Which Tank and Why???

[overanalyzer]

Hmm thinking of setting up a new tank in the new house (we close tomorrow - FINALLY).
I will most likely have a tank built for me. I am now stuck on two different tank sizes and materials:
Glass Tank - 6 foot long 30 inches wide and 14 (or 16)inches deep.
OR
Acrylic Tank - 8 feet long 30 inches wide and 14 inches deep.
Some notes: I will not go deeperthan 14 or 16 inches. I will have a sump and refugium in a seperate room of the house with about 180 gallons of water capacity for my main filtration.
This will be for a lagoonal reef that has more of a focus of being a good "fish" environment first and reef second. So no rock wall - plenty of space for an area of "open" sand with some manatee grass or turtle grass.
With this in mind which tank and why??
Thanks in advance!!

 

[robchuck]

I voted for the glass tank, mainly because the 8' length of the acrylic tank coupled with the 14"-16" height would look very disproportionate at normal tank-viewing heights, and a 6' length would look better (not to mention, my personal preferance for tanks is glass).
But since you plan to set this tank up as a lagoon, you could likely get away with setting it on a lower stand so that it's easy to look down into the tank. If that's part of the plan, then I don't see anything wrong with the 8 footer. Setting up a lagoonal reef with pendants and little to no bracing on the tank(using proper glass or acrylic thickness of course) would look fantasic!

 

[adamz]

even tho it would be cool to have an 8 foot tank you have it acrylic so its goin to scratc so easy cleaning it even if you move rocks arouund or they get nocked down they hit your glass and put a huge scratch in it

 

[russianspy]

Originally posted by adamz
even tho it would be cool to have an 8 foot tank you have it acrylic so its goin to scratc so easy cleaning it even if you move rocks arouund or they get nocked down they hit your glass and put a huge scratch in it
I picked glass for that reason and because if you scratch glass you can take your finger and rub it out..Sorta. And you don't need 8 feet. If it was an 8 foot glass heck ya

 

[overanalyzer]

THanks all - so far 3-1 glass to acrylic - my thought on the 8 foot is that it will provide a lot of swimming area for the main fish in my tank - a hippo tang. Plus a fair amount of rock work for my Hawaiian Flame Wrasse harem that I want to get ....

 

[yellowtail]

glass,
for all the reasons stated above.

 

[spsaddict]

acrylic..
heres why....
easier to move its much lighter, and i have read to many horror stories of glass blowing out and water spilling out all over... i have a 55 glass and a 210 glass(not set up) but the cube we are also plannin 60x60x30 will be acrlyic

 

[harrysreef]

I voted acrylic only because you expressed it for a lagoon. If it was a reef then glass because of chances to scratch the glass with the rocks.

 

[seeweed]

i vote glass def...........
i am currently changing my tank because it is not deep enough..when it is not too deep the rock falls on the glass

 

[doris]

I vote... questionable. 14" is very shallow. I have an 18 inch tank and my tang won't leave the bottom in which he has plenty of rock caverns and swimming room but freaks when he get 8 inches from the top of the water. I think that depth will severly limit what fish you are able to comfortably put into that tank, other than minnows (damsels), because of the shallow water, especially if you are planning on putting in a sand bed.

 

[overanalyzer]

Interesting point doris - I've seen several shallower cube tanks and the tangs seemed to be OK. My fish want list are mostly gobies (clown and shrimp gobies) with the wrasse harem (shallow reef occupants) and then the tang. I am planning on a shallow sand bed (2" max) as my DSB will be located in the sump room.
Hmm more research on the tangs are in order ....

 

[overanalyzer]

I've decided to go with the acrylic and to also make it deeper - 18 inches deep (contemplating 20 inches).
Thanks for the input folks .... now on to designing the stand for it ....

 

[kistheeze]

with it being 30 inches back to front are you planning 1 MH or two?
That said - the 6 ft vs the 8 ft = 1 less mh.
Personally, I'd go 8ftX30X28 glass with 250W DE mh - isn't that what Kip got?