High Tide Aquatics

Reefers with tanks 120g+, any regrets?

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Krak256

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I currently have an 80g tank (48x24x16) and am thinking of upgrading to a 120g (48x24x24) and wanted to get people's thoughts. Right now the lack of height is a bit of a limiting factor as my sps grow, they will start getting in the path of my wave makers.

So for the folks here that upgraded to tanks 120g or more, do you regret it? I am somewhat interested in a 5ft tank, but I built my own 4ft stand and would kind of prefer to keep it.
 
I went from a 50g (24x24x20) to 120g (48x24x24) last month with no regrets. The 24" height is nice that you don't have to crouch over as much when viewing the tank, plus gives the fish tons of open swimming room and corals can grow up. Downside is that you'll be arm deep in water when doing maintenance so get yourself a good pair of tongs and gloves. I personally really like these.
 
I went from a 10g tank to a 135g tank, and I do have regrets doing that. The mantra of "go as big as you can" really doesn't hold up when you're new to reef keeping, all the problems scale up and if you don't have a handle on how to deal with them on the small scale going big might just push people out of the hobby... luckily I'm stubborn so I'm still here, but I do wish that I really cut my chops on a smaller tank like 40-50 gallons.

That said, other regrets with going bigger is that usually it's a one way trip, if you wanted to go smaller because "hot damn I have to make up how much salt water every week for water changes?" or "Did PG&E read my meter wrong?" or more likely "I don't have time for a big tank" then hopefully you didn't get any fish that are "large swimming fish" (e.g. tangs) because going back means getting rid of the fish.
 
I went from a 55 to a 140 and I’m really happy I did. The smaller tank was a great learning tool and prepared me for the bigger tank. I feel like a 5’ tank is ideal.
 
I went from a 60 gal to a 130 gal, no regrets. My tank is 60x24x21. I'm glad I went with a 21" height, any taller I would have a hard time reaching the bottom of the tank.
 
Krak256 said:
Mike, is your tank 6ft?

As much as I’d like to go to 5ft, my lighting right now is a 48in aquatic life hybrid with 2 radions. I really don’t want to get additional lighting...
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I have the same 48” fixture over my 5 ft tank and three Radions that I run at 40% intensity to get 400 PAR in my SPS zone. I now wish I had 3 XR15s instead of two and one XR30. I get 150 PAR on the sand at the ends of the tank. The fixture is 9” from the water. So...more than enough light for a 5’ tank.
 
First of all, going from 80 to 120 isn’t much of a difference if you kept everything else the same. Those tanks look almost the same size, and hold similar amounts of rock/coral/fish. But if what you are talking about is a significant upgrade and investment in the new tank, that is a different story.

With significantly larger or more elaborate setups, you have more maintenance, more difficult maintenance, and greater investment/commitment. If you have a 40g garage tank with minimum equipment and easy corals/fish it isn’t a big deal if you decide you want to take a break from the hobby. With a much larger and more elaborate tank, you have to put so much more into it that there will likely come a time when you’d like to push pause but you can’t. At least not without taking some huge losses and effort.
 
Krak256 said:
Mike, is your tank 6ft?

As much as I’d like to go to 5ft, my lighting right now is a 48in aquatic life hybrid with 2 radions. I really don’t want to get additional lighting...
Click to expand...
Nothing says that you need to upgrade the lighting, nothing wrong keeping a "4" foot bright area in the tank and a slightly less bright area elsewhere. You don't need your lighting to go right up against the glass (as you do now), having open space on the ends actually is kind of nice and it's not like it will be super dark either, some lower light corals probably will still be able to grow due to how the light spreads out.

You can always add more lights later if you want to upgrade that, and it's much easier to do than adding a foot of extra tank :) So make arguments about how it'll be too big, or there's not enough room, or something, don't say "my lights are too small"
 
I went all in with a 300g tank from the start and have had NO regrets on the size. The only real regrets had nothing to do with the size of the tank but the fact that I got an acrylic TruVue tank with small overflows and only 1/2" thick Acrylic, which bowed.

As others have stated, it is a bigger $$$ commitment, but a lot of the maintenance is the same, such as water changes, dosing, etc. provided that you have the means to do it. A real positive of a larger tank, is that everything is much more stable, and if you catch mistakes early (overflowing skimmers, overdosing, etc), it's not that big of a deal.
 
Wlachnit said:
I went all in with a 300g tank from the start and have had NO regrets on the size. The only real regrets had nothing to do with the size of the tank but the fact that I got an acrylic TruVue tank with small overflows and only 1/2" thick Acrylic, which bowed.

As others have stated, it is a bigger $$$ commitment, but a lot of the maintenance is the same, such as water changes, dosing, etc. provided that you have the means to do it. A real positive of a larger tank, is that everything is much more stable, and if you catch mistakes early (overflowing skimmers, overdosing, etc), it's not that big of a deal.
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Thanks for the replies everyone.

For you guys with larger tanks, how do you manage water changes? Do you all have water change stations? Right now for my 80g, I make RODI the night before into a rolling bucket that holds 10g.
 
Krak256 said:
Thanks for the replies everyone.

For you guys with larger tanks, how do you manage water changes? Do you all have water change stations? Right now for my 80g, I make RODI the night before into a rolling bucket that holds 10g.
Click to expand...

Same thing but scaled up. Brute with a dolly.
 
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