Planted tank depth preference

[HookTheBrotherUp]

What is yours? I am researching tanks right now and am wondering if a shallower tank is better than a tall tank. I have an Oceanic 58, and I think it is a bit tall for having bottom "carpet" growth. Even though I have metal halide, I don't think the "carpet" growth is too great. I do use CO2 and all my other plants thrive BTW. Plus, I don't like having to get on a step stool to perform maintenance in the tank... I'm not a tall person.

The longer I keep planted tanks, the more I dislike having to trim plants that get too tall, so I'm trying to aquascape with plants that don't grow too tall, but that is not as easy at it seems.

Any input welcomed.

[myjohnson]

What lights are you using?

How do you have those lights position over your tank?

[HookTheBrotherUp]

I have an Elos Aqua Wing 150 with an ADA 8K bulb, the one with the slight green tint. I have it suspended form the ceiling, and about 7-8 inches from the surface of the tank. As a side effect of that, I have some HC that grows near the surface emersed en masse that I need to remove now and again. But I also have some Tropica 049 on the bottom, but I don't get the growth that I've seen in other tanks. I think some of the overgrowth of the other crypts and such block some of the light, but then I wonder if the light is not penetrating at the right spectrum deep enough. ??

My main reason is that I need to replace my reef tank that sits right next to it; it was also an Oceanic 58 RR tank, however, it sprang a leak last week, and I had to remove it and have a temporary tank in it's place. I always wanted rimless and now is the right time to get one, or two. I was also thinking of going RR on the freshwater as well and designing a sump that is sealed and doing everything I can to mitigate the CO2 loss, but then I have a 20lb CO2 tank, so it's not like it will cause me to get the tank refilled every three months. Come to think of it, I think I've been going on almost three years and still have not managed to empty it, and it provides CO2 for the tank, and for my CA2 reactor for the reef tank. Anyway, getting off topic...

I was thinking maybe a shallow tank would be the way to go, I am still trying to weigh the convenience of a shallower tank to maintenance, vs growth of plants, and even corals since I want both tanks to be the same size.

[Tetranerd]

I have a super shallow tank that works well for plants, but my melon sword plant has five leaves so far sticking about 4 inches out if the water. It sends out a new leaf about every 4 to 5 days. I am going to a deeper tank for greater volume, and more depth.
Draw back is I will need more light.

[HookTheBrotherUp]

Funny you mention a sword plant; I have a some sort of sword that puts out red leaves, and it grew too large for my tank that I had to always prune the leaves off of it, else it would grow too big and block out all the light. I let it go once just to see how large it would get, and those do get very huge, too large in fact for my 58 gallon. I ended up taking it out and putting it in a small tank for now.

[Tetranerd]

Sounds like a red melon sword. Mine has huge leaves too.