Is Your Aquarium Too Big?

[Frank]

2 minutes ago, lefty o said:

i think you will find that the height of the stand will also affect this.

Yes. During my trials, I found that having my hip joint even with the tank top was best.

[Maggie]

I have a 45 gallon that's too tall for me on its stand. It's 24" high and the stand is 28" high. I can barely reach the bottom standing on my tippy toes as long as I use a chair so I can balance with the other arm. I'd rather have a 55 gallon or a 40 breeder. 

[Biotope Biologist]

I am a huge fan of low slung aquariums for a multitude of reasons. One of them includes the ease of reaching places to clean. I have a brackish mangrove biotope in the logistics stage, who knows if I will actually build it. I still have to work on damselfly/dragonfly breeding this summer. But feel free to think about one for your next setup! Here is a picture of one AZ aquatic gardens did. Very similar to the one I will be building but mine will only be about 60 gallons and include limestone and dead coral as hardscape.

https://azgardens.com/product/red-mangrove-rhizophora-mangle/

[L.W. Wetarm]

I purposely built this cabinet to place the tank closer to eye level @ 60”. It’s located in the traffic path from living room to dining room and kitchen where no one sits so I thought that since it’s a decorative planted tank, it would be more easily observed a little higher. 
 

Not too much of a problem to maintain. I can do most front glass cleaning and maintenance without a stool. When I have to get to the back of the tank, I bring a little foot step stool in from the garage. 

[Krakens_tanks]

So I have had a tank that was to big but not do to it's size it was my inexperience that made it to big. I was less then a year back into my fish keeping after a long break from a very mediocre attempt to keep fish and I received a 135g for free long as I resealed it. Let me tell you the idea if a tank that big was a straight adrenaline rush. I had all these ideas of grandeur.... Let's skip the long process if sealing it 3 times and waiting months to get everything set up. So there I was 135 dual sunsun canisters. Expensive lights. 8 monster fish I got for super cheap off facebook with no research into thier care instructions. And I was doing bucket water changes. Was not prepared for there level of aggression since all fish were 12" or larger.

 

So like I said it was way to big a task for me at the time thankfully I also learned a lot from that tank and now could run that tank smooth and easy. I guess my point is if your asking what's to big and what's not it really comes down to what are you comfortable with both physically and skill wise I'm sure plenty of others have given great advice but that's just my 2 cents. 

 

[mynameisnobody]

Personally, I only purchase 75 gallon aquariums or larger. I own my home and have plenty of room (3100 sq ft, 6 bedroom). I prefer having larger over smaller. I’ve had 20’s and 40’s before, however I’m mainly a rainbow fish guy so anything under 48” is only adequate for the pseudomogil’s or rhad’s. I think the 40 gallon breeder is an excellent sized aquarium and if I still lived in my apartment in the Bronx, then I’d probably have a ton of those. I also have (3) 150 gallon stock tanks and they are the easiest to maintain out of all my aquariums.