Well...I'm in the mood for a list.
___WIDER___
Pros:
- Allows for larger fish options. More horizontal swimming space is more important than depth for fish.
- Easier to maintain good gas exchange because of high water to air surface area. (Better Oxygenation and CO2 dissipation and increase in PH )
- Easier to clean and work in. Cleaning/ or gluing flags/ or target feeding is less cumbersome.
- Allows for more variety of species to live in the tank and more territories to be established.
- more room for sump and equipment under the tank!
Cons:
- Takes up more space in your home
- More evaporation: more humidity in the air and have a larger ATO or more frequent refills.
- Burning through more RODI filters with all that ATO refillage! LOL (minor con)
- More lighting Required to cover your tank ($$$$)
- More substrate to clean, or areas detritus to syphon.
- Food gets lost/ wasted easier. More feeding may be required as fish and other livestock are more dispersed.
| TALLER |
Pros:
- Looks more like a real "slice" of the Ocean with more open water
- Larger viewing pane to enjoy your tank.
- Perhaps more favorable for schooling fish who enjoy swimming in open water (Anthias, Chromis....)
- Less lighting fixtures required saving you money, but more penetrating lights may be required.
- Less evaporation
- Maybe Less likely to get "jumpers"? not sure about this but interesting to speculate about.
- Save space in your home since the tank is not taking up all the Square footage.
- more room for individual corals to grow up/out.
- less amount substrate required, if you don't go bare bottom. saving money.
- Good opportunity to build a floating aqua scape since you have so much vertical glass to work with.
- Feeding is simpler. The food will not get lost and wasted as much. It's more likely that the fish will see the food and have a longer chance to eat it when it's dropped in the tank before it swept up in the the overflow or lost in the substrate/ rock crevices.
Cons:
- Rock scaping is more difficult on narrow tanks. Have to be creative to add enough life rock without piling and filling to bottom.
- Need to more carefully consider clearance between tank and ceiling for maintenance and mounting light fixtures (and canopy you you are doing) this will fit.
- Perhaps limiting your fish selection by narrowing the width of your tank.
- Perfect lighting for your coral needs maybe is more difficult. Variation of depth creates PAR challenges.
- Cleaning a deep tank is no fun if you cant reach the bottom. Make sure you can reach to bottom of the back of the tank.
- Flow may be a challenge at depth. Gonna want Vortech ($$$) if you don't want to see the long wires going all the way to the bottom.
- More light shading from stacking rocks and corals growing.
- less surface area means your tank can house less amount of coral and than wide tank.
