I'll try and keep this simple. I have a friend who ownes a shop, owes me money was going to get a 180 but all he has in stock have the large center brace. He said he will order a 180 with the center brace split into two sections then later he says, If I'm ordering this tank anyway would you like to go wider. Now this guy buys direct and is picking up a large box truck of tanks so no shipping. SO...for an extra couple hundred

1. Is it enough trouble working in a 24 x 24 tank to not go with a 30 x 24? I would like to have this tank setup as a center divider eventually.

2. Would in your opinion three 250W MH work to light the tank?

3. Water changes...maybe that would be the main reason not to?

4. What other hurdles would you bring up? Other than the weight.

Thanks
Snowman

You could use the non-co2 method that Tom just wrote about. That might help with the water change issue.

I have a 180 ... I love it, but I love it primarily because it was a "dream tank" that I always wanted ... if I had it to do all over again, I would probably still get it ...

However ... if I were to get another large tank ... I would probably go smaller with an 18 inch front to back footprint ...

For me to "work" on my tank means that my arms are in the water "up to the arm pits" so to speak ... if I am working on the back of the tank, there is no way to not get the shirt sleaves and shoulders of a shirt wet ...

I think a 30 inch tank would be essentially impossible to work on without scuba gear <GRIN>!!!!!


By center divider do you mean room divider? If you can access the tank from both sides for maintenance purposes, you might be able to handle a 30 inch tank ... and if its going to be visible from both sides, the extra six inches would give you more "foreground" to work with ...

I'll leave the rest of your questions to others <grin> ...

Greg

i am soon to get a 60x24x30H for my discus, which i will plant up. not sure how easy access will be, but i am lighting mine with 3x150w 6500K Iwasaki halides, and 2x58w flouros (these will probably only be used for dawn / dusk)

from what i know of bigger tanks and lighting them, i would have said 3x250w would be major overkill. remember, you need less watts per gallon as the tank size increases to acheive similar results.

I could have gotten a 72 x 24 x 30 for almost the same price as the 24 x 24 but the 30" height just sounds like a major PIA...IMO. I agree with your comment on the 250W lighting but already have it so I'll give it a try, if I decide it's overkill I can always down grade to less wattage.

Thanks,
Jarrell

PS. Ordering the tak today so I'll post what my decision is later tonight.