Sticking with my 70 or switching to my 55?

[dmbfreek]

Latley I've been toying with the idea of taking down my odd sized 70g (82"L X 14.5"H X 13.5"D) and setting up my 55g acrylic tank.
I'm having trouble with aquascaping and keeping the flow going all the way through the 70. My 55 is a new tank, no scratches at all and it wouldn't be that hard to get flow through it and I would imagin aquascaping would be a little easier.
What do you think?

70g

or

55g

 

[sdminson]

That is a weird shaped 70 but if you could figure out the flow its shallow enough you could do alot of corals all along just gotta get a little creative on the aquascaping maybe find some smaller pieces of LR so Id stick with your 75 but thats just me. I do have both and my 55 is freshwater and I never look at it anymore lol.

 

[podboy]

Well, with a tank that length it is going to be more difficult to get good flow throughout. You might have to add a powerhead or two in the center area.

Aquascaping a regular sized 55 wouldn't be much easier in my opinion, due to the fact that it's the same depth as your current setup. If you want a shorter tank with easier aquascaping, I'd move to a 75 gallon. Great dimensions.

Is that 70 glass?

 

[logiktest]

I think the 70 is cool looking. Overcoming the flow hurdle in the 70 may seem difficult, but switching it all over to a 55 seems like an even larger hassle.

 

[dmbfreek]

I think the 70 is cool looking. Overcoming the flow hurdle in the 70 may seem difficult, but switching it all over to a 55 seems like an even larger hassle.

True. Maybe I need to think about getting a couple more koralia's for the middle and just keep the 70 going.

Hey, what happens if you take a large sledge hammer to a large piece of LR LOL!

Anyway, thanks for the advice guy's.

 

[podboy]

While I've never done it, people break up live rock with hammers and chisels and what not all the time. If you've got to many big pieces, I'd definitely consider it.

What do you have on each end? koralia 4's? I'd think one or two extra koralia 2 or 3's in the center area might be what you need, but you'll have to be the judge depending on how much flow you need.

 

[dmbfreek]

Yeah, K4's. Was thinking about doing the MJ1200 mod but I kinda like the motion that the Koralia's give.

I think that I'll take a few large pieces of rock out this weekend and see how many small pieces I can make. Kinda getting tired of the boulder look, ya know?

 

[sdminson]

Yeah you should have no problems breaking up the LR some of mine can almost be broken with my hands. Thats how some people recomend getting corals off anyway just chisel off the rock its on although ive never tried that

 

[dmbfreek]

When I first got the LR I took a piece outside and grabbed a hammer and chisel, started to hammer on the chisel and the chisel went into the rock about 3/4 of the way and got stuck lol. For some reason, this rock doesn't want to be broken into pieces.

 

[sdminson]

Heres how I set my tank up just recently to give you some ideas mine is a 75 a little taller and not as long but this would work for you also. I ended up getting some base rock I found because how flat it was it allowed me to do some nice caves Im sure your local FS would have some cheap.

 

[podboy]

Yeah, K4's. Was thinking about doing the MJ1200 mod but I kinda like the motion that the Koralia's give.

I think that I'll take a few large pieces of rock out this weekend and see how many small pieces I can make. Kinda getting tired of the boulder look, ya know?

Yep, you definitely have a lot of of uniformly sized large rocks. Have at one and see how it goes. If you don't like how it's turning out, the other option might be to trade your larger ones to someone who has too many smaller rock chunks. If you have other local reefers who would trade that is. I think you'll be fine with breaking them up though.

The koralias are nice because they're plug and play, maxi-mods are fine if you're handy and want to tinker with things, you can even purchase pre-made mods, but you still have to purchase or make a way to mount them. I've got a couple I still haven't used yet, probably will when(if) i set up my 125, but the koralias have definitely been worth it for me. I've got one 4 and one 2 plus a ac70 in my 40br.

*EDIT* Didn't catch your post about your previous try breaking them up.

 

[burning2nd]

WOW that 70 is Great!..

man i...... wait let me explain

i think you should keep it, It looks like you have some really big rocks, maybe add some new smaller rock, re scape it, add some tunzes pull the canopy redo the lights,

maybe even just move it in the house...

and then when your done you will be looking at the same tank, and you will feel like its a new tank.

some times changes help

 

[BCT182]

What if you got one vortec powerhead? They run up to 3k gph. And you can add a wave timer to it?

Put it at one end and let it blast across the front of the glass to the other end?

The neat thing about your 70 is a tang has a long swimming space and it would look really cool to see them gracefully pass by.

 

[dmbfreek]

Thanks for the input guys. I think that I've decided to stick with the 70 and add a powerhead or two.