250 Gal Tank

conbrio

conbrio

AC Members
Nov 5, 2004
143
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Mid TN
Hey Everyone,

I just found out that my wifes grandmother is giving us a 250 gal fish tank (and stand) for when I graduate college. Graduation is still a year and a half off. What I want is to find out what items I should look at buying so I can start to budget some money for it starting now so when we finally get the tank I have the money ready for all of the extras. What I am planning on doing is a freshwater planted tank. I will decide on types of plants and fish after I get the tank and a place to put the tank safely.

Thanks
 
I am currently running a 250 tank. I love big tanks.

Prepare yourself for:

- Filtration: a big wet dry system is the best. This way, you will not need air pumps to produce the water exchange. Also, you could use 2 150 gl. canister filters as well. *

- Heating: if you live in a very frigid zone, you'll need about 4 to 6 200W heaters minimum.

- Plants: I'm don't know much about them, but if you go seriously, a big CO2 reactor might be needed. I've seen ome at my LFS and they are rated for 20 gallon tanks. *

-Ligthing: My tanks runs 6 flourescent lights. For a planted tank, you might need more (a plant expert needed here, please)

- Gravel: a lot. I had to buy over 40 lbs. of sand to make a 1" layer.

This is what I recall now. A tank this big is beatiful, and a lot easier to take care of then a small one: less water and temp fluctuations. You'll only have to spare a little more time in water changes and cleaning.

Make sure you give a good think on your fish choice. It's easy to overcrowd a big tank if you go buying fish on impulse (It happened to me in a 70 gallon).

NOTE:
I think CO2 system and wet dry filtration are not compatible. You'll lose your precious CO2 quickly for the enhanced gas exchange in the filter.

Hope someone with more experience in plants shows up here.
 
If you want plants... in that size of tank be ready to spend some money. You will probably need:

20 lb CO2 tank = 130-150 USD
Double Gauge Regulator = 50 USD
Needle Valve = 15 USD
Reactor or powerhead... it's really up to you how you want to dissolve the CO2. Some DIY ways are easier and much cheaper than buying a reactor.
CO2 safe hose (silicone) = 0.50 cents a foot.

beveragefactory.com is a good place for most of this.

Refills on that tank would be about 15 to 20 USD depending on your location. It's cheap in the long run, expensive up front.

Be sure you will need good lighting, dry ferts, and a good substrate. These are just suggestions because it makes life much easier.

Flourite will run about 25 USD per 15 pound bag
Profile will run about 5 USD per 10 pound bag (very light though so you should mix other substrates with it)

CF or MH lighting to get enough lighting. A tank that size only needs about 2 wpg to be very effective.

Dry ferts can be had at gregwatson.com. Do a few searches on this forum for the necessary ingredients. Dry ferts are more expensive upfront but much cheaper in the long run because you will buy it in bulk.

I'm not an expert in plants anyway.... best bet is to look at:

http://rexgrigg.com/
 
conbrio, It's good to see you're wanting to join the planted tank crowd! I currently maintain a 55 gallon planted (co2) and 20 gallon (no co2) planted. I was going to build my own 160+ size tank, but have decided until I own my own house so I don't have to move everything. (*Unfortunately I have all kinds of equipment laying around for said project...)

One thing people haven't mentioned yet is weight and support. Make sure it's supported well. A tank that size will weigh 2000lbs with just water in it so plan accordingly.

If you don't have CO2 yet, I wouldn't bother with it right off since it can be a headache. Test your water for kH and gH. If you have soft water you may not want to bother with co2. If you do look into getting co2, build your own reactor out of pvc pipe. There are several online diy pages on doing it.

Build your own sump for filtration using rubbermaid containers and bio balls. I bought 5 gallons of bioballs from bigals.com for around $30.00. The most expensive thing is the pump and the benefit is you can have all your equipment in the sump (i.e. - heaters). Also, with having heaters in the sump the water is constantly moving over the heaters so they don't have to be on as often. The pump should turn over the total tank volume at least 5 times per hour, but I shoot for about 6 times. Make a large overflow as well. This will help to remove surface scum and allow better light penetration. I use mag drive pumps since I got a good deal on some. Since you have a year, follow ebay and your local classified adds for equipment sales.

Gravel is gravel. Fish waste and plant detritus will help in the place of the more expensive substrates. For a tank that size I'd look at getting natural small pea sized gravel.

Plants will definately be expensive. I'd look at buying huge bulk packages from some of the online dealers. Definately hit up aquabid since some great deals on plants can be had there.

For plant selection, if you have an idea of what type of fish you want to keep that will help. I'd look at getting cheap fast growing plants to help take up a lot of space. Vals and other fast growers can quickly take up the back wall of a tank if done right.

You can get good pieces of malaysian driftwood from aquaticeco.com. I bought three large pieces for $50 shipped. Each piece would have easily cost 50 at the lfs.

For lighting, buy shoplights that have the efficient electronic ballasts and use t8 bulbs. They're more efficient than t12 or magnetic ballasts and can save your upwards of 80 dollars a year in energy costs. I use the phillips bulbs that are available at home depot. I use both the 5000k and 6500k bulbs to get even coloring of reds and greens.

If your room is going to be more than 10 degrees different that the temperature of the tank, you can tape styrofoam to all the sides but the front and paint it or wrap it in black plastic to dress it up.

You'll also want a light timer. I bought one that has a grounded plug and have a power strip plugged into it for the lights.

You'll have to decide what you want to do for water changes in terms of chlorine and chloramine. If you don't mind buying large jugs of Prime then that's fine. Your other option would be to store water and airate it to drive off chlorine.

Everything is going to be expensive for such a massive tank. Just be smart about it and you can save some dough.

Any idea on what fish you would want?

I'm spent. Good luck.
-Russ
 
What are the dimentions of the tank?

If you want an idea on what I did for my planted multi-tank set-up, take a look at my tank spec's at the bottom. I tried my best to get top of the line equiptment.
 
I am personally thinking of building my own 300 + tank, not going to be planted due to the fact im going more preditory fish, and sting ray, but instead of going bio balls, think lava rock chips, you can pick them up at a place like terra green houses (or any place you get pond equipment/supplies) and use this in your sump. I would for sure say the sump is the way to go. remember to plan your plants well, have varity thats key. The planted tank i have is alright but im not happy because i have a few plants that are very simular and some that i keep trimming and replanting tends to start looking a little boring. Go with some nice driftwood possibly tree stump root stock type use it as a focal point then work around that. but try to find alternatives to expensive gadgets that can be bought else where for less that do the same.
 
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