Future reef tank

[trido]

It will be a while before I actually get it, but since I'm asking vendors and dreaming about it. I thought I'd ask for opinions. Since all of my ballasts are less than two years old and my pendants are DE, Im not willing to upgrade to 400s. I have a mixed reef but mostly like SPS.

Im trying to decide whether to get a 24" tall or 29-30" tall tank.
What would you do?

 

[Anonymous]

I vote C. Get a 220 wide. it is 72x30x24 (LxWxH). If you are going to get it custon built you could possibly go a bit taller and longer and still use 2 250's. My tank is 54x26x26 and is lit with two 250's.

 

[trido]

I onlyh wish I could go wider rather than deeper. It would interfere with the general function of our laundry room so its not an option.

 

[Anonymous]

You could do the 30 deep, but you will have to realize your limitations on the last 6". I'm to short for a 30 tall tank. I had one and could not reach the bottom with out taking off my shirt and getting wet to my chest. Once or twice I had to stick my face in the tank to reach something that was way in the back. For me 26" is the deepest I will ever go. I can just reach the bottom and I can keep SPS at the bottom, just not the super light demanding ones.

 

[mr_X]

i wouldn't go 30 inches deep. forget the halides reaching...what about your arms reaching! my tank is 25 deep, and if i had it over again, i would have made it a couple inches shallower, and 3 feet from front to back.

 

[Anonymous]

i'd go 30" front to back. don't you have a saw to move the wall?

B

 

[tinyreef]

go with the bigger. more viewing area, more volume, more goodies. 8)

i wouldn't worry too much on the light penetration. not so much that it isn't true but there's nothing wrong with having various degrees of light intensity on the reef.

otoh, the dealbreaker for that would be if you for some reason MUST have some type of light intensive livestock that HAS to stay on the sandbed, e.g. maxima or derasa clam, elegance, etc.. otherwise, just keep medium to low light livestock there.

as for the depth reach-wise, either use dowel rods, a gripper of some kind, or just get wet! i use stainless hemostats to handle most of my livestock anyways, even if they're just 6" below the waterline. the 24" hemostats should just about cover a 30" depth (taking into account the height of the sand and just getting a few inches into the tank).

but going bigger for your display tank is always a good idea ime. for niche stuff, office, nanos, species, etc. then it's whatever fits in the spot imo.

 

[trido]

i'd go 30" front to back. don't you have a saw to move the wall?

B

Oh ya!

Unfortunately I dont want to make 15' of hallway narrower as well. If it were just a tank room Id go deeper into it but I have to share it with my wife so she can do laundry. 24" plus CL plumbing is all I get from front to back.

 

[trido]

Thanks everyone. I likely wont get a custom tank because I will not get acrylic and I dont know of any reputable local glass tank builders. An external overflow would be nice but that again, is a custom build. At first I intended to buy a barebones AGA 180 and build my own coast to coast overflow on one end and then drill all of my bulkheads. After having a tank explode on me recently while drilling it, I have thought about the potential $600 mistake as well as the resale value of a customtank. I have decide to get a stock 72"x24" footprint with twin overflows. I dont want an AGA because of the overflow placement. I hate my 120 because IMO it really hinders any nice aquascaping potential and shoves all of the rockwork 6" forward. I cant see the AGA 180 bieng much better. A local reefer reminded me of the Perfecto tanks with corner overflows. IMO this will make for a much nicer stock tank look but I havent seen a 180 perfecto with overflows on line anywhere.

I have always told myself I would never get a tank deeper than 24" due to the swim factor of a 30" deep tank. If I have to in order to get corner overflows I will.

 

[pcardone]

my tank is 30 inch deep. my 250 works fine. It;s a hassel working on the bottom though not unmanageable,

 

[Entacmaea]

If you have the space, just get the stock glass tank and have it drilled at the top for 2-4 bulbheads for an external overflow- and build the overflow out of acrylic. Pretty easy. The external overflows are held in place by the bulkheads. All you have on the inside is a small surface skimmer box... Then you can save all that internal corner overflow space

 

[SnowManSnow]

250s no more than 24 deep.

if you want to go deeper you can buy or trade for my 400w pendant

B

 

[trido]

250s no more than 24 deep.

if you want to go deeper you can buy or trade for my 400w pendant

B

If you have three pendants I might trade you. :p

Ive looked around and found a Perfecto 180 thats 24" deep. I just want a couple more feet of real estate. I dont want it to be overly complicated due to a very large "honey do" list.