Discussion - Bigger tanks are easier for the beginner, True or False?

[sphelps]

With more experience maintenance becomes easier and less time consuming. I know I spend little time maintaining my tanks once they are setup and it doesn't really matter what size they are. However if I think back and imagine if I started this hobby with the tank size I have now I would probably not be in the hobby anymore, nor would I still be married

I know I hear the phase "start with as big of a tank as you can" quite often but it's mostly in LFSs and it seems IMO to suggest something more along the lines "spend as much money here as you can".

[Taaron]

I would say that larger tanks are easier to learn with. My first saltwater tank was 160 gallons. Several times i was able to save corals or fish in my tank. The parameters stayed very stable. I had no previous experience. I do agree however that the maintenance is much more. Meaning topping up the tank, additives, water changes, and cleaning. I started a great reef tank for about $2000 and we all know that isnt very much when it comes to this hobby.

[reefwars]

its not that bigger is easier ...bigger is more forgiving.for things alot of new reeferes find frustrating.



lets say you get a head of aiptasia on a frag, in a large tank it would take more time to become a problem where it spread over every rock , whats a problem in a large tank is a plague in a nano...... this i know


water issues are going to be roughly the same ,if your cutting cost out of the equation a water change is a water change and media is media, fact is a nano is cheaper to run financially though.


i know in a large tank fish problems are way more forgiving then in nanos, lets face it very few stick to actual "nano fish"


people tend to feed small tanks the same as large tanks which leads to problems and if your like me people fill their tanks with corals as if they are larger tanks.



i think both large tanks and small tanks have problems unique to them so neither is my vote.

[Proteus]

Yeah Denny on of my biggest issues with small tank was over feeding. But I got it world out. With 2nano fish one block of mysis will last a week. And your right I also have overstocked coral. And if sh?t goes south. It's faster in my lil tank

[intarsiabox]

I would have to say my favorite tank I ever had was a 25g I had set up for 2 years on my kitchen counter. I had an aqua C HOB skimmer, aquaclear filter, heater and T5HO lights. Livestock was limited to 4 smaller fish, no sand and a real mixed bag of corals. Everthing grew like crazy, no algae or cyno ever showed up and no dosing was ever required as a one bucket water change each week did a 25% refresh. The only down side is that if you want a successful small tank you need to live by stock limitations and not just go and buy everything you want. That's were larger tanks are nice as you can have much more variety and keep thing that get to large sizes. A person can easily do a nice small set up for fairly cheap but you can sink plenty of money into a small tank as well. So in my experience smaller is easier to maintain but also can be a bit tortursome when you are at the LFS.