Hey all! My friend at work asked me to help him set up a 150 gal tank. He says that e has all equipment and substrate. He told me that the water soure is from a lake outside the house which gets pumped through a water softener. My question is, what kind of water conditions am I gonna expect? I know the pH will be low. Also, once this tank is setup, he is wanting schooling fish that have lots of color to them. I would like recommendations of type and quantity. I have set up tanks before, just not this big. I won't find out what all he has as in the way of equipment until Monday. I will test the water once I arrive at his place. Any help will be appreciated. Also, I recommended that we do fishless cycling; what would be the quickest method of getting this tank cycled before Christmas?? Thanks a bunch!!
Helping friend with a 150 gallon tank - Need some help!
- Thread starter jdheff1982
- Start date
Can't help you with the water conditions. As far as the cycling goes, its simple. Start the fishless cycle and give your friend a piece of media from your own cycled tank. Also, add a handful of gravel to his tank from yours. If that is not an option, marineland is selling BioSpira. Supposedly this is the real deal, real live bacteria that you can buy.
Schooling fish for a 150. IMO, he doesn't need to do all schooling fish, right? I mean, he could make a really cool setup. For the schoolers, take a look at Rainbows. Most grow to ~4 inches and will school. Check out www.aquabid.com and go to the rainbow section. Most of the sellers have pics. You could do a bunch of those in a 150. To add some diversity, he could do some zebra danios. Then a few slower moving fish maybe...what about a dwarf gourami or a dwarf flame gourami. A betta would go nicely in there. Then maybe a school of rummy nosed tetras.
Is he lookin for size and schooling or just a nice looking tank?
Schooling fish for a 150. IMO, he doesn't need to do all schooling fish, right? I mean, he could make a really cool setup. For the schoolers, take a look at Rainbows. Most grow to ~4 inches and will school. Check out www.aquabid.com and go to the rainbow section. Most of the sellers have pics. You could do a bunch of those in a 150. To add some diversity, he could do some zebra danios. Then a few slower moving fish maybe...what about a dwarf gourami or a dwarf flame gourami. A betta would go nicely in there. Then maybe a school of rummy nosed tetras.
Is he lookin for size and schooling or just a nice looking tank?
If I ever got a 150g tank, I've always wanted to try bala sharks, which can get pretty big, and which in my friend's smaller tanks, seem to school pretty well, even if they're not true schooling fish.
Val
Val
water softener "salt"
If he's starting with fish, he's going to want to switch his water softening brine from "salt"-- sodium chloride-- to potassium chloride. You can get KCl in the watersoftening section of the local Home depot. (Talk to the salesperson there about fish tanks...) He doesn't have to change out his current brine. Just use that salt on the driveway or something and start recharging with potassium chloride.
Why?
KCl exchanges a potassium ion for the calcium and magnesium ions, instead of a sodium ion. The sodium ions just sit there, nasty and reactive. But the potassium ion is in low supply: the plants suck it up and get a chance to use up more phosphates. Phosphates are constantly entering the system (flake feed, etc), so when plant leaves (or duckweed) are removed, so are all those nutrients.
Result: less algae.
Plus, even if he's not planting this tank, I'd recommend some laterite in the gravel (Flourite or Shultz Soil Conditioner). These laterite clays scavenge phosphate from the water.
Result: less algae-- even in an unplanted system.
If he's starting with fish, he's going to want to switch his water softening brine from "salt"-- sodium chloride-- to potassium chloride. You can get KCl in the watersoftening section of the local Home depot. (Talk to the salesperson there about fish tanks...) He doesn't have to change out his current brine. Just use that salt on the driveway or something and start recharging with potassium chloride.
Why?
KCl exchanges a potassium ion for the calcium and magnesium ions, instead of a sodium ion. The sodium ions just sit there, nasty and reactive. But the potassium ion is in low supply: the plants suck it up and get a chance to use up more phosphates. Phosphates are constantly entering the system (flake feed, etc), so when plant leaves (or duckweed) are removed, so are all those nutrients.
Result: less algae.
Plus, even if he's not planting this tank, I'd recommend some laterite in the gravel (Flourite or Shultz Soil Conditioner). These laterite clays scavenge phosphate from the water.
Result: less algae-- even in an unplanted system.
Did you say africans? What other FW gets so colorful. If I had a tank that size clown loaches would be in the mix. Do they school? A whole bunch of tetras. What size fish are you after. You are lucky.
Update on the tank (Mojo, need your advice)
Ok,I had a chance Monday morning to see the frends tank and oh my gosh, it is a total wreck. Someone had devised a wierd filtration system involving pvc piping leading to the bottom of the tank to an acrylic tank the bio balls in one spot and input/output water area. My friend is wanting to ditch this setup. For starter, I directed him to the mos expensive Eheim filter system The Pro. II w/ integrated heater and such. With the size of tank he has, will one be alright, or should he get 2???? I have no clue as to what type of fish he gonna get. I can tell one thing tho, his water is definately neutral! Oh, another thing, the whole pipe setup, whoever setup this weird filter system also drilled a silver dollar sized hole for drainage. We were wondering what we could use to plug the hole??? This is turnig into a bigger project than expected!! Please help me with this!!! I haven't done a tank bigger than 37 gallons. Again thanks!!!
Ok,I had a chance Monday morning to see the frends tank and oh my gosh, it is a total wreck. Someone had devised a wierd filtration system involving pvc piping leading to the bottom of the tank to an acrylic tank the bio balls in one spot and input/output water area. My friend is wanting to ditch this setup. For starter, I directed him to the mos expensive Eheim filter system The Pro. II w/ integrated heater and such. With the size of tank he has, will one be alright, or should he get 2???? I have no clue as to what type of fish he gonna get. I can tell one thing tho, his water is definately neutral! Oh, another thing, the whole pipe setup, whoever setup this weird filter system also drilled a silver dollar sized hole for drainage. We were wondering what we could use to plug the hole??? This is turnig into a bigger project than expected!! Please help me with this!!! I haven't done a tank bigger than 37 gallons. Again thanks!!!
I don't know what to tell you, but that drilled hole dosn't sound good. You know that "weird" filtration that it came with just might be good, If you could get pictures of it I would think someone here just may be able to figure it out and you may save your self some money. I don't think theres anyway to fix that hole, So the next step would be to use it the way it was set up instead of trying to change it. Just an idea! Hope you get something worked out.
Sounds like the tank is drilled for a sump setup and that the extra acrylic tank you are describing is the sump filter...If this is the case I would be tempted to use the sump and not go spending extra money on a professional eheim...Maybe someone with more expertise can chime in here...
If I had the 150 and wanted to put schooling fish in it I would go with about 15+ congo tetras and then perhaps some other smaller variety of tetra as well...
If I had the 150 and wanted to put schooling fish in it I would go with about 15+ congo tetras and then perhaps some other smaller variety of tetra as well...
Dang it, I wish my 150 had came predrilled with a sump...
Do you know what type of motors are being used in this "weird filter" that you described.
Does the filter look something like this?
This kind of filter is usually called a wet/dry, trickle, or a sump type filter and in my opinion is about as good as you can do for a large sized tank especially. My advice is try to find out the gph it's pumpin (it should be doing imo between 4-5 times you gallonage in an hour) and if that's not enough then you should spring for something else in addition (the eheims are quite expensive but it's an option).
Do you know what type of motors are being used in this "weird filter" that you described.
Does the filter look something like this?
This kind of filter is usually called a wet/dry, trickle, or a sump type filter and in my opinion is about as good as you can do for a large sized tank especially. My advice is try to find out the gph it's pumpin (it should be doing imo between 4-5 times you gallonage in an hour) and if that's not enough then you should spring for something else in addition (the eheims are quite expensive but it's an option).