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What is your favorite tank size


Taylor Blake
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I can't believe I am saying this, but it has to be a 10 gallon aquarium. Cheap, lightweight, just barely big enough. 

Sure 20 longs, 40 breeders all have their appeal, but in the cost, volume, size triangle you really cannot beat the old trusty 10 gallon aquarium.

@fishnerd illustrates the beauty of a 10 gallon. He has 11 in a bedroom and is running a breeding program out of his 10 gallons tanks.

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2 minutes ago, Bill said:

@Daniel and @fishnerd, what filters do you like best on your 10 gallons, in cases where you do and don't care about it taking up real estate inside the tank?

 

None of my 10 gallon tanks have a filter in them. I do keep a lot of plants in my tanks to care of any fish waste.

I am a big fan of sponge filters. It’s the only kind I have.

But if there’s not a lot of fish in the tank, I don’t run any filter at all.

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For a 'display tank', 125 g because it's about the biggest you can get before the prices start getting crazy. If I could only have 1 tank, it'd probably be a 125. But for adding to a fish room, I'm really starting to like 10s turned on their side. Pretty efficient use of shelf space, and offers tons of species only tank options.

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40 breeder for sure!  I would love to have a large enough fish room to accommodate 30-40 of these wonderful tank.  A boy can dream.

I also really do enjoy the 30 breeders I set up some months back from Aquarium Masters.  Having that same 40 breeder footprint but with 4 less inches of height is nice since I didn't have as much rack height to work with.  On that note, the Aquarium Masters black silicone is just classy. 🙂

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I don’t really have a favorite size tank since the species I’m going to keep in it determines the tank I’m going to choose. My Discus tank is a 120 4x2x2 lots of room side to side, front to back, and top to bottom, The Apistograma nijsseni are in a 20 L there’s no wasted space, the tank is long enough to have three females (each with a cave) and two males along with sight line breaks and just tall enough for the Neons to act as dithers. The 40 breeder as many others have said gives you lots of options. I’ve got a colony of Kribs sharing the tank with Panda Corys, Brilliant Rasobora, and Von Rio Tetras. I think my least favorite tank at this point is the 29. My beef with it are the dementions being more than twice as tall as it is wide. It also may have something to do with the primary fish that are in it Nannacara anomola which basically use the bottom 6-8 inches of the tank for 90% of the time. Just my 2 cents.

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Edited by Paul
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Let me preface this by mentioning, I have an EXTREME bias on tank sizes due to being a rainbow fish fanatic.

My favorite all around tank is the 40g breeder.  It checks a lot of levels of perfection as far as I'm concerned.  After that would be the 150g (5'x2'x2') which is surprisingly popular among competition aquascapers... I just like the amount of swim room it gives my bows.  Finally, for raising up baby fish I love the 20g L and if you can find them, 75g L tanks.

I think in a "dream world" scenario I'd likely own nothing but 40Bs and 150g displays in a dedicated fish room with a small smattering of 20L to act as fry systems like Master Breeder Dean uses.  A fish nerd can dream!

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It may just be the area that I'm in, but for some reason 36" x12.5x 17" tanks have been showing up on craigslist. I use cinderbocks and 48" 2x4s to hold tanks and the 36" fits perfect between the stacked blocks without sticking out wider than the rack itself. The extra footprint of the 40b would be nice for the fish and is more fun but given I can just plug these 12.5" wide right into the space below makes it really easy.  

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On 9/19/2020 at 6:57 AM, Daniel said:

I can't believe I am saying this, but it has to be a 10 gallon aquarium. Cheap, lightweight, just barely big enough. 

Sure 20 longs, 40 breeders all have their appeal, but in the cost, volume, size triangle you really cannot beat the old trusty 10 gallon aquarium.

@fishnerd illustrates the beauty of a 10 gallon. He has 11 in a bedroom and is running a breeding program out of his 10 gallons tanks.

I agree with @Daniel, my personal favorite is a heavily planted 10 gallon aquarium.  They are inexpensive & versatile.  

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On 9/16/2020 at 5:22 PM, aquachris said:

I think the 55 is kinda useless lol.  There are certain fish it can do, but it just seems awkward.  

I currently have a 40 (standard?  tall?) and I'm wishing it could be just a little larger.   I have a schools of 12 tetras and 12 panda corys as well as a pair of dwarf cichlids and it feels like it's on the verge of being over-crowded.  I assumed that the 55 would be the next best step (not likely to happen as I, like @Ken Burke, enjoy being married.)

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I'm also a big fan of 40 breeders. Big enough to keep a decent amount of fish, easy to stack, good price if you get it at the right time and not too hard to haul. Least favorite is 55 gallon. It looks nice from the front, but side view is just sad. I have only owned 1, but won't get another. 

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My favorite tank is the only one I've got fully planted and stocked. It's the 40 gallon breeder as well. I call it the Cory Cat tank. 19 cory's and black water to boot. I have my chair right next to it and can watch it for hours. Easy to maintain. I also have an awkward 55. Won't get another.

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On 9/19/2020 at 10:26 AM, Bill said:

@Daniel and @fishnerd, what filters do you like best on your 10 gallons, in cases where you do and don't care about it taking up real estate inside the tank?

 

i have a central air system using the linear piston pump from Aquarium Co-Op, its definately oversized but i have installed a few bleed valves. I was using pond pumps but they were to loud and didnt put out enough air.

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I have three, the 40 breeder, 20 high, and 20 long. 

Many have mentioned the 40 breeder and 20 long, however for those that raise fish like angelfish and discus the 20 high is a much better tank. In the case of angelfish a little deeper tank helps those tall fins to develop. Discus fry tend to get and keep a much more rounded body shape as opposed to elongated.

 

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6 minutes ago, aquachris said:

I'm really intrigued by the 53s, just dont see a lot in my area.

Yeah, I mentioned in another post, I would have definitely gone with a 75 over a 55 but just couldn't do the extra foot (due to room decorum, this is a display tank in living room) so I started looking for 53s. I called a few local shops and one just had one sitting on their display floor so I got lucky. A lot cheaper than the one in the link but if I hadn't found it I would pay the the $130. 

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If I couldn't have gotten a 53 I'd have used a 40 gallon breeder and built a custom stand a little higher. I built all my stands out of 2x4 and just stain them, but for a display I was going to do something like this (I think using red cedar 4x4): 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F551198441868460644%2F&psig=AOvVaw2SEJVyFSt9pWKaBeWHEZ3v&ust=1601074131865000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCPiM-YjwguwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAd

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  • 6 months later...

My favorite so far is between my 56 gallon or 50 gallon from aquarium masters. It’s on a 40 breeder footprint, but a few inches taller. Allows me to grow more plants in the background taller. I really would like a 75 gallon though. I just don’t have the space for it upstairs and I like to interact and watch my fish several times a day. 

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