Aquarium Size Questions

["Steven Pituch" <spituch at ev1_net>]

I am considering upping the size of my aquarium.  If I go through with this
I would sell my 75 and 30 gallon setups and replace them with one larger
tank.  Why larger?  Well actually I'm not sure, but it seems throughout my
life I've always been going to a bigger tank.  First when I was about 10
years old I got a 10 gallon tank.  In college I got a  29 gallon tank.  I
then went through two 55 gallon tanks over the next twenty years.  When I
moved to Texas five years ago I wanted something with more depth (front to
rear) for better aquascaping possibilities.  So I got a 75 gallon tank and
eventually started growing aquatic plants successfully.

I've moved once more (hopfully for the last time) and now have a sunroom at
the back of the house, half of which I use for an office.  The other half of
the room is begging to become a fish room.

The reason I think I may want one larger tank instead of a couple of smaller
ones is that it is seems to me to be easier to maintain one tank than two or
three tanks, especially when its time to measure and add the chemical
fertilizers.  Also providing the proper light, CO2, etc to one bigger tank
seems less complicated than providing it to several tanks.  And I guess
there is just something exciting about larger tanks.  Just looking at a 125
gallon tank in the LFS next to a 75 gallon tank, well that extra two feet of
real estate looks so good.  Anyway I have been asking myself if I bought a
125 gallon tank whether it would stop there or would I again want something
bigger in the future?  So I have been thinking of what would be the ultimate
tank for me.  A tank that I would never want to get rid of.   I was also
looking around at the stock sizes of glass tanks and it appears to me that
they aren't geared for the planted aquaria enthusiast.  As the sizes get
bigger in gallons they also get higher.  This makes it really hard to
aquascape when the depth of the tank is greater than the length of one's
arms.  The 22 inch height of a 125 gallon tank is about as deep as I dare to
go but I would certainly accept a tank that was wider than the 18 inch width
of a 125 gallon tank.  In fact 20 to 24 inches in width would add quite a
bit of real estate to the tank, and the extra space would still be
accessible if you could walk around to the rear side of the tank.   Also I
can fit a seven foot long tank in the alloted space.  An 84"x24"x22" tank
would give a nominal 192 gallons, and is probably as big as I could ever
dare to go.  But I guess since it is a custom size I would either have to
build it out of plywood or buy a custom acrylic tank.

How many of you have had both glass and acrylic large tanks and prefer the
acrylic tanks?  Why?

Has anyone on the list successfully built a plywood tank?

Am I out of line wanting a lower, wider, longer tank?  Any comments on what
would be your perfect tank?

Regards,

Steve Pituch