How do you decide on aquarium height?

[Tamberav]

Ease of maintance. Nothing over 20 inches tall…. Obviously taller people with longer arms can probably have a deeper tank. Also the tank has to be wider than it is tall as this will give visual depth and better scapes.

The only exceptions are nanos where column tanks and odd ball shapes are still easy to care for since they are small.

 

[Koh23]

Oh, yes, i forgot to mention, beside height of 62cm (24,5"), i have also plastic "rim" around top, 13 above tank, so, total height of tank is almost 30"

Small stool, and someone strong enough to hold me, to prevent nose dive into tank when i have to reach bottom. But its worth

 

[sixty_reefer]

I used to like high stand and high glass in the old system, the tank is sitting in the lounge now, personally I dnt like big bulky furniture in the lounge that’s why I went for a lower stand and shallow tank now, total hight 39 in. The maintenance is also much easier as I can use gravity for water changes avoiding water splashes on the wooden floor.

 

[alain Bouchard]

shallow enough so your arm can reach the bottom, or deep enough so you can dive in for maintenance

 

[vlangel]

The 56 gallon column tank I currently have is 24" high and was bought to be a seahorse tank. Erectus seahorses should have tall tanks to help prevent gas bubble disease.

Anyway, when I was done keeping seahorses, I just converted the tank into a mixed reef with predominantly softie coral. It's worked out ok because I have a tiered sandbed and the rockwork on the right is high so I have lots of options for coral to have different lighting preferences.

Most folks do not like a tank that is taller than it is deep but it does save floor space in our living room and still allows a lot of area for coral so I like it.

 

[Buckster]

I have a 180 which is 6' long by 2' by 2'. I built the base and a matching canopy. It's about 6' tall. Great to have the lights hidden and I don't lose the water like I use to with the open top. I also haven't had any fish jump out.

 

[TheOldSalt]

Lighting is my main concern. Tall tanks need brighter, more expensive lights.

 

[o2manyfish]

When I upgraded from a 125high (24" tall) to a 360g (24" Tall) The depth of the tank never occurred to me. The tank was 96x33x24. And the moment I first saw the tank I hated it. It looked short and fat (like me). When I got the opportunity to replace the tank a year later I had it rebuilt to 28.5" deep - That's the distance from my armpit to finger tip - That way I could reach the bottom without putting my shoulder into the tank. After 16+ years the 400g (96x33x28.5) Started to fail, in a bind I picked up a 560g Tall tank - 120x30x36. 36" from the top to the bottom. Built out of 1.5" acrylic with 6" of rim all the way around the tank and 3 openings. This was an emergency purchase to get something before a seam let loose in the 400g. We set the tank up over Christmas Eve. And moving all the Live Rock and corals into the tank didn't seem like an issue. And the next morning it was gorgeous.

I've been keeping Salt tanks for almost 40 years. I've been lucky enough to visit aquariums all over the country and several other countries. The 36" tall was the prettiest tank I have ever owned and one of the prettiest tanks I have ever seen. But I hate the tank. It's impossible to keep clean. It's impossible to reach about 70% of the tank without long tongs. Mounting corals more than 20" from the surface is hours of nasty screaming and ********.

The 560g was a temporary stop gap - It was supposed to be for a few months, but ended up being about 15 months. Till we had a double whammy hit last month and lost the fish and corals. The 560g is going to new home shortly and a new tank is coming. the new tank will be 30" deep. That extra 1.5" will lead to some cursing on my part. But with oversized openings I'll have the ability to better reach the majority of the tank.

When I see people with 48" deep tanks I just don't know how they have the patience to do it. Especially with in-wall tanks that don't have front access.

Dave B


PS - When I was a young lad for my 13th Birthday my parents gave me a 60g tall aquarium - 36x18x30. As a prepubescent kid - reaching the bottom was never going to happen. Back in this time frame - A fresh water tank was a collection of plastic decorative plants. But the plants are only about 18"tall. And they require being buried in the gravel to stay put. In these archaic days of aquarium keeping there were no long tongs. We had a long stick with a sponge on the end. I spent several weekends buying bags of Aquarium plants. The plastic plants kind of pop together like modern day locline. I built plants that were 30" tall. But they wanted to float. So I spent hours using silicone to glue gravel onto the bases till they were heavy enough to sink to the bottom and keep the plants in place. Fresh water tanks with the wonders of a pleco meant cleaning a 30" deep tank wasn't a problem. And as a 13 year old I had one cool looking tall fish tank.

 

[Zoa.Mania]

I want to be able to reach the bottom of the tank with my hand with no problem.
On top of it, it should be in a decent height for me to look at it while standing and sitting

 

[noopsyche]

Lighting is my main concern. Tall tanks need brighter, more expensive lights.

About 8.6'L 2.8'H SPS dominated mixed tank.it is not an ad Just add enough lights to get the great effect

 

[Koh23]

24" or 60cm is minimum. For main display tank at least. For me.

Lower tanks just dont look so good. For me.

Up to 150cm lenght, 60x60 is fine.

For every additional 50cm in.lenght, add 10cm in both width and height.

So, yes, wet dream tank for me is 350x100x100..... Almost impossible to build here....

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

3 heights I go with and the choice is yours! Lol
20" 24" or 30"....
Some of the new tanks like drop offs and such are requiring more like 48" but idk how ud actually keep that maintence easy going. Would be difficult imo.
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

The taller the tank the more water coloum providing more depth or feel. Not to mention the fish room gap. Makes it look more realistic as seen in the photo above.
D