Looking to upgrade
 

I currently have a 24g cube was thinking of up sizing to maybe a 90g to 180g any suggestions would be appreciated.

If you have the space, the money and the time, go for it. A bigger tank will mean more of everything you do now with your 24g cube. Do you have any reasons not to upgrade? :-)

Right now the only limiting factor is our first child is due in a few days. I have room for up to maybe 250g but would still like it to be manageable for one person.

Well, what's manageable is a matter of opinion. Some people can manage 400g on their own. Some people can hardly manage 90g LOL.

I would start by imagining what your maintenance schedule will be like. Consider things like:

1. How much water would you need to change for the new tank. The larger the tank, the more volume presumably. The more volume, the more salt, the more salt, the more money and time.

2. What if any nutrient export method would you like to employ?

3. What kind of reactors would you like to run for what kind of media? GFO, Carbon, BioPellets, Calcium? Media needs changing periodically.

4. you will need to clean the tank's glass. The more surface area the more cleaning.

All of the above does not account for the time it'll take to set the darn thing up of course. The larger the system the more complex it will likely be in terms of lighting, flow, plumbing, etc.

Again, what's considered "manageable" is all quite relative.

I would hold off until after your child is born to see how much time you actually have for a bigger tank. I know I gave up reef keeping once our second child was here as it was just too much with two kids (One a newborn) in the house.

Congratulations on the upcoming birth.

Yes upgrades are great!
Lol

I would go as big as you can afford, and take your time and plan it out. Ask advice and go see some fellow reefers setups around the size you are thinking to get some ideas. I would also read through some of the build threads to pick up on the good ideas and not make mistakes done by previous people.

I would hold of anything right now your life is going to change forever I am a few days lol. An away but wait until you get into the routine of life with kids.

I almost lost everything and was on the brink of packing it in when our third was born.

So i should take into consideration my busy schedule when deciding. I haven't had any trouble so far with my cube but its pretty basic.

Yes :-)

And as subman suggested, go poking around in the build threads of the larger tanks, or at least the tanks with similar sizes to what you are interested in and see the effort that went into the build process as well as ongoing maintenance. Ask the builder lots of questions like, what is their husbandry like. What day to day, week to week, month to month routines do they have to maintain the tank. And don't forget to ask them if they have kids or not :lol:

One little baby isn't going to get in the way. I set up my 180 just after mine arrived. That includes 158 days at hospital, managing 4 dogs and a house and a job. Still had time to build and manage a tank. Go for it! :)

But not everyone is a demigod like you Brad. Some of us are mere mortals :razz:

You will be posting your 24g tank in the buy/sell forum in a few weeks lol

Yeah we are aware its going to be hectic with a new little one we were thinking of catching some boxing day sales to get some decent prices on a setup. Thanks for the input guys muchly appreciated

How many kids you have? And how many tanks were you running? plus all the marathons, the training, the installing LED on spokes. You're a hero!!

I agree with some posters here, wait until your newborn and see if you have any more spare time. You maybe glad that you did not set up the tank after all and wait for couple years before you can do anything.

About maintenance, it depends what you gonna have in your tank. if you just have a fowlr tank then you can skip maintenance for months if nothing breaks. I won't count cleaning glass as maintenance because i do that when viewing my tank. Also i found bigger tank is easier to manage than small tank because water parameter does not swing fast or crash fast.

I would be going full reef tank i find them peaceful. And yeah glass cleaning is part of viewing.

Did you run it through the wife about getting a bigger tank??? Need I say more lol

are you interested in a 10feet tank any chance?

Lol yes i did put it past wife she is a west coast girl loves the smell of the tank. What kind of fool doesn't consult their financial officer before looking in to spending money haha

One of the first things I'd look at when upgrading to a larger tank is to somehow hook up plumbing to run directly to the larger tank. This simplifies things drastically come water change time.

The second thing I would consider is how deep you want the tank. Deep tanks require much stronger lighting, so more cost immediately and long term. Also, you will have a much more difficult time reaching the bottom of a deep tank. I'd look at a longer tank over a deeper tank.

The third thing I would look at is unless it is going into a basement, I would consider having someone inspect your flooring to ensure that it will be able to withstand the incredible weight of a large tank. I had our floor joists inspected by a qualified person who said it should be fine. I have heard of people having to reinforce their floor though.

IMHO - If you're thinking about a 90, consider a 120, same length and height, but 6 inches deeper, with an internal overflow it will take aprox. the same floor space. I have a 90 and love it, just wish it had more depth for aquascaping.