Question: Cost aside, is a smaller reef tank easier to care for than a larger tank?

[Acrowhora]

IME,it takes more work to keep the water params stable,as i only have a 33 gallon sps tank.slowly upgrading to a 65 gallon(only need 2 more radions) and some dry rocks,and i'm good to go

[lastlight]

I know I am personally spending more time maintaining my current 93 cube than I was the 404 in the basement. I'm enjoying doing the little things religiously like going in with the turkey baster and toothbrush at least every other day to keep my rock clean and detritus out of the tank as best i can. I blast everything and it collects in some filter floss style material laid on top of my filter socks. I spray this out in the laundry tub every single day to do what i can to keep stuff from breaking down in the water and put it back. there's no way I personally could have tinkered on this level with the scale i was previously committed to. in this way a smaller tank for me has been more work and more reward.

[Baker]

Im going to play devils advocate here. I have a 3 gallon picotop with an ac70 fuge, and i barely do anything to this tank. I do a 50% water change every couple of weeks and clean the glass every few days. I add maybe 1 1/2 cups of water to it every day. It has one 3/4" green chromi and 4 red scarlett hermits and the most important part is the snails and when I started this tank I only put super mature purple rock and fine live sand in it. My all in ones are a pain in the a** and am going to be shutting them down and setting up normal tanks. My 55 is the same as the pico, i just do my water changes. Not that im very experienced but I think the water changes are the most important thing along with good live rock. Just my 2cents.

[msjboy]

Ask your friend to check the specialized nano-reef.com for folks who go from 5 gallon - 40 gallon sized tanks. Lotsa info, setups there.

[daniella3d]

If you plan it well, a small tank is easier to take care of because it require less amount of water for the water change.

The most important part is to have a ATO (auto top off) so that salinity will not vary with evaporation. Second is a skimmer.

I had a nano for many years and still do, I spend much less time on my nano than on my large tank. It is a 15 gallons with a 10 gallons sump, with ATO and a Deltec 300 skimmer. I do water change 20% every two week, so around 5 gallons, or just a bucket.

The main limitation is you cannot have a lot of fish in there. Maybe 2 or 3 at most and small fish wereas with a large tank you can have pretty much what ever fish you want.

For the small tank, I do not need to dose, I simply do the water changes. With my larger tank I must dose for calcium and kh, plus with the tons of corals I have more cleaning and trimming to do.

[Myka]

There is a happy medium. A bigger tank means bigger problems, but it also means that problems tend to come about slower. Smaller tanks are smaller problems, but the changes happen faster. I think 75-120 gallons is probably the easiest size.

[Coral Hoarder]

i have way less problems with my 29 gal then my 125

[intarsiabox]

Any size of tank requires the same type of maintenance and monitoring so I wouldn't say easier for a small tank but I will say faster to do maintenance. The one exception may be having to lug fewer buckets of water around. Small tanks are great if you resist the temptation to add too many fish or things that will easily out grow the tank.

[donkey77]

i have an deep sea aquatics neo nano, and the one thing i learned, know your LR, water changes once a week 10-15 percent , dont over stock, i dont add nothing just the water changes, i cant stress this enough water changes water changes, once a week, keep it simple any ways need another beer

[Proteus]

I had a 180 and loved it. But cost was gettin to me. I found that because I had lots of room I was constantly at lfs. Lol

Now my new lil tank 30g is my favorite. I still spend to much money but its on better equipment. And my tank looks fuller with less.

I found doing a WC every three days (5g). To keep params in check was not enough. Though dosing is easy. But swings can be more severe.