How deep is too deep?

[DesertReefT4r]

I've heard folks mention his name, but never seen a post by him or quotes from him or anything. Not even a link posted.

Weird.

Search YouTube for 20,000g reef tank and see what the man has done. He is a very busy man and Im sure he has more important things to do than post on forums. Joe does speak and MACNA almost every year and you can find those vidoes as well.

 

[ScubaShane]

My 220g 30" tall. No problem growing low light corals or maintenance with the help of a sand sifting starfish.

 

[Richard Chipman]

I have a 90 Hex, was a challenge on flow at first but no issues now other than occasional algae on the substrate

 

[Richard Chipman]

I'm about to buy a 72w x 25.5d x 24.5h reef aquarium. My local shop has it on the floor for me and will be happy to trade it up to a taller one (30" high) but they are cautioning against it. They say that either the corals on the bottom won't get enough light or, if you take up the light intensity, the corals in the middle to top of the tank get coral bleaching and die. Any thoughts/recommendations?

 

[Richard Chipman]

I have a 90 hex flow was the only challenge

 

[vetteguy53081]

I disagree.
My tank has similar dimensions but 37" tall and lighting is least of my issues.

 

[Recklessryan904]

Everybody has their own style of what they want in a reef tank . Nothing is better or worse they all have their pros/cons . I prefer the shallow wide tanks for open aquascaping (96x48x24) .On the other hand our 1000g is 4 ft tall and is going to be awesome for the fish . It’s all personal prefeance on what is going to fit your space / wants .

 

[Recklessryan904]

We’re using radion pros on the 1000g and should have no issues growing sps . It all comes down to the aquascape / sand bed height / lighting arrangement .

 

[blurb]

I like shallow... but their argument doesn't hold water. Creating a reef in a deeper tank might give you a bit more of a challenge, but it's not something that can't be overcome. There are plenty of 30" deep tanks around to prove it.

Really tall, narrow tanks can be a challenge to keep well oxygenated. This one isn't in that category.

Oxygenation shouldn't ever be an issue regardless of the ratio of surface area of the air/water interface at the surface of the tank to volume of the tank. You could literally have no interface at all at the tank waterline (ie a closed glass tank lid that sat flush on the surface of the water) and you could still easily and uniformly oxygenate the entire aquarium. If you want a depthy tank, oxygenation is no more of a design difficulty than anything else.

 

[bureau13]

My tank is a tall, narrow bowfront, and I usually regret both of those things, for different reasons. It does look cool, but very much a pain to work on. I would probably do it differently if I were starting now.

 

[Grog]

It is mostly a pain when working on the tank, as it is difficult to reach the bottom of a 30" deep tank.

I agree here. 24" is great because you can reach the sand bed to clean, put in new corals, etc. All that depends on what you want to do with the tank. If you are planning on a really deep sand bed, then 30" quickly becomes 24" and reaching the bottom is easy again. Or if you are professional basketball player with a crazy reach, then you may not care and 30" will be OK.