Thoughts on bowfront's?

[fishtank]

Just curious on thoughts around bowfronts. I cant afford it right now but right in the middle of upgrading my 60g to a 120g I moved the 60g to another spot in the house to make way for the 120g. Well the wife says, i dont like the cube there but you can put something else there! She just gave me her blessing for another tank :yay::confused2:.

I was thinking a 90g bowfront fowlr as we really want a small puffer of some kind and I think 1 reef tank is enough. How does everyone like or dislike the bowfronts?

 

[rk4435]

I love bowfronts, the 90s in particular look to be great tanks if you have a corner to accommodate them. I've been told that they are hard to get the flow right in but that isn't as much of an issue in a fish only set up.

 

[fishtank]

I figure with a fish only I could re-use my skimmer and sump etc etc from my 60g and by new for the 120g. All I need to do is find a good light for fish only and the tank itself.

 

[camellia]

I love them in corners!

 

[rdnelson]

Never had one but I have heard it is hard to clean the front glass because it is not flat. Makes sense to me to I personally wouldn't want one. Unless of course I mustard dosed it.

 

[vetshep]

Howdy. Not sure if you were thinking of a true bowfront or a corner (1/4 round). If you are considering a bowfront then my thoughts are irrelevant . I had a 54g corner for years and loved it.

I loved how it allowed viewing from all angles while being tucked out of the way. I didn't have to decided couch or tank along this nice long wall . . . . I had two reasons for letting it go and upgrading. 1) Max gallons per square foot of ground space. A cube allows for more gallons and fits in roughly the same foot print. ie - I now have a 90g cube in essentially the same foot print as my 54g.
2) Sump space. You can fit a rectangular tank under a corner tank but it must be relatively small. So you'll need to decide what you really want in the sump and what you can do without or what you can plumb externally. I considered a custom square or triangle shaped sump to allow more space but this would have to be built in. I didn't want a sump that I couldn't pull out if/when I needed to work on it. This is not as important with a FOWLR as it would be for a reef.

Lighting would not be difficult - especially for fish. You can use long lights (T4's, Led strips) from front corner to front corner or square lights (MH, new LEDs) over the center. I had a canopy towards the end - just for a clean look but I didn't need it. You will have some dark spots. I used the linkable stunner strips to get those spots. Again, not a big deal for FOWLR.

Hope this helps! Have fun and congrats on gaining permission for a new tank .

 

[hiimsean]

I had a 36g corner bow front and I hated it. Im not sure if it was because it was the smaller size and the curve was so great but it just distorted the way I viewed things in the tank. It actually gave me a headache if I looked through it too long. Taking pics was near impossible.

 

[brick fish house]

I like bow fronts and I can not lie.
All these other comments don't deny.
If you put your arm in and give a good scrape
It always has a nice clean face.

 

[bcavalli]

We started with a 90g bowfront and absolutely hated it. It was tall and difficult to clean.

 

[fishtank]

hmm all good comments. I saw the 72g at the Aviarium today and suprised how much more they cost. the standard 90g was almost half.

 

[jennm]

Not to rain on anybody's parade...

But I've seen more LEAKS occur in bowfronts than in rectangular tanks. Size doesn't matter *g*.. I had a 46g Oceanic spring a leak, and I helped a friend/ARC member whose 155 bow sprung a leak in the night once and drained half of the water out before it was discovered.

Any tank can leak but I've seen a disproportionate amount of leakers be bowfronts.

Rich - your bowfront doesn't count. Just keep calm and keep on mustard dosing

Jenn

 

[fishtank]

Thanks for the info Jenn. I might just go with a 90g standard. Still undecided but plenty of time on this one. Im still building out my 60g to 120g upgrade.

 

[weisbatman]

I'm not a fan of bow fronts they distort view from the sides I had one for a while and swapped to a flat tank


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