To begin I better explain by large I mean anything over about 4 foot in length. This is the beginnings of actually having to spend large amounts of time performing maintenance. Large aquariums also offer a few extra problems or opportunities depending on how you view them.

Firstly you need to ensure your water gets moved all over the tank. You can’t afford dead spots to build up forming pockets of decaying detritus otherwise your nitrates will rise.

So the addition of a few powerheads is pretty essential. In a marine tank if you have the money and expertise you can get into wave formation to move the water around, although this isn’t cheap. T

his can be done with computer controlled powerheads. Some freshwater fish and many corals don’t like being blasted by powerheads and there are powerheads that diffuse the water gently rather than in a straight jet of water.

You will need to make sure if you are pumping the water up from a sump that the pump can handle the back pressure of the column of water this is known as head pressure and is measured in height.

You need to be able to change and cope with moving large volumes of water. Large buckets, plastic garbage bins, a few extra powerheads or even the bathtub will all come in handy. You need to be able to treat large volumes of water either to remove chlorines and chloramines or to convert it into marine water if you are mixing up salts.

You may even want a direct water inlet via a tap in the same room as well as a connection to waste water so you aren’t carting five hundred litres around in a partial water change.

It would be so much more convenient for me to be able just to turn a tap and open my sump into the waste water connection than to siphon hundreds of liters out and carry it into the laundry to dump down the sink.

Water from freshwater tanks makes great fertilizer so don’t waste it, water your garden with it. Saltwater, on the other hand, can go straight down the sink. You might wish to consider that the floor will need to be protected from spillage.

You will need a small step ladder to get your arm to the bottom of the tank if you are short like me. You will want some tongs to reach in those really hard places. I like those long plastic ones they seem to work well.      

You will need to be prepared to get up to your armpits in water to clean the tank properly, spill water all over yourself and flood the room your tank is in every so often just for fun. It is more work but it is very worthwhile and enjoyable.