20G Long or 30G?

VTwinFanatic

Endlers
Mar 17, 2005
505
0
0
40
North Carolina
Okay here is the perdiciment....I am looking to buy a new tank and go heavily planted but I dont know which tank I want more....well I know which I want but the problem is that I'm going to build a Canopy with the screw-in CF...I've got four CF at 23w a piece...the problem now is that w/ a 30gal I will have just over 3wpg and with the 20gal long i will have a little 4.6wpg. The 20L would be perfect for many aspects but the 30gal would be so much better in that I could put much taller plants in it...is 4.6wpg too much or is the 3wpg too little for high light plants....I'm leaning more towards the 20L being that it is cheaper...Im just so torn...I'm going to be going with Eco-Complete as the Substrate and the lighting is pretty much done with the plans for it. SOMEONE HELP ME DECIDE
 
If I had that decision to make, I'd look harder at the one with the larger footprint, especially front to back.
It's, IMO a lot easier and more aesthetically pleasing to aquascape a tank that deeper than one that is narrower.
Don't worry about distance from surface to substrate. Either way you'll have a ton of light.

Hope you are ready with a ton of plants and CO2 from the get-go. You will need both.

Just my .02.

Len
 
I would stay away from the 20l. I started with one and many plants grow too tall for that tank. I converted it to a 29 which works much better. I would buy the biggest tank you can afford. I bought a 90 not long ago and I now wish that I had bought a 120. If its between a 30 and the 20 get the 30.
 
But is the 3wpg enough to grow high light plants such as baby tears and other high light foreground plants? CO2 is going to be injected but im just worried that I wont have enough light for higher light plants...I mean the 30 would be the way to go but i want my high light plants....i have a 10 gal that has 4wpg and CO2 and i wouldnt think twice about throwing any high light plant in there and growing it...I want this tank to be the same...and I work at an LFS so the plants are pretty cheap too...
 
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