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best size of tank

willow-puss

Member
Joined
2 Apr 2011
Messages
29
Location
Leicester
Hi all,

May seem dumb question,

but is it better to have a wider tank for plants than taller; or doesn't it make a differance?

many thanks

bec
 
Any would fine.
It could depend on what plants you are having in it.
Tall tank = Tall Plants + Tall Fish
Wide tanks for me looks pleasing to the eye....
 
thanks, for that just wanted to check.

got an aqua one 620T (brought for an angel fish whom then decieded to eat a neon and "choke" -he'd never bother with the ones in the old tank-) that i'd love to plant up (just sitting in "conserv" at mo doing nothing)

bec
 
willow-puss said:
is it better to have a wider tank for plants than taller; or doesn't it make a differance?
Hi,
It makes a difference if the tank will be a high tech, CO2 injected tank. That's because it is more difficult to send flow and CO2 to the depths of a tank where bottom feeding plants are, or where the bottom feeding leaves of a tall plant are.

Also, tall tanks are difficult to maintain if they are tall enough to be beyond the reach of your armpits.

This is not to say that tall tanks automatically fail, only that one has to pay more attention to detail regarding the issue of CO2, flow distribution and maintenance. Given a choice, I would always choose a shorter tank for these reasons.

Cheers,
 
ahh that makes sense, been reading some older books and they'd all said/talked about shorter but wider tanks; and the 620T is stand on a chair to reach bottom job :) ....right re think about going the co2 route; or just having low light plants.

:thumbup:

bec
:thumbup:
 
I'd back up the above.

Also to add a tall tank is much harder to get a carpeting plant to work due to light penetration.
 
thanks for your comment chrisfraser05, may use 620T as a holding/quartine(SP) tank, instead and just have a few low light plants in there.

bec
:thumbup:
 
chrisfraser05 said:
Also to add a tall tank is much harder to get a carpeting plant to work due to light penetration.

Could actually be due to the reasons that Clive has stated above (CO2 distribution).
We've seen many times that low lighting isnt necassarily the problem, but more CO2 or nutrient related.
 
Many thanks for your comments;(sorry about delay in reply got a poorly baby :( )

The post was an eye opener to what can fit in the tank..(as said before brought the tank for an angel-huh turned out more like an evil -fish. :) )

Don't know if this would be possible but have seen the half planted tanks (wabi?) they look beautiful-do you think that would solve the problem of getting co2 "down" that depth?

many thanks once again. :D

bec
 
Hi,
Although minimizing the amount of plants helps the flow that is available at the lower depths, this is not the path to a solution. One should think about using a high powered filter or supplemental pumps as well as a strategic method of dissolving CO2 and distributing the water. This is an inertial problem and can really only be solved by using high inertial forces (strong pumps) to overcome the obstacle of moving a mass of water over the given distance.

Cheers,
 
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