4'x4'x15" tank Radion Question.

If you've got the room then the 4x4x15". Not a fan of the slimmer stock 150.

The 4x4x15 would be very different and allow top-down viewing, which can be cool. 15" may be a little shallow, though. Perhaps even just going to 18" would give a better viewing area.

 

I don't really care for shallow display tanks. For one, if you have a tone of flow, looking at everything from the top down looks distorted. And then there is the glare of the lights. Also, fish have narrow silhouettes from above. IMO, there is no "depth" to anything. At least in person, after the first week or so, once it gets boring, it can seem novel before that. And in photographs they can look good, but otherwise, I definitely prefer tall tanks. Just my .02 and some things to consider. Everyone has different tastes though.

 

You nailed all my concerns.Now you got me second guessing myself again.

 

Personally I like depth but I also love hight. Have you seen the ML 150 cubes?

 

Got one at work and it is nice but I'm not really a fan.

 

Well, I have a 9" tall tank. It's only 11 gallons (36X9X9), so it's not really a comparison to anything the size of a 150-ish- gallon tank. Not even close. But, this is my favorite tank ever. I love the ease of moving stuff around in it.


I would personally prefer to have a 48" tank that's 18" tall, though really. It only adds a little bit to the total volume of the tank. 44X44X18 is the magic 150g number, and that would be fine since most 4ft T5's are in the 44-46" range anyhow.

 

can't seem to get my pic to upload atm but the 4x4 footprint I think gives you tons of aquascape options, not to mention the extra room for your people to swim, mine go all over instead of just up/down. I have tons of caves this way so all my people have their own cave homes.
Tons of spots to place coral w/o getting in the way of each other. And I sit right beside it on my computer so I never bother looking at it from above which it is very distorted as he mentioned, I have about 9k gph flow though. Don't have to worry about my rocks falling 20 inches down to the glass either. If you enjoy the shallow lagoon rockwork idea 4x4 is the way to go. I must say it's the best,most enjoyable tank experience I have ever had( and I have had lot's of tank shapes/sizes)

 

having a shallow tank i can tell you fish jumping is a problem,and keeping it covered with a screen all the time just defeats the look.(i do cover mine when I'm not home or sleeping) but plus side....the looking down view is really pretty and much different than a reg tank. its also easy to clean, as stated.
i have a zero edge which has a smooth water surface at the top,so i don't get the water distortion when looking down into the tank and is a nice view into the tank, the downfall to this smooth surface is , no shadowing from the lights, you don't get the effect that a halide would normally give with surface turbulence.
also i find that the shallow tank is harder to aqua scape. but clams are awesome in a shallow tank..

 

tank sounds awesome but the 15" is the only ?able part i would say. If you add a couple inches for your sand bed, and granted you wont have water right up to that 15 inch mark. thatd only leave you really 9-10 inches of viewing. If you wanna do it right. can you look into using thicker glass or something or a diffrent way to avoid the center brace. Brace it like I've seen a bunch of acrylic tanks and just a box around the rim on the inside.

When I do my move into the new house I am planning something very similiar, cept i'm going to have two 48x48x24 cubes. I am planning on running a dsb and same thing with water all the way not to the top. knock off say 6" and that leaves me with 18" of viewable room. I have been putting this into my consideration for build.

Btw great call on the seaswirl and vortech combo.

 

Thanks everyone for the input.These are all ideas I've been kicking around for a while.Keep the ideas coming.
Thanks,Daniel