Who's found themselves going smaller?

[Amoo]

So after a recent very extended power outage I found myself in a situation of basically starting over. I still had all my tanks and equipment, but MOST all of my livestock didn't make it (Note to self, look into solar battery charger). I actually managed to keep most everything alive through the 5 day outage, but the exception were my fuges. Basically everything in it died and of coarse spread death and destruction back to the tank, slowly taking out inhabitant after inhabitant.

My main DT was a 125G tank and I've been eying a 220G for some time now. Seems like the perfect time to upgrade right? So I did, I turned my 60G frag tank (48Lx24Dx12H) into my new main DT and put some of those rainy day/upgrade funds into a brand new 24Lx18Dx18H low iron rimless secondary tank (build thread coming soon).

When it came down to it, what I have learned most over the last few years is based on the type of livestock I personally like to keep, I can keep anything I really want in a depth of 12-18 inches. Beyond that and I always just feel like I'm just trying to fill vertical space I don't really need or even want for that matter. I'd rather have a 48/60" tank that is only 12-18 inches high then a 48/60" tank that is 24" high or greater.

So how many of you guys have gone back to smaller tanks and what was your reasoning.

 

[Kershaw]

I went smaller.because I thought it would be easier to maintain while I was busy. Went from a 120 to a 25. No I am at 125. 48x30x20
I agree that 18to20 is perfect.
So if I had the money I would make or a get a tank made at 18to 20 inch tall but would go 60" or 72 inch by 30. I love having the large foot print but shallow

 

[Crashjack]

Though I actually went larger than the tanks I had when in the hobby over 15 years ago, I went with a shorter (height) tank. My tank is 6'x2'x19". My original reasoning was access. I'm handicapped and have a power chair that elevates and 19" and taking an inch off the stand height made it possible for me to access the top and reach the bottom. I knew I had to go shorter but when I was looking around at tanks for the other dimensions, I noticed that the taller the tank, the smaller it looked. Obviously that is subjective, but as you increase height, a tank becomes more square and the length isn't as prominent. I like depth (front-to-back), but I also realized that water so distorts depth that adding 6" looks like you've added about 2" when you are looking through water.

 

[Kershaw]

Though I actually went larger than the tanks I had when in the hobby over 15 years ago, I went with a shorter (height) tank. My tank is 6'x2'x19". My original reasoning was access. I'm handicapped and have a power chair that elevates and 19" and taking an inch off the stand height made it possible for me to access the top and reach the bottom. I knew I had to go shorter but when I was looking around at tanks for the other dimensions, I noticed that the taller the tank, the smaller it looked. Obviously that is subjective, but as you increase height, a tank becomes more square and the length isn't as prominent. I like depth (front-to-back), but I also realized that water so distorts depth that adding 6" looks like you've added about 2" when you are looking through water.

I also agree with the perception of depth from front to back. My main reason for the larger foot print is Allowing for better aquascapes. I also like to allow lots of swimming room through and around rocks

 

[Amoo]

Going to prop this up for the daytime crowd.

 

[Grey Guy]

If I could, I'd like to use my 120 as a sump and do a nano tank stuffed with corals.

 

[Amoo]

If I could, I'd like to use my 120 as a sump and do a nano tank stuffed with corals.

I'm currently still running my 75G sump on my 60G display and have ordered a 20G sump for the 32G display. Big fan of oversized sumps personally.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

What happened to you is the exact reason I will never run a fuge! I feel it's another piece that I need to maintain in order for my tank to sustain life. It's a ticking time bomb!

When I was smaller I wanted to go bigger and now that im bigger I wouldn't mind going smaller. I think it's that we learn so much as we do things in this hobby there is always a little bit of a "grass is greener" syndrome.

 

[Amoo]

What happened to you is the exact reason I will never run a fuge! I feel it's another piece that I need to maintain in order for my tank to sustain life. It's a ticking time bomb!

When I was smaller I wanted to go bigger and now that im bigger I wouldn't mind going smaller. I think it's that we learn so much as we do things in this hobby there is always a little bit of a "grass is greener" syndrome.

Just to be clear here, I prepare for power failures and extended outages like many of us. That said, a lot of stuff that died was going to probably die regardless. What I didn't plan for was an outage nuking my fuge. Had I planned for it I probably could have prevented it and minimized losses. In my case I don't honestly consider the fuge to be at fault, I would simply blame myself for poor planning. I kind of look at it like blaming a gun for somebody getting shot. Not really a political discussion I want to get into, but suffice it to say, the fuge didn't do anything wrong I just wasn't properly prepared for it.

 

[Grey Guy]

Going from large tank to small tank, the hardest thing for me would to be to give up the big window and just look through a little hole. If I did, I would use a nano for a display, but have a lot of other things feeding it, including a remote DSB, a fuge, and lots of extra volume. I have a lot of extra live rock, I keep in my sump and even reverse cycle the light, to see what grows. I've thought about it for many years. Having a fairly large system, with a small DT. Maybe one day, I'll just do it. Creating a small remote display would be a better way to go, but negotiating the real estate, would be difficult at this point. In other words, "Where could I get permission to put it, and at the same time negotiating why it would be needed.

 

[Amoo]

I think for me a lot of it comes down to what do you want or like in a tank, obviously if I wanted to try to keep 11 tangs together a 60G tank isn't ideal or doable, but for somebody like myself who is mostly a clown and nem guy, it's a lot easier. Don't get me wrong, if I could have a 6x4x1.5 or something like that I would probably do it in a heartbeat, but in the reality of what can I make work feasibly in my home and what do I enjoy, I'm fairly confident I can get just as much if not more enjoyment from a smaller tank as I can from a larger one. I get to keep all the same things I actually want rather them just trying to fill space and get to do it at a reduced operating cost and on a smaller level.

Now don't get me wrong, first world problems right, a 60G DT with a 75G sump, really "small", but still for me at least and what I want to keep, 48" length wise puts you in the ballpark for all of the "stock" lighting options you could hope for and with only 12-18" of depth your penetration is easy.

To your specific point about going from a big window to a smaller window, it has been very different, and the best thing I can do to describe it would be to say you can look through a large shallow window or a smaller but full of depth window. Time will tell, for me, but I feel I'm taking the right path for my reefing enjoyment.

 

[KJoFan]

I don't think there's anything wrong with going smaller if that's what you want. After a few nano sized tank when I started the hobby I upgraded to a 90g, and shortly after that to a 120g. After a few years I downsized to a rimless 80 that was 48x24x16. Those were good dimensions in my opinion. The shallower depth, but a decent footprint. However, I found myself a little burnt out on the hobby overall and ended up tearing down and selling it and sticking with just a 29g Biocube for a couple years for ease of maintenance and upkeep.

Now, I've upgraded the biocube to an IM Fusion 40 and started a 66g (32x24x20) and feel like I'm in a good place. I kind of prefer slightly smaller tanks because it takes less to make them look full/good. lol I don't have a penchant for large fish/tangs so the size of my largest is just fine for me right now.

That's not to say that if I should find myself lacking for coral space down the road I won't consider an upgrade but for the forseeable future I'm content. Do what makes you happy, it's a hobby after all.

 

[andrewkw]

A lot depends what you want out of it. It's not the size of the tank, or even what you put in it but how you take care of it and if it makes you happy. You could have 3 frags fill up a tank if you give it enough time. 1 polyp even. That being said I will share my downsize story :

I went from a 180 back to a 112 that was actually the tank I had prior to the upgrade. After a move in which I lost a large chunk of livestock as not only was it a long distance move but I was in limbo for a couple of months living at my parents with my fish and corals in holding tanks in their bathroom. As I waited to move into my house a lot of livestock died. Then when I finally got everything ready to put the 180 in place in the new house the glass broke.

I reluctantly went back to the 112 gallon tank and initially I was really upset. I saw it as a real step back, especially going back to 18" front to back. Additionally the spot in my house where the tank went was perfect for a 6 foot tank but I only had a 5 foot. I almost bought a new tank but stuff like furniture took precedent so I setup the old tank. Since I lost a lot of livestock it wasn't jam packed by any means. Fast forward a year and everything is filling in and the tank is doing really well. I still want to go back to a 180 or larger later but that can wait for now. I'm probably going to want to move again in a few years and who knows how that will go. So for now I just work on maintaining what I have and adding the odd thing here or there. I miss the rare fish, the large corals that melted, but I am happy enough with what I have for now. Eventually your tank can go so well that you can't replace it if something happens and something eventually will happen. Either because you can't afford it, or because you simply can't purchase giant colonies you've had for a decade or however long it's been since your last crash. When you reach that point it might make sense to downsize even if it's not forever.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I've been thinking that I'd one day like to do a huge sump on a smallish tank maybe a 3:1 ratio kind of a deal. Would be really a lot easier to keep up the water quality.