Question: Cost aside, is a smaller reef tank easier to care for than a larger tank?

[daniella3d]

If you plan it well, a small tank is easier to take care of because it require less amount of water for the water change.

The most important part is to have a ATO (auto top off) so that salinity will not vary with evaporation. Second is a skimmer.

I had a nano for many years and still do, I spend much less time on my nano than on my large tank. It is a 15 gallons with a 10 gallons sump, with ATO and a Deltec 300 skimmer. I do water change 20% every two week, so around 5 gallons, or just a bucket.

The main limitation is you cannot have a lot of fish in there. Maybe 2 or 3 at most and small fish wereas with a large tank you can have pretty much what ever fish you want.

For the small tank, I do not need to dose, I simply do the water changes. With my larger tank I must dose for calcium and kh, plus with the tons of corals I have more cleaning and trimming to do.