29 or 65 gallon reef for a beginner?

[Nathans_Dad]

Hello all, I have two tanks which are currently broken down and dry. Both were freshwater at one time. The most recent to be up was the 65, broken down earlier this week. Neither one has lighting appropriate for a reef.

My original plan was to turn the 65 into a reef and leave the 29 in the garage for now. I have been pricing out the equipment needed and I am starting to wonder if doing a nanoreef with the 29 might be a viable route. I know smaller tanks are more prone to water stability issues and the usual advice is larger is better.

However, the smaller tank would allow me to get in without as much cash outlay, light fixtures would be cheaper, etc. It would require less live rock to get up and going. I am planning on keeping mostly corals and some shrimp/crabs/etc with maybe a clownfish or a couple small fish in there.

The 29 is a bowfront from Petsmart and won't fit in the stand for the 65 so using it as a sump isn't really an option. Neither one can really run a sump at this time due to the narrowness of the stand. The 29 has no stand currently.

Which one would you do if you were me?

[briankmarsh1980]

If cash it tight I would go with the nano to get your feet wet.
And then you can slowly purchase stuff to set up your larger tank.
I would check your local forum for people selling equipment.

[sponger0]

My advice is build a new stand to fit the 29 as a sump. Or take the 29 and partition a section of it with plexiglass to have a sump.

[leadsinker]

If cash it tight I would go with the nano to get your feet wet.
And then you can slowly purchase stuff to set up your larger tank.
I would check your local forum for people selling equipment.

totally agree, go with nano first. i started out with big tank thought's. buying used equipment and waiting for right deals. finally set up a nano for learning and to play with, best move i made. cost less than 80.00 for set up. try to keep cost down durning learning curb. DO NOT MAKE THE NEWBIE MISTAKE OF BUY EQUIPMENT, THEN LATER DOWN THE ROAD CHANGE YOUR MIND, THEN HAVE TO SELL OFF EQUIPMENT.

twenty long
hob skimmer
2x nano power heads
heater
24inch t5
20 lbs lr

since setting up this nano, i have gone a new route, i now decdicde on a 36x 20 x 20 tank,

[DoubleM 10]

im th opposite of whats being said by others for these reasons

1 when its your first tank the more volumn you have in the tank than you have more time to catch something before it goes seriously wrong.

2 once you set you the smaller tank you will probally wish you went bigger(i know i did cause i started with a 30 and now have a 55 and a 46bow)

3 depending on the fish you intend to keep you might not have to upgrade the tank because a fish gets to big or have to go through the trouble to find the fish a new home

4 larger tanks give you a larger selcetion of animals to choose from

the only down side i can think of with starting with the larger tank is that everything costs more. so if money is not a huge issue the go bigger. if money is tight go smaller

HTH

[Joe0813]

I have a 75 reef ready tank.... i just take it in baby steps since money is a issue.... ive bought the tank, stand, lights, and i need 200 more dollars for my skimmer. Im in no rush right now to set it up. I mean i cant waiiiit to have it up but its not like the fish are going to vanish. so ill keep saving and saving and hopefully soon ill have my tank done..... thanks student loans for screwing me. :)

[jarrett]

I would personally go with the 65 it will take you no time at all to fill the 29 and leave you wishing you went bigger. Also if at a later time you do decide to go bigger than the 29 you really just wasted money on setting up the 29 asuming you wont want it anymore. A 65 gal is a good size tank to keep you busy and wont look crowded in no time at all

[nanito]

Go for the bigger that you can afford.
The bigger the better

[cveverly]

I would personally go with the 65 it will take you no time at all to fill the 29 and leave you wishing you went bigger. Also if at a later time you do decide to go bigger than the 29 you really just wasted money on setting up the 29 asuming you wont want it anymore. A 65 gal is a good size tank to keep you busy and wont look crowded in no time at all

I agree.

Another option is to use the 29 as the display and the 65 as the sump. This gives you increased water volume and the lower cost of lighting the 29. Kind of backwards to the normal thinking but it would help keep your parameters more stable.