Over 30" deep tank

[steve fedyk]

Does anyone have a tank deeper over 30" and how hard is it to care for. What kind of tools do you use to clean and place carols in the bottom. :mrgreen:

[i have crabs]

i had a 30" deep and it peed me off on a daily basis i could just barly reach the bottom and usally got wet doing it.
i would only build another 30" deep tank if i was building a monster like 500-1000g i recently build a 300g and kept it 24" deep and im happy i did.

[super7]

I am pretty tall and have to use a stool to reach the bottom of 30 inch tanks. If you aren't around 6 foot 3 or taller it could be a problem reaching the bottom.

[Brent F]

I had a 30" deep tank with rays in it. For any maintenance I had an arm in the tank. I was always worried about getting stung when doing maintenance or polluting the tank with my skin oils, soaps, etc.

One thing that helped was I siliconed a hard plastic rod on my gravel vac so I could clean the bottom while doing water changes without having to put my arm in the water.
________
Honda RC211V (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Honda_RC211V)

[surgeonfish]

My tank is 48" deep. As the tank is triangular, it is over 5' to the back corner. I think it would be o.k. if you had a fish only tank. However, with a reef tank I usually try and add corals attached to large rocks. It is hard trying to aquascape using long tongs. I have frequently lost small corals or frags that got knocked over and fell into a crack or hole and just couldn't reach it or couldn't grab it. The large tongs are pretty clumsy and large. I have tried using laparoscopic surgical instruments but these are still too short. When we redo our basement, I am going to build a 250 gal reef tank and it is going to be < 30" and convert my upstairs tank into a fish only system. My recommendation is to go shallow.

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k301/Surgeonfish/4.jpg

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k301/Surgeonfish/5.jpg

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k301/Surgeonfish/7.jpg

[steve fedyk]

That it a beautifully designed tank, very nice surgeonfish:smile:. I was thinking about going with a 48" deep reef tank about I did know anyone with that depth of tank, or how to deal with it. I think I'm going to go with a 30" deep tank with a good front to back. Thank you.

[surgeonfish]

I think 30" would be much easier to work with. I have had to watch corals die or have killed them trying to free them using those clumsy tongs. It would be so much easier if I could just grasp the corner of the coral with my fingers. However, some large tanks might look much better deeper than 30" to keep them symmetrically pleasing. However, I would resist going reef because of the difficulty with aquascaping and caring for the corals.