Time for a new tank - size?

[shoggoth43]

After last night's upheaval I'm giving serious thought to retiring the 45 gallon tank. My dilemma is that I don't necessarily have the cash to seriously upgrade. I can find a 40 gallon breeder tank that's obviously slightly less volume but instead of a 36x13" profile is a 36x18" footprint.

Is going to the slightly smaller size tank a bad idea or will the larger footprint give the discus I have more room to spread out and the additional surface area provide better living conditions? Currently there are three subadults in there. Or maybe two subadults and one more juvie. I'm not really sure where the cutoff is. The two bigger ones are roughly palm sized. The other 40 breeder I have currently has three juvies and 6 corys and 25 cardinals and 6 amano shrimp. The older discus get at least a 50% water change somwhere on the order of 4-5 times a week and sometimes daily. Today's was a 95% change. The juvies get at least 50% daily until they get bigger.

Thoughts?

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[rickztahone]

i know this wasnt the question but i wouldnt put 3 discus together, especially 2 adults and a juvi. i currently have a 55 w/ 4 discus and they are constantly bickering so i can just imagine your larger discus w/ a smaller footprint. bigger is always better. craigslist can be a goldmine

[fishorama]

I'd keep an eye on craig's list for a 75g, there are sometimes good deals depending on where you live.

[shoggoth43]

Actually they all came in at the same time. Two of them really exploded growthwise. I lost one due to some unknown issue with the tank that I suspect was related to bombing the vindictive winged pests in the air conditioner with raid. The two really small ones were just getting bullied into the corner so they got pulled out and put in a smaller tank. One of those didn't make it and we got two more to as they didn't seem too happy. Well, we got the extra two before we had to euthanize the tiny one. He was just skin and bones and blowing around the tank in the current ( of which there was barely any ). So all told there are three and three. The smaller tank seems to have three different strains and batches.

So the three in the "big" tank now are kind of siblings sort of? The biggest of the two doesn't have the same markings as the medium and the small one. Even the small one is hitting 4" with tail and the others are probably 5 or so with tail. But they all came out of the same dealer tank so it seems likely there were a couple of batches mixed in there. No random juvie just got thrown in there if that's what you were concerned about. This guy eats just fine even if he gets more exercise then he, or I, would like.

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i know this wasnt the question but i wouldnt put 3 discus together, especially 2 adults and a juvi. i currently have a 55 w/ 4 discus and they are constantly bickering so i can just imagine your larger discus w/ a smaller footprint. bigger is always better. craigslist can be a goldmine

[Jhhnn]

Your profile offers no location, so it's hard to say if Craigslist could be the answer. It has been for me.

Yeh, it has a fair population of dreamers, schemers and assorted flakes, but there are honest deals to be had. The market is really soft ATM, and there are people who just want the darned thing out of the house w/ a little jingle left in their pocket.

At his point, I won't even bother to look at tanks if the owner isn't prepared to demonstrate that it holds water- well, maybe, if it's absolutely and ridiculously cheap, worth the time and effort to reseal it if it does leak...

Hell, there's a 50 in Boulder and a couple of 55's languishing locally at $75- stand and all- I could probably buy any of them for $60 cash... maybe $50...

[shoggoth43]

There's been a couple of 75s kicking around that I missed out on. I'm trying to get away from the long and narrow just cause they're harder to scape and when the fish do get aggressive it's easier to corner the other guy in the narrower space. There's also the guys that expect you to repay their investment in the hobby as well which is rather entertaining...

Assuming I can't get the 75 or similar, what do people think? Is it acceptable to lose 5 gallons ( or maybe not depending on how much I fill the tank ) in order to gain another square foot and a half of space for the fish to swim around in? It's not as though the fish hang out at the top of the tank anyway so it's basically wasted vertical real estate from that point of view.

My other options are to just go with it and jump into the 120/180 bracket in the 4x2 or 6x2 footprint. Anything taller/deeper than 2 feet is a tough sell for me as I then need to break out the tongs and snorkel to do anything near the back wall.

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S


Your profile offers no location, so it's hard to say if Craigslist could be the answer. It has been for me.

Yeh, it has a fair population of dreamers, schemers and assorted flakes, but there are honest deals to be had. The market is really soft ATM, and there are people who just want the darned thing out of the house w/ a little jingle left in their pocket.

At his point, I won't even bother to look at tanks if the owner isn't prepared to demonstrate that it holds water- well, maybe, if it's absolutely and ridiculously cheap, worth the time and effort to reseal it if it does leak...

Hell, there's a 50 in Boulder and a couple of 55's languishing locally at $75- stand and all- I could probably buy any of them for $60 cash... maybe $50...

[Jhhnn]

There are deals to be had, periodically, on 125's, 72Wx18Dx22T. These are really nice tanks for discus, I suspect. Wish I had one... hell, I wish I had a place to put one... I do have a 120gal- 60Wx18Dx26T. The extra height doesn't seem to do much wrt territoriality, as the fish seem to establish that horizontally, regardless of the depth... so the 40 breeder might be a slight improvement over the 45... the external dimensions actually come out to the same volume, btw, 10368 cubic inches..

A used 125 would definitely have to hold water before I'd buy it, that's for sure... I got overeager on a 75gal deal, had to mostly rebuild it and completely reseal it... an educational experience all around, but not one I want to repeat...

[shoggoth43]

I'm perfectly fine with skipping that kind of educational experience. I've recently discovered that putting down new flooring is never as easy as it seems. I've also learned that polyurethane doesn't always go down nicely or stick to factory finishes applied to said flooring. So lesson learned is that I now have to grind off not only the poly, but the factory finish as well. I've also learned that bengal cats without that extra room to run around in = BAD.

I think once I hit lengths longer than 4 feet I'd want to go with a 2 foot width as otherwise it really seems too narrow. I really don't need to learn how to tear apart a tank and reseal it. OTOH, it would give me the option to make a nice rimless tank....

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S


There are deals to be had, periodically, on 125's, 72Wx18Dx22T. These are really nice tanks for discus, I suspect. Wish I had one... hell, I wish I had a place to put one... I do have a 120gal- 60Wx18Dx26T. The extra height doesn't seem to do much wrt territoriality, as the fish seem to establish that horizontally, regardless of the depth... so the 40 breeder might be a slight improvement over the 45... the external dimensions actually come out to the same volume, btw, 10368 cubic inches..

A used 125 would definitely have to hold water before I'd buy it, that's for sure... I got overeager on a 75gal deal, had to mostly rebuild it and completely reseal it... an educational experience all around, but not one I want to repeat...

[akumastew]

AGA seems to have 125 gallons on special every 2nd month at my local stores.

I am sure this is similar across the country.

You can get a 125 gallon, stand, glass top and light for $520 at one of my local stores.

See here:

http://forestlakepets.com/

Maybe there is a store near you that has somethign similar.

PS You can see a picture of what you get in my album (link in signature)

[Jhhnn]

I think you might be surprised at how well a 125 would work, but that's up to you. The 72x18 footprint is standard for 125's and 150's, with dimensions deeper than that being at least semi-custom until you get to a 180gal at 72x24x24... the price jump to a 180 is huge... as is the tank itself...

The first aquarium in my recent adventure was a 72gal bowfront, the scene of a fishkeeping disaster. It was filled when I bought it, the stand and so forth. I really wanted a larger tank, so when I saw an ad in craigslist from people who had the 120 (no stand) to trade for a smaller tank w/ stand... I set up a meet at their place. It was filled for my inspection, on their garage floor, when I got there. They even had the strip lights plugged in. No probs with it, at all- he even delivered, took the 72 with him... I kept the canister filter from the 72, he kept his reef lights, and it was all good...

The deal Akumastew references is about as good as it gets for a new tank...

[shoggoth43]

True enough. The LFS has the 120 in 48 x 24 which is a pretty nice size. Actually, I think it was a 150 as it seemed a little tall, but the same footprint. I don't know if that's an odd size or not. It seems like a standard size there but the 18" width is more typical. I'm thinking of holding off on the 180 size just due to the sheer size of it and may just build up in size as I go for the experience level. I'll just need to be smart in how I do the lighting and such so I can migrate equipment vs. being stuck on a constant rip/replace cycle as I upgrade the tank size. I think jumping from 40 to 120 is maybe doable. Going 40 to 180 is such a large jump in terms of equipment needed that I don't know that it's reasonable to do without a lot of frustration and expense.

Thanks for the input.

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S



I think you might be surprised at how well a 125 would work, but that's up to you. The 72x18 footprint is standard for 125's and 150's, with dimensions deeper than that being at least semi-custom until you get to a 180gal at 72x24x24... the price jump to a 180 is huge... as is the tank itself...

The first aquarium in my recent adventure was a 72gal bowfront, the scene of a fishkeeping disaster. It was filled when I bought it, the stand and so forth. I really wanted a larger tank, so when I saw an ad in craigslist from people who had the 120 (no stand) to trade for a smaller tank w/ stand... I set up a meet at their place. It was filled for my inspection, on their garage floor, when I got there. They even had the strip lights plugged in. No probs with it, at all- he even delivered, took the 72 with him... I kept the canister filter from the 72, he kept his reef lights, and it was all good...

The deal Akumastew references is about as good as it gets for a new tank...

[akumastew]

I was also looking at 120 gallon (48x24 or 60x18) vs 125 gallon (72x18).

In the end I could get a 125 gallon for less money than the 120 gallon.

I also like that the 125 gallon was longer and not as deep.

You can see what other folks thought about it, in my original asking forf advice post here.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=72998

People's opinions on here, helped me a lot in the decision making process.

[DiscusOnly]

If you are thinking of going to 180 in the future and want to re-use the lighting, go with the 125 72". Get away from the 48" wide footprint cause 180gal 48" tank are not available unless you want to get into the 48"x36"x27" gallons tank by Marineland.

If you have the room.. A 6 foot long tank is the way to go. The 72" doesn't weight anymore than the 48" 120gal. I find it easier to carry the 72" than the 120gal because the weight is distributed. The 150 and 180 weight is very similiar but both are significantly heavier than the 120 or 125.