Tank Size Opinion?

[magpie]

Hi there,

I'm looking at getting back into the hobby so will be asking a few questions here and there. My first one should be pretty quick and to the point - the place we want to put the tank has a back wall of 44" wide.

I was looking at a 75 gallon that is 48" in length (18 W, 20 D). This will have it stick out the edges a bit on either side, which is not ideal, obviously.

Another option is a 65 gallon tank which is 36 x 18 x 25. It will fit great in that spot, but I know that longer tanks are preferred, and well of course I'd love to go up to the 75 gal.

My rational side says to just go with the tank that fits the space better. (It really is the best spot for it in the house.)

My question to you is - what would you do? Do you think that the length/height ratio is more important than the area fitting the space well?

Other comments or ideas on this?

Thank you!

 

[DrRob]

Welcome back to the hobby.

Depends a lot on what you're putting in it, but generally the bigger volume the better. If you can't get the 48" in then you can't get it in, but put what you can in by way of height and depth (within sensible reason).

There's quite a few 100cm tanks out there now that would be half way between those two sizes.

Of course, if you've got a spot for a 48" as well you could always put both in and have 2 tanks.

 

[creeker]

Yeah, I too would try to find the biggest footprint that would fit without overhang. There should be something really close.

 

[magpie]

I'm wondering where to find the right size... I'd love a tank that was perfect.
I've been looking around at the local fish shops but haven't seen anything different than what I posted (38 3/8 or 48"). I even looked at Petsmart/Petco but the largest they seem to do is 55.

Should I be looking online? I haven't even gone there yet... I bet Amazon has options.

Or maybe I should just let it stick out a bit. We don't have kids.


EDIT: Ok, we just used some boxes to "visualize" the 48" and I don't think it's the right choice.


So now my question is - is the length/height ratio in the 36" tank enough of an issue that I should look online or elsewhere?

 

[creeker]

Standard tank sizes do kind of jump from 36" to 48". For me, overhang would make me nervous. I would begrudgingly go for the tall 36", even though it goes against my preference for surface area vs volume. What else can you do? Any other 36" will just be lower with the same footprint. I would be creative in stocking so you have fish in all layers of depth.

 

[magpie]

Yeah, I think I'm resigned to that. We were initially looking at 55, so I'm compromising in a way.

Now I just need to be sure in my fish search I'm keeping that in mind.

Thanks...

 

[CezzaXV]

There are places that will custom build tanks for your, but as you can probably imagine that comes at a price.