Tank Size: Define Nano, small, medium, etc...

[Arkayne]

How many gallons defines a "nano" tank? I ask because I've seen a 29 Gallon tank referred to as a nano yet the tank is actually quite physically large.

 

[ahullsb]

I think tanks like ours are considered nanos because of people like this!

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1038647&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

I would imagine a tank like my 55 is a nano because we keep smaller fish in it. For example we can't keep large angel fish etc. that really makes a tank look like part of a reef. We use "reef rubble" basically.

 

[drummereef]

There is a 'grey' area where this is concerned. Most nano tanks are considered 29g and under. A pico is usually under 10g for the most part. Some will say tanks under 5.5g are picos.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

A lot of these terms were made by hobbyists that either don't know the origin of the term, or have made something up to be unique. Originally, "JBJ" came out with a brand of aquariums with built in filtration calle "Nano Cubes". These came in 12 gallon and 24 gallon sizes. Over time, other manufacturers got in on the specialty market, and a lot of people with smaller tanks just took up the term "Nano" to describe that they have a small tank. Evenutally, someone wanted to be clever because they had a very small aquarium, and thus called it a "Pico". There are other terms as well.

To actually define the amount of gallons an "Nano" or "Pico" is is up to the reefer. I personally think that anything in the standard 20g size and down is a "Nano" I rarely use the term "Pico". Anything about 20g is just considered a tank. Usually people will call anything above 100 gallons as "large". But of course, there are people out there with monster tanks such as Mr. 4000. Can you guess how many gallons he has?

Oh, and if you want to see an absolutely insane tank, check out www.monsterfishkeepers.com