Hi,
I need to get a 75, I currently have a 20 high, for my (currently) 3 inch tiger Oscar that my girlfriend brought home from Wal Mart with a 30 dollar 10 gallon kit .
The tanks on its second week and he's hanging in there and acting happy and healthy and I'm doing all I can for him. I want to get him a girlfiend. He's so funny with the only other fish which is a 3" catfish(don't yell at me SHE bought them I just took it upon myself to take care of them after she killed the plecostomus and I fell in love with the Oscar, who she named Princess before we found out he's a he). I HAD to take out their house and rinse it and wipe it down and the Oscar was cool but the catfish freaked out and I swear to god the Oscar seemed like he was trying to calm down the catfish who hides in the log in their house unless its pitch black, he was like "OH GOD HIDE!!!". I'll get another pleco as soon as the tank is done cycling, but for now its a battle keeping that white string algae under control without adding water and screwing up the cycle. Basically I've scraped the sides and then sat there with a net for like an hour getting as much as I can out of the water, cause it doesn't make it to the filter, this was the case even when I put an additional up to 20 gallon power filter in the tank, and then there's so much current that my fishies can't swim. have a Penguin 125 which is supposed to be for up to 30 gallons(I really wish the guy who told me to buy it at petsmart had told me to spend the extra 5 bucks and get the one for up to 50)on which the intake is like 6" from the top of the tank and there's always a lot of food and waste sitting on the bottom that never makes it to the filter, enough that if the gravel's disturbed the water gets cloudy enough to concern me.
Geez I wish there was like a workshop with demonstrations on filters in the Chicago area. So anyway I'm pretty sure I want a canister for the dream 75 that I HAVE to get in the next couple of months. There are so many kick a** 55 gallon used setups around and so few 75's . Anyway, it seems like on canisters, you get a plastic thing that clips on the edge of the tank and it draws the water from the top or a few inches down from the top, is that true? I can't tell from all the instructions and various FAQ's I've read. So how can I filter the water at the bottom of the tank? Can I do something to get the intake for a canister there, or will adding that much rise to the hose make it work improperly? How do undergravel filters work? It seems like its basically just a plate with holes in it that you draw water through with a power head and the gravel itself ends up acting as the filter? So you end up with more gunk in the gravel? How do you clean it then? That just doesn't make any sense to me and I have spent hours(probably more like days at this point)looking. Is all the water supposed to pass through the filter(s)? I'm not even going to ask what a sump is.
Sorry if this isn't very coherent, it's late and I'm really confused about this stuff as it is.
I need to get a 75, I currently have a 20 high, for my (currently) 3 inch tiger Oscar that my girlfriend brought home from Wal Mart with a 30 dollar 10 gallon kit .
The tanks on its second week and he's hanging in there and acting happy and healthy and I'm doing all I can for him. I want to get him a girlfiend. He's so funny with the only other fish which is a 3" catfish(don't yell at me SHE bought them I just took it upon myself to take care of them after she killed the plecostomus and I fell in love with the Oscar, who she named Princess before we found out he's a he). I HAD to take out their house and rinse it and wipe it down and the Oscar was cool but the catfish freaked out and I swear to god the Oscar seemed like he was trying to calm down the catfish who hides in the log in their house unless its pitch black, he was like "OH GOD HIDE!!!". I'll get another pleco as soon as the tank is done cycling, but for now its a battle keeping that white string algae under control without adding water and screwing up the cycle. Basically I've scraped the sides and then sat there with a net for like an hour getting as much as I can out of the water, cause it doesn't make it to the filter, this was the case even when I put an additional up to 20 gallon power filter in the tank, and then there's so much current that my fishies can't swim. have a Penguin 125 which is supposed to be for up to 30 gallons(I really wish the guy who told me to buy it at petsmart had told me to spend the extra 5 bucks and get the one for up to 50)on which the intake is like 6" from the top of the tank and there's always a lot of food and waste sitting on the bottom that never makes it to the filter, enough that if the gravel's disturbed the water gets cloudy enough to concern me.
Geez I wish there was like a workshop with demonstrations on filters in the Chicago area. So anyway I'm pretty sure I want a canister for the dream 75 that I HAVE to get in the next couple of months. There are so many kick a** 55 gallon used setups around and so few 75's . Anyway, it seems like on canisters, you get a plastic thing that clips on the edge of the tank and it draws the water from the top or a few inches down from the top, is that true? I can't tell from all the instructions and various FAQ's I've read. So how can I filter the water at the bottom of the tank? Can I do something to get the intake for a canister there, or will adding that much rise to the hose make it work improperly? How do undergravel filters work? It seems like its basically just a plate with holes in it that you draw water through with a power head and the gravel itself ends up acting as the filter? So you end up with more gunk in the gravel? How do you clean it then? That just doesn't make any sense to me and I have spent hours(probably more like days at this point)looking. Is all the water supposed to pass through the filter(s)? I'm not even going to ask what a sump is.
Sorry if this isn't very coherent, it's late and I'm really confused about this stuff as it is.