display tank, maximum size you're comfortable with

[Pan]

Originally Posted by marie

Well all I can say is that all the pacing my foxface does annoys the heck out of my regal angel

[Lance]

Originally Posted by marie

Thats another good reason not to go bigger but giving up my achilles is not an option. He appears content enough in the tank now but I know he'd be better off in an 8 footer (interestingly enough its my foxface that is complaining about the tank being on the small side. How come there are no foxface police? )

Since I moved my Foxface over to the big tank, I must admit his behaviour has changed somewhat. I didn't really notice it until after I moved him. Once he settled in to the new tank he hasn't paced the length of the tank that I've seen. He spends his day picking at the rock and following his new buddy the Bannerfish around. Happy as can be. Good thing there are no Foxface Police or I could have been collared.

[BlueAbyss]

Wow everyone has something to say about this one

I`m going with the 20 gallon high display for a couple reasons... Mainly because its what I have on hand, and I don`t want to go too big for my first tank. It is also a good size, not too big in terms of physical size, slightly deep to accommodate the 3 inch bed for seagrass without looking too shallow, but with enough floor space to work with for what I want. I originally was looking for a 30 gallon, but I couldn`t find one with the dimensions I wanted (36 l x 12 w x 15 h). And this tank is made of quarter inch glass, thicker than usual for some reason .

For what it`s worth, the actual capacity of my system will be somewhere around 40 gallons though, due to piping, the sump, and 2 accessory tanks that will be plumbed into the same system. Part of one of those tanks will actually be a display `fuge also, though it`s size is currently undecided.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by Pan

Because 99.5 percent of the people have no idea why tangs need a lot of room they just regurgitate info they see others doing. Tangs on the whole are open swimmers, they tend to be seen in more "open water" then foxface or triggers (that we collect as aquarium dwellers) so the though is they need lots of room to swim wheras a trigger and a foxface "graze". my two cents anyways.

True in the ocean but IMO thats all thrown out in aquariums. I have owned enough large trigger to know they need just as much room as a tang. I have also been on dives and seen how active triggers are.

When it comes to big fish that are active, if there is going to be rules for some, they should apply to others. If we are talking about some of the huge hawkfish or groupers then maybe not so much...they tend to be less active.

Just my two cents

[Megs]

were running an inverted 135g display (6'X2'X1.5') with a 75g sump, space and weight on second floor of house were the reasons we went with this size, we went inverted because 2' deep gave plenty of room to aquascape and 1.5' tall is relatively easy to light (though with 18 HOT5's 2' would be no problem, so if it werent for the 2nd floor thing a 180 would have been great).

i probably wouldnt want anything bigger than around 300 gallons, for maintinence cost/work.

[new but handy]

I've got a 180 with a 55g sump on the second floor of my house. It is right above my basement suites bathroom. I have t-bar ceiling down there so I popped the ceiling down and doubled up my joists. The joists run parallel with the tank or I might have been comfortable leaving it the way it was.

[lorenz0]

shallow 60 gal with a 25gal sump. I am happy with the size, its perfect for what i want and have not regretted it once.

I get to keep my sps in that tank but lately i have been getting that softy itch again and am thinking about starting the 20gal tall back up. besides doing this, i would not upgrade.

[bignose]

I'm in a apartment so I'm maxed out with a 95G display and 30G sump. I'd like to go much bigger when I get a house. Perhaps a main floor 300G display with a sump/refug/frag tank room in the basement. I'm sick of the pump noise in my living room.

[pastout]

Great topic. After having two 150 gallon aquariums blow out their silicone eleven months apart, I have to say I am happy enough with the 28 gallon. If the entire thing explodes it will not dump more water on the floor than what we lost out of the 150s. See we got ones that we believe were too tall and the silicone just did not stand a chance. Took it back to the store the first time and they would not refund my cash, they only replaced the aquarium. When it exploded again, they did manage to give me 100% cash back.

We were home both times (thank God) and managed to save the fish and start siphoning from the top, and using buckets to empty the tanks before the water could hit the floor. About eight hours of maintenance each time, and that did not get the big tanks out of the basement and back into the truck to go back to the store. If we had not been home or realized what was happening so fast, our house which we own might have had to be declared a disaster area. I cannot imagine how awful that would have been if we were on holidays or at work.

So though I love the looks of the big tanks and love to provide fish with a ton of room to swim and live, we decided it is just not worth it. Still love the hobby - just going to keep going with a smaller tank!
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i had that happen to a friend of mine he was lucky we ere both at his parents house when it happend just by fluke we decided to go look at the tank to discover it olny had less than a 1/4 of its water left and had flooded his parents basement. luckily his parents were in italy for 2 weeks at the time haha we had the carpet up and drying out and the tank removed and i reinstaled the carpet once it was dry for him and had a new tank in before his parents got home haha

[Boomboy]

i have an 80G cube, with 20G sump and 25 Refugium underneath the whole tank, im on a second story low rise apartment, and when it comes time to move into our first home probably wont go more than a 150G due to probably moving again, i moved my other tanks around about 5 times, you get pretty tired of doing it. For my max tank, probably around 300G or so, with it being a deeper tank than longer, and nothing taller than 24" probably less at 22" after having a 24", i like the height but im always on top of my stool, reaching up to my armpits. but of course i would just get a tank that fits a space i had in my house perfectly, always wanted a roomdivider tank.