50g cube or 40g breeder

[Polkster13]

The amount of surface area of the tank is a large determining factor in the amount of fish you can have in the tank. The larger the surface area, the more gas exchange can happen at the surface. Also you need to decide if this is going to be for fish only, fish and corals or just corals. The cube is nice for stacking a lot of rock up the back of the tank and still having room in the front. However, 24 inches is not a lot of room to swim in so you will be limited to either fish that don't swim a lot (lionfish, frog fish, eels, and such) or really small fish (gobies, blennies, and such). The longer tanks will allow you to keep fish species that do a lot of cruising around the tank. The larger the fish, the longer the tank needs to be as well as deep enough for the fish to turn around.

Give us an idea of what you plan on keeping and then we cen give more specific suggestions.

[prof]

It is going to boil down to what you like best and what fits your space. I like the breeder tanks because they are more shallow and deeper(front to back). This is good for light penetration. You can spread out your live rock and get more of an open feel. With the cube you are really limited to the basic 'tower' of rock in the center to give good water flow around the entire tank.

But the cubes look awesome. I really like them.

Buy what you like. Are either of them reef ready?

[TexasState]

I think 40 breeder is too short and the cube tank is too narrow.