Thoughts on tall narrow tank...

[kevlo84]

Hey all, I'm looking for experiences/opinions on advantages/disadvantages of a tall but narrow tank to fit a very specific space.

i have an alcove that would fit a tank 39 inches (wide) by 24 inches (front to back) and would love the tank to be 36 inches high(top to bottom)

are there any disadvantages to this idea, I looked online and can't find a single tank that is taller than it is deep so it scared me that it is a bad idea?

 

[fishguy242]

hi welcome to the reef ,Kinda deep for maintaning,but perfect for seahorses

 

[RedFrog211]

I think that would be really cool! You might need to have it custom made though, doubt those are common dimensions. Also keep lights in mind; you'll need something strong enough to reach that deep!

 

[John08007]

I have a 75gal tall cube, 24x24x30 tall. I love the height to look at, hate to work on it. I've needed to purchase every long tweezer, tong, tool that I could find. I vacuum my sand during water changes, needed to make a custom extra long vac.

I am planning on switching to a rectangle tank, I am really up in the air if I want a 30" tall again, I couldn't imagine 36"

 

[Itsadeepbluesea]

I would think the main issue would be maintenance. That would be hard to work on.

 

[ISprof]

In the early 90s I owned a pet store and sold/serviced aquariums in the DFW area. I can tell you it was pretty much only the upper class who got the really tall tanks and those tanks looked the best. Horse ranches, doctors, pro sports players, and TV preachers. Really tall tanks require significantly thicker glass or acrylic which makes them much more expensive per gallon. Also harder to reach in for maintenance but those folks don't care about price or cost of maintenance. Tall aquariums are luxury items. An inefficient use of space? No doubt. Like a mansion with high ceilings and other wasted space compared to an apartment or average home. Go for it! I am getting back in the hobby, catching up with all the new knowledge and advances in technology so I can set up an older 290 gallon (I think) Oceanic. It is 84" X 20" wide X 40" tall. It needs cleaning but here are some of my boys moving it. I like luxury but as a management professor I am also frugal hence a used, extra tall aquarium!

 

[Timfish]

It's certainly doable. Threre's not much demand for tanks with the diamensions you've listed so that's probably why you haven't seen it available, it'll have to be a custom build. I've built and maintained tall tanks and anytime you go deeper than you can reach maintenance get's more difficult. And the taller you go the more difficult long term maintenance becomes. If you do go 36" tall I'd design the cabinetry so it can be easily removed for access.

 

[Brett S]

My 220G tank is 72 inches wide, 24 inches from front to back, and 30 inches high. I *love* the deep tank and I think it is much more pleasing to view. However, as the others have alluded to, one concern i maintenance. With my 30” deep tank, I can *barely* reach the bottom of my tank, especially the bottom on the far side of the tank. In fact, if I need to reach the bottom on the far side I often when up dipping my nose into the water because I need to lean in that far. With a 36” deep tank there’s no way I could reach the bottom without putting my face into the water. My arm just isn’t that long. I do have a set of grabbers that I try to use as much as I can, but there are some things, such as gluing coral frags, that really can’t be done with grabbers.

The other potential concern I would have with your dimensions is the 39” width. I feel like that would put you into kind of a weird situation regarding livestock. You’re talking about a pretty decent sized tank (145 gallons by my calculation), but some of the larger fish that might normally do well in a 145G tank might struggle a little with the lack of swimming space. Normally you’d be looking at around 6 feet of swimming space with a larger tank like that, but you would have little more than 3 feet. But it’s still big enough that I feel like just stocking it with smaller fish might cause the fish to look even smaller. I’m sure you’ll be able to find something to stock it with, but just be aware that the 39” width will probably limit your choices.