Concidering a 5'x15"x15" tank is this deep enough?

[reefrhoder]

I am concidering getting a new tank but am unsure weather its deep enough.
my current tank is 20" deep and losing 5" seems a lot of swimming space if i have a lot of live rock.
does anyone else run shallow tanks?
what would the ltr age be on a 5'x 15"x 15" tank?
thanks keith

 

[Navarre]

This is a 48 gallon tank. whilst it is shallower than most its not impossible to do and could actually work out cheaper. With it being shallow means your lights dont have to be as powerful in order to penetrate into deeper water.

With a longer tank you have alot of swimming room and open water swimmer might feel more at home rather than a shorter deeper tank. Perhaps a Chevron tang would be ideal for a tank of this length ( dont usually recoend tangs for tanks smaller than 100 gallons).

Dwarf angels will love the length and perhaps a few chromis will show their wonderful colour by strething thier muscles in the extra room.

The penalty of this however is that it does give limited aquascaping options. corlas need hieght to grow so you will need careful choices of corals to make sure they will work in a tank with limited height. Personally i think its a very workable project and one that you could really develope into a great looking setup.

Good luck with it

 

[Great Lakes]

I agree.
The length, making it affordable to light, plus the surface area versus volume make it a favorable size.

GL