always scouting.

I really dont get throttled by my hubs in terms of money spent, he knows I'm a budget/diy gal and I hate overspending. Nothing to do with him, that's just me. The other day we were talking numbers on his "hobbies", so let's just say I absolutely do not feel bad about buying fish and coral, lol.