Upgrading and Deciding Between Two Tanks - Need Some Help Making A Decision

[p3rmafrost]

Hello Everyone!

Cross post from Reef2Reef, I asked for some feedback over there as well.

 

I currently have a Red Sea Reefer 250 and I'm looking to upgrade to a larger tank. Ideally I was looking for something around 100-120 gallons.

 

I found a couple of tanks up for grabs and both are within the range of what I was looking for, but they're totally different styles of tank. I'm looking for a little feedback on the pros and cons, and what your thoughts are on these two setups.

 

Setup #1 is a Clarity Plus Acrylic tank with a single corner overflow. Tank measures 48” x 36” x 18” which would give it a weight around 118 pounds empty, and a volume of just under 135 gallons. The tank is in excellent condition, but doesn't have any additional supplies, no stand, no sump, etc. I have everything I need to set up the tank except for the stand and bulkheads. I have a 15 gallon sump I could use, or I can pick up one from a club member. There are plenty available. The long pole in the tent will be tracking down a stand.

 

Setup #2 is a Marineland 125 with dual corner overflows. It's a rimmed tank (not my favorite) but it comes with everything. Complete sump, skimmer, pumps, gyres, stand, lights, etc. This tank measure 72x18x22 and is glass, which gives it a weight around 240 pounds. The stand is solid oak with a canopy. I have no idea what the stand weighs, but I imagine it's incredibly heavy.

 

My initial thoughts:

Setup #1 is far easier to move, it has a slightly smaller footprint, and is compatible with my current light setup. I have a 4 foot long hybrid LED/T5 setup that I really like. It's taller than my Reefer, which will make it challenging to reach the bottom of the tank, but that isn't too much of a hurdle. I know acrylic scratches, but I don't have anyone at home that I would worry about damaging the tank. The seller is asking $350 for the tank. Major downside is tracking down a stand and plumbing.

 

Setup #2 is a complete package. It even comes with the live rock and fish. The size is going to be a hassle. I'm not sure that I have an easy way to move it. I have space for it but getting it home is going to be a trial. If I keep the canopy I'm stuck with the built in lighting. I'm not sure exactly what it is, so it might not be as good as my setup. The seller is asking $600 for the total package. This is a great deal in my opinion, but I think the price is low because of the major effort it will take to get it home (plus I have to get it down a set of stairs).

 

What are your thoughts? What would you choose, and why? What factors am I not considering that should play into my decision?

 

Thanks!

[YHSublime]

First blush, neither. 

 

I've never owned an acrylic tank, but if I did, I'd most likely scratch the heck out of it. 

 

The Marinelands (at least the deep dimensions) are notorious for having seam failures, and absolutely terrible stands. 

 

If I had to choose one, I'd probably do the marineland. I'd choose a date, get friends to help, and rent the clubs suction cups. Get a few plastic storage containers for rock and livestock. For less than $30 a day you can rent a truck from Uhaul if you don't have one, or a vehicle big enough. I've also hired folks off Task Rabbit to help move tanks, couches, and an industrial kegerator into my basement. 

 

There's no rush for something bigger, so I would wait until the stars aligned and everything was perfect. 

[p3rmafrost]

That's extremely helpful.  I had no idea they were notorious for seam failures. I guess that effectively eliminates that one from the running. I've heard the acrylic can be a challenge to get coraline off of. I keep my tank pretty clean and I know it would drive me nuts if I couldn't keep the glass/acrylic clean.

 

I'm going to look at Task Rabbit, I've never used it before, that's a good tip!

[YHSublime]

2 minutes ago, p3rmafrost said:

That's extremely helpful.  I had no idea they were notorious for seam failures. I guess that effectively eliminates that one from the running. I've heard the acrylic can be a challenge to get coraline off of. I keep my tank pretty clean and I know it would drive me nuts if I couldn't keep the glass/acrylic clean.

 

I'm going to look at Task Rabbit, I've never used it before, that's a good tip!

 

At least the Deep Dimensions. I've known more then a few WAMAS members who have had the issues, an old DMV vendor had the problem on their store display, and if you do a quick google search you'll get a lot of first hand experiences from folks. 

[Origami]

Having owned both acrylic and glass displays, I'd never go back to acrylic. The main reason is keeping the panels clean and clear of coraline algae. If you're not on top of it all of the time, it's a royal pain to be armpit-deep with a hand scraper chipping away using a plastic scraper. However, on the plus-side, it's clearer and a lot lighter. And the tank you cited is 36" front to back, that gives a lot of room for aquascaping. Make sure that the panels are of an appropriate thickness or braced, otherwise the acrylic can bow outward. Flat bottom means putting the tank on a sheet of foam to distribute weight evenly.

 

I prefer glass but the dual corner overflows take up too much space in the tank that you mentioned. It's also just 18" front to back. I wouldn't go for anything less than 24" front to back and definitely would prefer an external overflow box so I'm not taking up a lot of space with top-to-bottom overflows.

 

Honestly, my thought here is to wait for something better in glass. But if you're set on one of these two, I'd go with the acrylic simply because of the extra front-to-back space. Just know that, with this tank, you'll have to really stay on top of the display-panel maintenance.

 

 

[p3rmafrost]

@Origami

@YHSublime

Y'all rock.

 

Good points on the 18 being sub-optimal. We have a 55 gallon freshwater turtle tank that we're looking at upgrading specifically for that reason. The 18 inches leaves a lot to be desired for free swimming.

 

I didn't realize you can't use a razor on the acrylics. I figured it would scrape it if you came in at the wrong angle, I thought you'd have to be careful but switching to a plastic scraper sounds like a hassle.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of the tank. You are both dialed in on this stuff, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was another red flag I missed.

 

 

[epleeds]

For a reef tank 24” depth front to back is a must have in my opinion.  open top as well. I hate this cut outs due to lack of spread for lights. 
 

best tanks in my opinion for display are 

 

48x24x16 - 80 gallon display 

48x24x22 - 100 gallon

48x24x24 - 120 gallon

60x24x24 - 150 gallon

72x24x24 - 180 gallon. 
 

SCA has some great prices for tanks. 

 

[p3rmafrost]

@epleeds Thank you! I'm primarily looking at 48 inch tanks because of the light I picked up from you. I'm really enjoying it now that I finally got all the rewire work done. From the feedback here it looks like I should hold off and keep an eye out for a 48x24xSomething tank

[YHSublime]

1 hour ago, p3rmafrost said:

 From the feedback here it looks like I should hold off and keep an eye out for a 48x24xSomething tank

 

Yes. 

Is there a rush? 

 

2 hours ago, YHSublime said:

First blush, neither. 

There's no rush for something bigger, so I would wait until the stars aligned and everything was perfect. 

 

2 hours ago, Origami said:

Honestly, my thought here is to wait for something better in glass.

 

 

[p3rmafrost]

Nope. No rush. I like to browse some of the local stuff for sale and spotted these two. I got excited, almost made a poor decision, and my resident WAMAS gurus talked me out of it. I'll keep an eye out for something more in line with your suggestions and if you happen to run across something feel free to message me

[Origami]

I didn't realize that the 36-inch dimension on the acrylic tank was height. That tank is unsuitable for a reef in my opinion. The euro bracing on top leaves little room to move stuff in and out (especially if you have colonies growing on rock one day in the future) and will block a lot of light. Also, more depth means more water for light to have to penetrate. Plus, unless the light is fairly directive, you'll lose a lot of light to spillover.

No, hard pass on that tank, too.

Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk

[Origami]

A standard 120 is a better fit. But, if you're up for it, either get it with external overflows or drill and install them yourself.

Depending on where you live, a member here may be able to help you with this if needed.

Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk

[YHSublime]

22 minutes ago, Origami said:

A standard 120 is a better fit. But, if you're up for it, either get it with external overflows or drill and install them yourself.

Depending on where you live, a member here may be able to help you with this if needed.

 

That's what I did with my 80 gallon Deep Blue. I'm not a big fan of any internal overflow, its such a real estate grab. 

 

Original:

 

Removed internal and scraped back

 

Drilled external:

 

Fin:

[howaboutme]

I would choose depth over both height (especially) and width for reef tank. Choose width for fish or both if you can afford it and have the space.

 

I'd also look for external overflows or ones you can mod to get external so you can run a bean animal and give maximum space inside the tank. 

[Origami]

4 hours ago, Origami said:

...The euro bracing on top leaves little room to move stuff in and out (especially if you have colonies growing on rock one day in the future) .... 
 

By the way, the above quote is the voice of experience. I once had an acrylic 180 with eurobracing (like the tank in your picture but in standard 180 dimensions. When it came time to move, I couldn't get some of my larger colonies out of the tank (intact). So, knowing that I wasn't going to keep the tank anyway, I braced the top of the tank with wooden beams and bar clamps and, using a circular saw, cut most of the eurobracing out. 

 

Pretty extreme, but it worked.

[p3rmafrost]

17 hours ago, Origami said:

I didn't realize that the 36-inch dimension on the acrylic tank was height. That tank is unsuitable for a reef in my opinion. The euro bracing on top leaves little room to move stuff in and out (especially if you have colonies growing on rock one day in the future) and will block a lot of light. Also, more depth means more water for light to have to penetrate. Plus, unless the light is fairly directive, you'll lose a lot of light to spillover.

No, hard pass on that tank, too.

Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk


 

This certainly falls into the "the more you know" category for me. I would have bet money that the top slid out. It looks like it sits in a channel that allows it to slide. If that sucker doesn't move it would make for a massive pain in the rear to clean/arrange/move corals. I'm with you on the hard pass.

[p3rmafrost]

17 hours ago, Origami said:

A standard 120 is a better fit. But, if you're up for it, either get it with external overflows or drill and install them yourself.

Depending on where you live, a member here may be able to help you with this if needed.

Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk
 

120 seems like the sweet spot for me. I have plenty of room for a tank that size and I think most of my existing gear will work well on it. I'll have to keep prowling the forums until something pops up. I'm in the Sterling area, and I really like the idea of the external overflow. I hadn't put much thought into it until this discussion, but now that I'm looking at them it seems like the way to go.

[p3rmafrost]

17 hours ago, YHSublime said:

 

That's what I did with my 80 gallon Deep Blue. I'm not a big fan of any internal overflow, its such a real estate grab. 

 

Original:

 

Removed internal and scraped back

 

Drilled external:

 

Fin:

This is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for. Maybe a little bigger but a nice rectangular, rimless tank about 4 feet wide would be perfect. I think I'm going to follow your lead on this and look for something I can slap an external overflow on.

[p3rmafrost]

15 hours ago, howaboutme said:

I would choose depth over both height (especially) and width for reef tank. Choose width for fish or both if you can afford it and have the space.

 

I'd also look for external overflows or ones you can mod to get external so you can run a bean animal and give maximum space inside the tank. 

I'm with you. I was looking into this one because the price was right and the size was good, but it seems like the juice isn't worth the squeeze with the 36 inch height. I'll keep looking for something a little shorter.

[p3rmafrost]

13 hours ago, Origami said:

By the way, the above quote is the voice of experience. I once had an acrylic 180 with eurobracing (like the tank in your picture but in standard 180 dimensions. When it came time to move, I couldn't get some of my larger colonies out of the tank (intact). So, knowing that I wasn't going to keep the tank anyway, I braced the top of the tank with wooden beams and bar clamps and, using a circular saw, cut most of the eurobracing out. 

 

Pretty extreme, but it worked.

Wow...Right now most of my corals are the size of a baseball or smaller. If I'm lucky I'll get to the point where they're so big I have to figure out how to get them out of the tank. When that day comes I really don't want to have to take a saw to my tank. That said, thanks to the feedback from everyone here hopefully I can avoid that!