What is the Best Size for a Reef Tank?

What is the best size for a reef tank? Should you go huge or tiny, or maybe something in between? Want to know the answer? We've got you covered:

Tank Size: What Animals Will it Host?

You can build a reef tank out of nearly everything to anything that can hold water. However, to answer the question about ideal sized tanks, we should answer what type of animals we want to be able to keep. What are you interested in? Shrimp? Gobies? Clownfish? or Tang?

They all have very different care needs that you will need to consider when planning your tank. For example, gobies can clownfish are perfectly happy with smaller tanks in the 10-gallon range. 

It sounds very small. But check out the tank people create on Nano Reef, and you will be quickly convinced that even a tiny 1-gallon tank can be an incredible thing to look at. Of course, that one-gallon reef is probably too small for fish, but maybe a small shrimp, crabs, and certainly corals would be fine in there.

As we work up towards larger fish, we, of course, need a larger tank.

Pygmy Angelfish

Once you get into pygmy angelfish- one of the most popular types of fish in the hobby and a group that we have successfully been able to breed; you want to choose a 20-gallon tank at the minimum to upwards to whatever you seem fit. These are active fish and would need more room.

Tangs

If it is Tangs or larger Angelfish, you are quickly going to be in the 70, 150, or even more size ranges. These are large fish that need a lot of room to swim - some even have special requirements. 

Larger Reef Tank: The Total Cost

Beyond just what sort of fish you want to be able to keep, it is important to think about what you can afford. For example, the price of a larger aquarium is not insignificant, and then you need more lights, bigger pumps, equipment, salt, RO/DI water, electricity, etc.

With a large reef tank, even just basic maintenance adds up over time. So instead of one $12,000 ATI Straton,m you have to buy multiple for a larger tank. 

Larger reef tanks do offer some benefits, though. You can keep nearly any fish, and water chemistry does not change as much. 

After all, remember that fish are coral value stable water parameters above nearly everything else. Your specific alkalinity value doesn't matter much if it is winging wildly every day, and uneaten food, fish waste, and other factors are less likely to spike nitrates in larger tanks.

The solution to pollution is dilution, after all.

Tiny Reef Tank: The Better Option?

The tiny reef tanks, on the other hand, are extremely simple. With a small tank, you do not need to have your RO/DI filter setup, and you can go to the grocery store and buy water to top off the water changes. Instead of needing tons of equipment, you only need a hang-on-back filter, maybe a cheap service skimmer to go with it, a light, and perhaps a heater hidden somewhere under a rock in the tank.

This is a much cheaper way to have an amazing reef tank compared to a 280-gallon behemoth. Beyond just needing less stuff, the thing you do need is often cheaper for smaller tanks as well. 

However, if you want to be fancy, you can use Radion XR15 instead of needing one or more nine hundred dollar XR30s. On a small tank, your light will likely be the single most expensive part of it.

The freshwater planted tank industry has some incredibly high-quality small aquariums that we can use. The $10 10-gallons tank at your local store is fine. However, it does limit the size of fish you can keep in the tank. So, if you have your heart set on a whole school of yellow Tangs, then a 20-gallon aquarium is just not going to cut it.

Final Thought 

So, think about the fish you want to keep over the tank's lifetime and be realistic about the money you have available to spend both upfront and overtime for maintenance. Also, the maintenance cost of a larger tank is not inconsequential.

 

 

 

 

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