Bow Front vs Flat Front

[alpha]

So I'm moving next month, and its about time that i start thinking about changing my Reef tank around.
Im considering downgrading from a 125 long 6ft tank to a 90 Gal Bow Front Tank.
Does anyone have any pro's and cons to the bow front tank? I personally think the bow front tanks look nicer, but at the same time i love my 6ft flat front tank.
Thanks for your input.

 

[meowzer]

I find the bow fronts harder to clean, and harder to get good pictures
I have bows and flat....if I could trade any in......it would be the bowfronts

 

[btldreef]

Cleaning, as Meowzer mentioned, is much more difficult, as well as pictures.
But the big deal with bows, especially for saltwater, is flow. It is much harder to get the proper flow in a bow, corner, hexagon or wave tank.

 

[snakeblitz33]

I like the look of bowfronts, but I wouldn't want to own one for the reasons given above.

 

[1guydude]

my 1st tank was a bowfront.... i personally enjoy my 20L more though. My most recent purchase was a 75g so i prefer the rectangle tanks too.
As Btl said....flow can be something hard to achieve but its said that the bowfronts are more elegant and european.... also a lil more fish swim room lol... im gonna do a hex tank one day...

 

[saxman]

My biggest peeve about bowfronts is that they distort your view of the tank, esp if you shoot photos thru it. I'd prefer a pentagon to a bowfront if you want a corner tank. If you don't want a corner tank, get a flat-back hex.

 

[artemk]

When you guys talk about achieving the "perfect flow" what does that mean??
I have a 55G and have two powerheads. One is on the left side going across (long) to the right side (1025 gph) , and the second one (425 gph) is set on the back wall, right side of the tank blowing to the front. Both are koralia brands.
I don't want to hijack the thread, but I just saw you guys talking about flow and wanted to see what the ultimate one is!
Thanks!

 

[saxman]

I think where folks are going is that some BF tanks are built as corner tanks, so they come to a "point" in the back center. It's kinda hard to get flow back there. The way I got around this with a pentagon was to add a flat O/F wall across the rear "corner", and turn it into a "RR" tank. I also added a two-return CL as well as a MJ1200 with a 1/4" LL "Y" over the O/F wall for additional surface agitation. This tank was a SH setup, but I was never truly happy with the flow, even after that.
As for "optimum flow", other than no "dead spots", it really boils down to what you plan to keep in the tank. I much prefer CL's to PH's tho.

 

[snakeblitz33]

I really like closed loops as well, but seeing that you can spend just as much on an external pump and an oceans motions unit as you can an mp40, IDE rather the powerhead than worry about bulkheads leaking.
Like everything else in this hobby, it's all preference.

 

[travelerjp98]

I don't like bow front tanks for the reasons above, and also because they are usually more $. Plus, as Greg mentioned, I don't like the way they distort the view....

 

[beth]

The plus to the bowfront is home decor. It is a prettier piece of furniture to look at then your average rectangle tank.
I had a bow 72 reef tank and didn't feel like I had flow issues, but I also had a lot of pumps going. The 72 is only 4' and 18W only in the middle. Pretty small footprint.
The problem I did have was hood. It really wasn't a big problem because I worked everything out long before I bought the tank. I had a bowfront hood made for it. Nowadays, you will see bowfront hoods available retail.
As far as pics go, didn't really see a lot of issues, but I never took pics of display tanks on rectangle tanks either. Photos of tanks came in to vogue when I jointed SWF, and I had the bow by then. Due to traveling frequently, I have not set up another tank since taking the bow down in 2005.
If you really just want a bowfront because you love its looks, go for it! All problems are surmountable.
An acyclic bowfront might address some of the concerns mentioned by others.