First, epub has nothing to do with size, it is a file format that is popularly used for ebooks, but ebooks published in epub file formats vary greatly in file size.
It will depend on where you buy it. Many books are DRM locked (Digital Rights Management, a software lock). If so, in order to load it into another companies reader or reader software, you need to use something like Adobe Digital Editions to "authorize" the book on the device. Apple's iBook software does not work with ADE.
If the book was DRM free, you should be able to read it in any ereader or ereader program that supports epub format.
If the book is DRM locked to B&N, Amazon, Kobo or whichever seller you shopped from, then the simples thing is to download their free app for the iPad (they all make one, in fact they all make free apps for iPad, Android, Mac OS X and Windows).
So the short answer is yes, you should be able to read any epub ebook file on an iPad, although not necessarily in iBook.
So, books from
Amazon - get the Kindle reader app
B&N - get the Nook reader app
Kobo - get the Kobo reader app
non-DRM epubs can be read in iBook, Nook, Kobo, or Google Play