Bow vs. straight rectangle

[SnowLady]

From what I've learned so far long tanks are better for the fish than high tanks. Right? Keeping that in mind what is the difference (aside from price) between the bow front tanks and the rectangle?

I have a 29 g tank and would like a bigger tank.

 

[thecichlidaddict]

Well, I think you've pretty much covered it.

Glass tanks come in a wider variety of shapes, so there is a better selection of standard sizes of tank. Bowfronts tend to have less surface area then rectangle tanks but not always, there are some very tall regular tanks. Personally I prefer more depth to the tank then bowfronts offer, but I tend to use a lot of decoration, and this is where you really beneifit from a wider tank.

How much bigger were you thinking of going? Do you have a certain space it needs to fit in?

 

[Bol]

From what I've learned so far long tanks are better for the fish than high tanks. Right?

Nope. Well, not really.

The increased surface area per volume might possibly allow you to keep more fish in a squat, long tank than a tall, short tank, but there's nothing inherently "wrong" with a taller tank. In fact, sometimes it's beneficial, as in the case of fully-grown angels.


Here are a few "cons" to bowfronts that I can think of:

1) The bowed front makes it difficult to illuminate the front (and especially the top front) sufficiently. Sometimes your fish are "in the dark". Probably not bad for the fish, but I'd like to see my fish if possible.

2) It's significantly more difficult to build a canopy for a bowfront, than a regular rectangle tank.

3) The curved front makes it somewhat more difficult to scrape algae, if you have a hard-edged scraping tool.

I have a 46 gallon bowfront, and really like it a lot. I got it, though, for one main reason.... I just couldnt' quite squeeze out 48" for a 55g. The 46 bowfront is 36" long, and fits perfectly in the space I have. Also, it's not as tall as the other 36" tanks I saw when shopping (which were 24" tall -- too deep to stick my arm into comfortably).

One other thing I don't care for is the fact that it's an odd length for lights. However, this is a property of it's 36" length, and has nothing to do with the fact that it's a bowfront.


tca had two good questions, there. How large do you want to (can you) get?