Tower Aquariums while may look nice and project the modern living room concept; it actually presents a lot of challenges to the owners in terms of maintenance and up keeping. Generally in an aquarist’s point of view, having a deep tank is always seen as being less advantages or desirable compared to shallow ones, reason is because the wider tank top actually provides much higher water surface area for air water gas exchange. Most types of aquarium fish also prefer swallow tanks for easy maneuver from tank base to the top as they do no need to constantly contract and expand their air bladder in order to reach the water surface (sometime needed when oxygen level is low at the tank bottom).Not a Perfect Home for Fish
Main disadvantage associated with having a tower aquarium is when it comes to hobbyist having those fancy fish variety as pets, for instance like the pearlscale goldfish including also jikin and bubble-eye. With the tank height easily reaching 5 feets with some measuring taller than that, the fish will find itself having difficulty controlling and maintaining their level at certain water depth. Remember on what we’ve learned in Science class lessons, the deeper the water depth goes, the higher the pressure it is at the bottom and unless the type of fish that you intend to keep is specifically those natural living in deep water, I would strongly caution against using a tower aquariums to keep any other general types of fish.
Aeration Problem
Since the tank reaches deep underneath, it also presents another challenge for you to improve the aquarium aeration system to ensure that the base also has enough oxygen for the fish. Basically in order to get oxygen rich water to reach the lower end, the water flow system must be able to move the oxygen rich water located on top of tank going down to the bottom. Sometimes if this is not done properly, you will end up instead having a dead spot in the area at the bottom, low in oxygen and because of this condition; it creates an anaerobic condition that leads to breakdown of fish waste that can result in buildup of harmful noxious gases. Needless for me to tell you also that, these will turn into a disaster if let’s say there’s a sudden and unexpected electrical power supply failure or the equipment such as air pumps suddenly breaks down.
Complicates Aquarium Maintenance Process
Routine aquarium cleaning also becomes another problem which you have to deal with if have tower aquariums. With depth almost close to the human height, generally you will never be able to reach down to the bottom using just your hand and as such you will need a long extended pole brush for you to reach the bottom. The price of tower aquarium will also cost more, generally few hundreds dollar higher compared to standard custom tank design or even corner aquariums. Main reason is because the glass has to be made thicker so that it can withstand the water pressure exerted especially on the lower half of the tank.
Related topics on aquarium setup:
» Aquarium Overflow Systems
» Selecting Pond over Aquarium: Reason Explained
