Dumb Question I have to ask.

[BreakdowN]

Seeing as I'm new to the hobby of reefing. I was curious about doing a reef tank with fish corals and all that good stuff in a Deep Blue Professional 80 Gallon Frag Reef Ready tank? I know it's mostly for just fragging but could you make tank build instead of fragging?

 

[heathd.hd]

There's some people with shallow tanks running around here. No one will hate if you don't follow the mold. Lol

 

[BreakdowN]

There's some people with shallow tanks running around here. No one will hate if you don't follow the mold. Lol

Well I understand that lol but is it harder to do or will it not work properly?

 

[heathd.hd]

No sand and small rocks Idk why you can't. Kind of a top down tank.

 

[cginter]

It's all personal preference... Being a shallow open top tank, you are limited to what u should/shouldn't have for fish and coral. (Ex: Sps require lots of flow, and some fish are well known jumpers).

 

[KorD]

I do not see a problem with it at all.. I ran a 20 gal long tank for a long time when I first got into the hobby... Now I'm on a 29 gal tank..LOL

 

[LetItReef]

16" high? You are good to go.

 

[Stephanie11]

That tank will work perfect! No reason it can't. There are 3 major reasons why people don't use a tank like that more often.

Money. I can buy a bigger tank for the same price. I spent $225 on a brand new 125 gallon for instance
Lighting. Your going to need more lights and dim them because of a wide base vs height
Flow. You are going to need more powerheads or a good way (spay bar and powerheads) to get good flow and no dead spots.

There are more reasons but I'll stick to those

I love shallow reefs. Might be one of my next ventures. Do a sick chalice tank, and it'll be easy to feed them.

 

[tonymission]

Shallow tanks are my favorites!
I have two of these for my grow out room but I'll be building a shallow tank for my office soon.
I wouldn't even look at it as a compromise, you're just ahead of everyone else by a few years

 

[tonymission]

That tank will work perfect! No reason it can't. There are 3 major reasons why people don't use a tank like that more often.

Money. I can buy a bigger tank for the same price. I spent $225 on a brand new 125 gallon for instance
Lighting. Your going to need more lights and dim them because of a wide base vs height
Flow. You are going to need more powerheads or a good way (spay bar and powerheads) to get good flow and no dead spots.

There are more reasons but I'll stick to those

I love shallow reefs. Might be one of my next ventures. Do a sick chalice tank, and it'll be easy to feed them.

I'm not sure about any of those.

Larger tank? Is the 125 18" front to back? Booo no fun. There's not a lot you can do with vertical tank space. Overall gallons isn't a big deal if the dimensions aren't as usable.

Lighting? It's only 2' across. Any normal light will cover this. I've tried them all, trust me. If you want to go SPS these tanks are great because you can get acceptable par anywhere in the tank.

Flow? Um... I have two mp40s on them at 40% and could probably go surfing in there! Not sure how 6" inches front to back changes anything besides making it better. Lol

 

[BreakdowN]

That tank will work perfect! No reason it can't. There are 3 major reasons why people don't use a tank like that more often.

Money. I can buy a bigger tank for the same price. I spent $225 on a brand new 125 gallon for instance
Lighting. Your going to need more lights and dim them because of a wide base vs height
Flow. You are going to need more powerheads or a good way (spay bar and powerheads) to get good flow and no dead spots.

There are more reasons but I'll stick to those

I love shallow reefs. Might be one of my next ventures. Do a sick chalice tank, and it'll be easy to feed them.

Could I put a sand bed in that tank? Or would that defeat the purpose?

 

[Skydvr]

I'm a big fan of shallow tanks. I like the look. If you don't keep fish that use a lot of vertical space or keep species that need the vertical separation (timid bottom dwellers with aggressive surface dwellers), the depth isn't really needed. Deep tanks tend to lend themselves to crammed rock walls to avoid the upper portion of the tank being completely empty. Whereas shallow tanks tend to lend themselves better to more open rockscapes.

The length and width aren't that different from the standard tanks. You shouldn't have issues getting sufficient flow or finding standard lighting solutions. You may have to dial pumps back slightly to prevent sloshing water over the sides and you may need to dim lighting, or raise the fixture. Raising the fixture on a shallower tank may allow you to get the spread you need while not having to go with extra lights or as big of a fixture as you would need on a similar dimensioned deeper tank.

That tank does have a top rim, so putting a top of some sort on there isn't an issue.

 

[Skydvr]

You can do what ever you want, no issue with adding a sand bed.

 

[BreakdowN]

You can do what ever you want, no issue with adding a sand bed.

Okay that's awesome to here. I personally like the way deep blue looks but heard there stands are crummy. I hate that because I want to buy a package deal and not have to build a stand but I honestly like that tank the most.

 

[Stephanie11]

tony you apparently don't know how to read. I wrote a long drawn out post about your comment and decided to can it

 

[Skydvr]

I do like the dimensions on their tanks. The betta barracks are pretty awesome for nano tanks. I have one set up as a freshwater planted tank with cherry shrimp, sparrow rasborahs, and a scarlet badis (all fish under 1/2"). They are completely unsuitable for bettas if you use all the dividers though, the compartments are way too small for a single fish.

I feel like the majority of the stands are pretty horrible, but I haven't looked at any of the higher end stuff.


Are you picking up the tank locally? I see you are in Mass as well, just curious as to where you are looking. If you are out near Framing/Natick, check out Aquaful. He's got really good prices and works with people. He recently moved his shop to his house, but was working on building some really nice systems to display his livestock.

 

[BreakdowN]

I do like the dimensions on their tanks. The betta barracks are pretty awesome for nano tanks. I have one set up as a freshwater planted tank with cherry shrimp, sparrow rasborahs, and a scarlet badis (all fish under 1/2"). They are completely unsuitable for bettas if you use all the dividers though, the compartments are way too small for a single fish.

I feel like the majority of the stands are pretty horrible, but I haven't looked at any of the higher end stuff.


Are you picking up the tank locally? I see you are in Mass as well, just curious as to where you are looking. If you are out near Framing/Natick, check out Aquaful. He's got really good prices and works with people. He recently moved his shop to his house, but was working on building some really nice systems to display his livestock.

I have a local store out here called School of Fish and they have a great deal on tanks so I'm going to call them tomorrow and get a price for just the tank. The dimensions 48 c 24 x 16.

 

[tonymission]

tony you apparently don't know how to read. I wrote a long drawn out post about your comment and decided to can it

That's probably a good idea. I can't read anyway.

 

[Skydvr]

All right, so you aren't too far from me. I'm up near Amherst. I like to stop in when I am passing through to check out their $5, $10, and $15 frags.

You should check out Aqua Dreams in Agawam. They have some really nice corals.

C.T.A.R.S. is a really good club. They are based out of CT and typically have meetings in Manchester CT at the Lutz Children's Museum (they run a tank for them). A lot of really great, friendly, helpful people. There are a lot of discounts at local shops (some in MA) and people sell frags super cheap that are really healthy. It is a lot closer than Boston or Buffalo and they hold meetings on the weekend. (I'd love to check out a Boston Reefer's Society meeting, but I can't do a weekday meeting and make it back out this way for school the next day) CTARS has a forum on here as well.

 

[VelasCorals]

That is a great tank and dimensions. If I setup a new tank at home I would pick something similar but in acrylic of course.