Another newbie needs advice

[daveyp]

Hi All

Just joined today, I am very interested in starting my own reef tank and have been lucky enough to have access to two different types of tank and would like advice on which would be the better option and the pros and cons of each.
One tank is a normal rectangle not very wide, but long and deep holds 45 gallons the other is really tall 6ft and is like a huge tube but is only 1 and half wide and hexagon shaped holding 58 gallons. I am interested in keeping a few fish as well
Any help would be well received, kept freshwater before, need a change and challenge

Many thanks
Dave

[camlov2]

also new but I am going to guess that a few things you might hear are that you want a large surface area for ventilation and you want a larger base (surface area of sand is part of your biological filter)
Increase those and your tank will probably be a bit easier to keep things consistant.

6 ft tall?! I don't know how you would clean, move, or do anything in that tank.

Good luck, Brian

[marinoob]

dont go with a tall tank i beleive for most type of fish the footprint of the tank is more important plus tall tanks are hard to clean and long tanks look better i bought a 65g tall tank and i regret it. i wish i would have got a long tank now but oh well :-)

[dileggi]

I'm fairly new at this as well, but while reading your post Dave, I was thinking the same thing that Brian posted.

I'm thinking the wider surface area would be better. I'm interested to hear what more experienced people would say. Although the cylinder look would be a one of a kind look!

Welcome & Good luck!

[snorvich]

Good observations Brian. A six foot high tank is basically infeasible. What are the exact measurements of the rectangular tank?

[Sk8r]

I've had the 6 foot triangular sort, in plexi, and the backseam split under the kind of warmth used in a warmwater aquarium. Plexi tends to bow under the best of warm circumstances, and a 6 foot water column would be vulnerable---much as I would lust to rig that to work, maybe with coldwater species. You would have to pipe it to a fuge/sump, where you could carry on all the normal cleaning, adjustment, testing things, plus maintain a fuge to keep the algae down, but it would be a real challenge to a novice reefer---
I'd say to avoid disaster go with the more traditional tank. 50 g is a great size, easy to work with. Shallow 'width' will limit your rock arrangements [you need live rock 1 lb per gallon to make this work.] but otherwise is a great size and shape for a tank, well-understood, too, by people in RC who might be trying to help you.
You will need 1 lb sand per gallon.

Adviseable to have a sump/fuge of about 30 g if you can swing it; at least 10 if you possibly can: plumbing for same can be hang-on [less easy to cope with] or you-drill-it [a piece of terror, and CANNOT be done with tempered glass, easy with acrylic]; and thirdly, pricey but great, a reef-ready tank with the piping already installed.
I really really recommend having a sump: that's where your heater, skimmer, skimmer pump, and main pump live; it's also where you can set up a small refugium [algae tank] that will suck all the algae-goodies out of your main tank and give you sparkling clean walls there instead of an algae encrusted scraping job...particularly important if you have acrylic, which doesn't like to be scraped.

Read the * threads [2 in number] at the top of this forum and it will have an immense amount of info.

[daveyp]

thanks all, guess i was thinking that the tall would be hard to clean, was a bit hooked on how it would look I think. Thanks for info on surface area and base space, had not thought somuch about that, was more worried about lighting etc

The rectangle tank is 4 foot long, 3 foot deep and almost 2 foot wide. Felt that perhaps this is too small

dave

[dileggi]

Hey Dave...I could be wrong, but are you sure it's a 45 gallon? I'm trying remember the exact measurements of 75g cichlid tank at home. I cannot remember them, but those numbers sound familiar to me. Are you sure it's not a 75g?

[daveyp]

No not sure of capacity only measurements and what I have been told, will check up thanks dave