So I am looking for a 180 and looking for thoughts between the Marine land and the Aqueon Reef ready tanks. Any pros or cons on either. I build my own stands and I think that both companies void their warranty if their stand is not used......Any thoughts
Having bought a Marineland 180 2 years ago myself, and my brother buying an Aqueon 210 a year ago... It's a difficult decision.
If you go Reef-Ready, the Marineland is better, imo, because they use 1" holes all around and the corner flows work better for the tank than the offset Aqueon. The Aqueon uses 3/4" return holes with barbed bulkheads, meaning you're only getting a 1/2" throughput on the returns, which is too small for that size tank.
If you're drilling yourself, I would say Aqueon because I feel they're made better.
The only reason I went Reef-Ready was because Marineland has those covers on the overflow weirs with lower vents that create a syphon to suck water into the overflow from lower in the tank and it works well. It's difficult to get things over the top, into the filter. Aqueon has the lower vents to, but it's just 3 small slits and I don't think you can remove theirs for cleaning. A lot of gunk gets caught in that lower vent passage.
The 1" holes on the Marineland is what sealed the deal for me. Plus those offset overflows create a void on the extreme ends, next to the overflow, where things settle because there's not much flow.
