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Ideal Tank Height?

jagillham

jagillham

Member
Joined
6 May 2015
Messages
341
Location
Kent (UK)
I think one of my growth issues with my last tank was the height. The tank was 2ft tall by 4ft long. Never had any success with MC or DHG, despite loads of flow, EI, CO2 & 4x 54w T5’s.

Is height even likely to have been an issue, and if so what height would be better (I’ll be reusing the same lights).

Thanks!
 
The extra height won't do you any favours, the deeper the tank the lower the light levels at the bottom of the tank and the harder to get a good flow and co2 distribution.
I'm growing MC and DHG without any issues and my tank isn't a million miles away 120cm(L) x 53(H) x 50(W)

biggest improvement i made was dropping the light slightly and boasting the flow with a external pump to 4000L/H with inline CO2

Saying that if I bought a second tank I would go lower, but then I want to have the hardscape and plants come out of the water, possibly keep newts or crabs.

There are some nice 1200L X 600W X 450H Opti-White on eBay at the minute, if you only want one I would happily split the cost if you only want one.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-x-1200L-X-600W-X-450H-Opti-White-Aquariums/302723300441?_trkparms=aid=111001&algo=REC.SEED&ao=1&asc=20160908105057&meid=5143e0d5858946a5bd6d54d1da3287fd&pid=100675&rk=5&rkt=15&sd=123044559005&itm=302723300441&_trksid=p2481888.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci:bb79ae7b-6964-11e8-948d-74dbd1807af9|parentrq:d43da4b71630aa481620f07afff716e1|iid:1
 
jagillham said:
The tank was 2ft tall by 4ft long. Never had any success with MC or DHG
Click to expand...

Mine is 2ft x 2ft x 5ft and keeping the DHG carpet growing is tricky, lots of CO2 using 6.5Kg per month. With hindsight i would have gone shallower myself also. Even priced up a shallower tank to replace the one I have 😉
 
I'm with Edvet on this one...my tank is 60cm high always struggled with 4 x T5. Plants melting despite 1.3 point drop on ph with CO2 over 10x lph turnover and EI via dosing pumps. Reduced down to 2 x T5 and it seems to be the magical cure. That coupled with regimental housekeeping.
 
From what I understand shallower tanks are also better as they provide a better surface to air area per water volume which helps with gas exchange. I think that's why the Aquascaper tanks have such a large foot print.
 
Personally I have always liked shallow tanks, like really shallow less than 30cm, I never had anything deeper than a 60p, which i think was 36cm... depending on what plants you want to grow and fish you want to keep, shallow tanks are easier to clean and maintain, easier to plant (small low growing plants/carpet plants etc) I can see deep tanks being great for non planted tanks or tanks without small carpet plants, in the end i guess it depends on what fish you want to keep...
 
Thanks all. 🙂

The tank is/was running a Eheim compact return (3000 or 5000 I can't remember), with 2 power heads too. That said, most of that was at the top of the tank pointing down. Maybe I could look at an outlet lower down in the tank.
 
I was put off by the TMC which went with the cabinet I bought as it was on 300 deep. Once gravel was in it left little room for the tall plants I was going for to fill their full potential. Ended up with the TMC cabinet with ADA 60h which was 450 in height which I think looked more balanced. I guess it's personal taste and the type of scape you're aiming for.

Been put off with the shallow and deep aquascaper setups for this very reason, a few other have as well looking at the comments, the 600 wide tank is 500 front to back and only 360 high. I appreciate this gives more "depth" for scaping but for me the tank would stick out too far from the corners we often put them in.

Each to their own I guess and the intended scape.

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk
 
I don't know if you follow Green Aqua but they have just recently moved shop & rescaped several tanks
In the old showroom (smaller space) they had fewer large tanks, but now they've done 120cm, 180cm & some intriguing 90cm x 90cm tanks in varying heights - I believe all the new scapes have dedicated live Aquascaping videos so lots of detail available
(one 90cm is drilled, other is sump)

I'm always somewhat sceptical of that linked light diagram - which lacks any technical details - & the assumption that doubling, tripling etc T5 lamps will double/triple the substrate PAR is inaccurate (even in optimum scenario)

- restrike is a very real phenomenon & can significantly reduce light energy actually entering the tank, there are technical details available for (optimum) distance between T5 tubes & reflector shape & material impact upon light intensity/distribution

Filipe Oliveira has several tall (60cm H, 80cm H, 90cm H) tanks detailed on his FB page, so likely worthwhile looking up the light, filter, CO2 etc details - note he is coming to the UK in June & July (details on his FB page)

Depending on your light preference (LED vs T5) & budget, 45cm H is much cheaper to manage than >50cm H
- assuming you want to grow more light demanding plants
 
40-45cm is ideal height but depends on length. Go for 50cm or more for depth.
 
alto said:
the assumption that doubling, tripling etc T5 lamps will double/triple the substrate PAR is inaccurate (
Click to expand...
Why do you think that? I would think more lightsources would give more ligt? Mathematically it would be slightly less ( slightly more distance from the next lamp) but for all intentions and purposes you could count it like that.😳
 
If you have a deep tank and still want penetrating light, then I find the only way you will achieve that is with LEDs with lenses.
 
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