Need Reef Tank Recommendations!

[Fish Frank]

Hi all,
I am interested in setting up my first reef aquarium but I don’t know which tank is best. I am already well established in the freshwater side of the hobby but I would like to venture into salt.
I am interested in keeping slightly larger fish than nano aquarium fish so anything between 150 litres (40 gallons) and 250 litres (66 gallons) is fine. Please keep in mind that I would like a well functioning, low maintenance, aesthetically pleasing aquarium and preferably at a reasonable price.

Thank-you for your time.

Regards,
Frank.

 

[bribo12]

What are you referring to as larger fish? There’s a large jump in tank size depending on the fish.

 

[Fish Frank]

I was interested in keeping some Tangs and possibly some Angels.

 

[bribo12]

One dwarf angel would be fine in a 40-66 gallon tank but definitely no tangs you want a 5-6 ft long tank for them and most get pretty large >6”.

 

[Fish Frank]

I am already interested in the Aqua One Mini Reef 160. If anyone has had personal experience or can provide information about this product that would be great. [emoji1303]

 

[Sniperhank]

You should look over liveaquaia.com. They have very accurate gallon sizes for fish.
The tangs and angels you are talking about are quite large fish and need large tanks, upwards of 100 gallons. The smaller 4 ft tanks simply don’t cut it for the large and open water swimming fishes.

 

[melosu58]

A six foot 125 gallon tank, 200 LBS of porous Live Rock and LED lighting. You will need to work on it 15-20 minutes a day.


My three tangs

My tank

 

[claidheamdanns]

I have a reef tank, all told close to 50 gal., but part of that is in a DS refugium (deep sand refugium). I highly recommend a DS for a reef tank for the health of the tank. However, I would venture to say that “low maintenance” and “reasonable price” ought never to be used in the same sentence as “reef aquarium.” I don’t have any fish in there the size of what you are talking about. I would say the other posters here are spot on. Also, bear in mind that you will be exchanging 10% of the water every 2 weeks, in addition to topping off water lost to evaporation. Not sure how that compares to freshwater, as I’ve never run one of those.