Long and Narrow or Short and Wide?

R

RanchuRick

Go Flames Go
Feb 19, 2005
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I finally get the nod to get another tank. My range is between 50G and 75G, but the real decision is whether to get a 36" or 48".

LxWxH

50G - 36x18x18 or 55G - 48x13x20

65G - 36x18x24 or 75G - 48x18x20

13" seems to be too narrow for a bigger tank. I don't plan on keeping big, fast swimming species. It will be understocked (good will power at work here) with either African Cichlids or Ram+Tropicals. What do you think?
 
I say bigger is always better :D , so go with the biggest you can!! And I would also go for the longer tank, most fish would prefer the room to swim back and forth. I'm selling it soon, but I have a 35g hex. and I really don't like it and the fish don't seem to have much room.
 
If you're going to keep Africans, I'd go for a 48"L x 18"W x 24"H 90g - I know it's larger than you're looking at, but they're big, active fish and I would want a depth of 18" to accomodate the large rock formations they need. Any time I see a really nice African display, it's usually a higher, deeper (front to back) tank.
From personal experience, I've learned that in larger tanks I really prefer deeper tanks because it gives you more room to aquascape with background, foreground and mid ground plants and larger pieces of wood/rock. I've seen some beautiful 12" x 48" tanks, I just find a depth of 18" easier to work with. My personal favourite size in the range you mention is a 65g 36" x 18" x 24H. 48" tanks can be easier to light, the most common size for fluorescent tubes is 48", and I've seen PC fixtures for 48" tanks that have a nice configuration with pairs of 55W bulbs end to end ( = = ). PCs for 36" use either overlapping 55W bulbs ( -- ), or larger and more expensive 36" 96W bulbs.
Here's a site about choosing the 'ideal' aquarium size, it might help. It's mainly for planted tanks, but worth a read even if you're not going planted :)
 
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