What’s the best size for a reef tank?
Should you go huge, or maybe tiny?
Something in between?
Hi guys and girls, I’m ReefMan, and today we’re talking about the ideal reef tank
size.
You can build a reef tank out of nearly anything that will hold water.
I’ve seen tanks built out of large canning jars, all the way up to multiple thousand
gallon tanks built of concrete and fiberglass.
So really, what’s the best size?
I think to answer that, we should think about the types of animals we want to be able to
keep.
What are you interested in?
Shrimp?
Gobies?
Clownfish?
Angelfish?
Tangs?
These all have very different care needs that you’ll need to take into account when planning
your tank.
Gobies and clownfish are perfectly happy with smaller tanks in the 10 gallon range.
That sounds small, but just go and check out the tanks people create on Nano Reef and you’ll
quickly be convinced that even a tiny 1 gallon tank can be an incredible thing to look at.
That one gallon reef is probably too small for fish, but maybe a small shrimp, crabs,
and certainly coral would be fine in there.
As we work up towards larger fish, we of course need a larger tank.
Once you get into pygmy angelfish - one of the most popular types of fish that we keep,
and a group that’s seeing some success with captive breeding - you’re going to be in
the 20ish gallons and up size range.
These active reef fish just need more room.
If it’s tangs or large angelfish you’re looking for, then you’ll quickly be into
the 75, 150, or even more size ranges.
These are large fish that need a lot of room to swim - some even have special requirements.
My tank is as large as it is specifically for the benefit of my Achilles tang, which
needs a lot of room to swim and exercise.
Beyond just what sort of fish you want to be able to keep, it’s important to think
about what you can afford.
The price of a larger aquarium is not insignificant, and then you need more lights, bigger pumps,
more equipment, you use more salt, more RO/DI water, more electricity - with a large reef
tank even just basic maintenance really adds up.
Instead of one twelve hundred dollar ATI Straton, I had to buy three.
Large reef tanks do offer some benefits though - you can keep nearly any fish, and water
chemistry doesn’t change as much.
After all, remember that fish and coral value stable water parameters above nearly everything
else.
Your specific alkalinity value doesn’t matter much if it’s swinging wildly every day,
and uneaten food is less likely to spike nitrates and that sort of thing.
The solution to pollution is dilution, after all.
I’ve also had tiny reef tanks, and I sort of miss the simplicity of them to be honest.
My first reef tank was a 7 gallon minibow reef that sat on my kitchen counter, and it
was great!
I had green star polyps, some neat palythoa, and a few stony corals, along with a goby
and a shrimp.
With a tank this small, you don’t even need to have your own RO/DI filter setup, as you
can just go to the grocery store to buy water for topoff and water changes.
Instead of needing oodles of equipment, you really only need a hang-on-back Aqueon filter,
maybe a cheap surface skimmer to go with it, a light, and maybe a heater hidden somewhere
under some rock in the tank.
This is a much cheaper way to have an amazing reef tank compared to a 280 gallon behemoth.
Beyond needing less stuff, the things you do need are often cheaper on smaller tanks
as well.
If you want to be really fancy, you could use a four hundred dollar Radion XR15 instead
of needing one or more nine hundred dollar XR30s.
On a small reef tank, I think it’s likely that your light will be the single most expensive
part of it.
The freshwater planted tank industry has some incredible high quality small aquariums that
we could use.
Tanks like those built by ADA make for incredible small reef tanks, but remember - anything
that holds water can be a great reef tank.
The ten dollar ten gallon tank at your local store is fine, but the overall quality of
the seventeen gallon or so ADA 60P might be worth it if you have money for a hundred and
seventy dollar aquarium.
That size really does limit the fish you can keep though, so if you have your heart set
on a school of Yellow Tangs, then a 20 gallon gallon aquarium is just not going to cut it.
Think about the fish you want to keep over the lifetime of the tank, and be realistic
about the money you have available to spend - both up front, and over time for maintenance.
That maintenance cost on a large tank is not inconsequential.
I hope this sparks some thoughts for you while you think about your next, or maybe first,
reef tank.
My science content is coming back soon, right now there’s not a whole lot of aquarium-relevant
articles coming out.
As soon as I get one, they’ll be back on the channel.
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leave a comment down below.
It helps, and it’s awesome to hear from you all about what you liked and didn’t
like in the videos.
Till next time, be kind to each other, stay safe, and have an incredible rest of your
day.
Bye!