One 125gal vs. two 55gal? Need opinions!

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genEus

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 24, 2008
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rochester ny
I am finishing up remodeling in my family room in which I was thinking of putting a 125 gallon planted South American tank. While I was thinking about that, I had a thought that maybe instead I could put two 55 gallon ones, either next to each other or on top of each other. That way I could still make one of them a SA planted, and have freedom to do something totally different in the other one - like, a South African cichlid tank, something else I really want...

And, another pro I can see is that 55 gal tanks are much cheaper than 125gal and are easier to come by on Craigslist - plus I won't have to go overly crazy with filtration for them separately - maybe I could get away with a cheap canister for each plus an AC110, whereas for the 125gal I probably would buy a FX5 or something like that.

Now, on the other hand - I'm not sure how and where to place the two 55 gal tanks, so as to not turn the family room into a "fish" room. Also, I think 55 gal tanks look puny compared to 125gal. But, again, I won't be able to house different types of fish if I just had one main tank.

Decisions, decisions. What are your opinions on this? What would you do? I just want to see what other points I should consider.

Thanks a lot!
 
I would go with the 125g. This way you could keep some larger ca/sa cichlids.In the 55g you won't be able to long term. All depends on what you want to stock.
 
Go for the 125
 
55s offer very limited stocking optins... 90% of the people I know who buy 55 gal tanks regret not getting something bigger within a few months...

So I would get a 125 gal... and drill it... and plumb a 55 or 75 gal as a sump to the 125... then make the 55 or 75 gal "sumps" into a heavily planted refugium...

This way you get the 125 you want... the planted 55/875 you want... and can get away with the lighter filtration you desired (the refugium will serve as your bio filter so you'll just need a couple AC 110s for 125 gal)...
 
maybe thw 125 would be better unless you want 2 50s to put next to eachother lol
 
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