setting up a new large tank

C

chilligirl

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Nov 9, 2007
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Hi! I'm looking at getting and setting up a large fresh water tank, between 70 and 120 gallons, and would love some advice/suggestions.

I'm not totally new to fishkeeping; I worked in a couple nice lfs when I was younger, so got a lot of experience caring for fish back then. Mostly freshwater, I'm not really experienced with salt water. Of course, back then (almost 10 years ago!), everyone used UGF, and now at the lfs, I'm being told this is a no-no?

I used to have a dwarf cichlid tank, 20 gallons, all south american cichlids, which did very well. I had to take it down when I moved, and rehome my fishies.

Almost a year ago, I got into fish again, and set up a 28 gallon bow-front cold water tank. It houses two orandas, a crown pearlscale, a handful of malaysian trumpet snails, and a rubber-lipped pleco, and has 300gph filtration. Filters are a in tank whisper and a HOB whisper. No carbon, just lots of bio media. Substrate is gravel, plants are all fake. I also have a 5gallon barebottom acrylic tank with a single male betta in it.

As for the new tank, it will have a variety of freshwater tropicals eventually. Definitely some barbs and some tetras, I'll likely move my betta out of the 5 gallon and into the big tank, one or two bottom feeders, a couple of Kribensis, and then whatever else works and catches my fancy. I like to have a natural looking tank, with open areas but lots of hidey-holes, so that I can have various species co-exist.

Anyway, my questions are:

- what type of filtration would you recommend? Trickle? HOB? UGF? Bear in mind that I like LOTS of filtration so that I can get away with overstocking a bit. I've never used a trickle filter, and don't entirely understand how they work. I get the actual trickle part, and how they create filtration, what I can't grasp is the mechanics of it, why the water only trickles rather than pouring, what the physical setup looks like, what mainenance is like, how hard it is to set up, etc.

- what type of substrate? I'm leaning towards a coarse sand, because I like the way it looks. I'm also leaning towards live plants for the first time. Pros and cons? Also, everything I'm reading says, in a planted tank, use 2 inches of soil, then 2 inches of gravel or sand on top. Yet I also read everywhere that you shouldn't have more than 2" deep substrate, or you get anaerobic bacteria problems that'll kill your fish...

Would love some advice and feedback from people who've had experiences with larger tanks.

Thanks!
 
first-UGF's are fine. they also have kits that allow the UGF to run in reverse, pushing the water up though the gravel rather than pulling it down though the gravel.

for 70-120 gallon tanks, a series of HOB filter such as Penguin 350's or Emperor 400s should be fine. Canisters though, would be better, even though they cost more. UGF's should be run with a canister or HOB filter; they may have great biological capabilities but their level of mechanical and chemical filtration is lacking.

plants are pretty beneficial for a tank. there are not really any downsides to haveing real plants, besides periodic trimmings and scouting for dead plant matter before it starts to rot. most people would not use a UGF with plants, because their roots would grow under the plates.

coarse sand should be fine if you go with a planted tank, and gravel would be better if you are going to use a UGF
 
jm1212 said:
first-UGF's are fine. they also have kits that allow the UGF to run in reverse, pushing the water up though the gravel rather than pulling it down though the gravel.

for 70-120 gallon tanks, a series of HOB filter such as Penguin 350's or Emperor 400s should be fine. Canisters though, would be better, even though they cost more. UGF's should be run with a canister or HOB filter; they may have great biological capabilities but their level of mechanical and chemical filtration is lacking.

plants are pretty beneficial for a tank. there are not really any downsides to haveing real plants, besides periodic trimmings and scouting for dead plant matter before it starts to rot. most people would not use a UGF with plants, because their roots would grow under the plates.

coarse sand should be fine if you go with a planted tank, and gravel would be better if you are going to use a UGF
Click to expand...

:iagree:

I run an RUGF on my 30 (sorry, not a big tank) and a HOB for mechanical filtration. Works great! Though gravel would be the best choice with this setup, along with a canister for higher quality filtration...
 
I'd definitely go with course sand substrate. Plants should be fine (not too much work, etc) if you use half decent lights (go better than standard hood lights, but don't overdo it unless you want to focus on making a planted tank). I would recommend just sand (or just gravel - if that's what you choose) with no soil. Plants can be grown in either plain substrate, and it's better not to overcomplicate it (again, unless you want to focus on making a planted tank vs a fish tank). In short: yes, use plants, but KISS (keep it simple)

I don't know much about filtering big tanks. although I have a 90 filtered with a aquaclear HOB. Even though it's understocked right now, I don't think this is going to be enough when I stock it long term, so if you go HOB you might need 2 or more.

I assume when you talk about trickle filters, that it involves using a sump (that's how I've seen it done). Here's what I know about sumps: Please understand, I've never used a sump, so everything I say is based on reading.
It requires some plumbing. Basically you have an overflow (there are multiple ways to do those) so that when your tank gets overfilled, the extra water drains to the sump. Then, you place a pump in the sump, which moves water back into the tank. You can have a very large flow, or very slow. The slower you pump water back into the tank, the slower it flows through the drain. This is how you control the drippiness of a trickle filter (I think!).

You might try reading through the DIY and Setup subforums at monsterfishkeepers.com.
 
thanks for the feedback!

So, I started my official shopping today. I settled on a 90 gallon tall, as that's what fit in my tank. I was drooling over a 125 long they had, but no WAY was that going to fit so...

The tank is 4 ft long and 18" wide. I haven't measured height, but it's pretty tall.

I also picked up a Penguin Biowheel that runs 350gph, and some decorative rock and driftwood.

Next pay day, I'll have to get gravel, a heater, a canister filter, more decorations, a python for water changes, and so on and so on.

For my canister filter, I'm leaning towards a Fluval 5, which is 925 gph. That right there is 10x filtration. However, I've never seen one in action - how much current will it cause? If I'm using the spray bar, will the flow be spread enough that it won't bother the fish? I like lots of filtration so that I can get away with overstocking a bit, but of course I don't want to have crazy current going on in my tank!

The reason I also got the HOB filter is because, from what I've read, and what I figure, the canister filters don't get as much aeration as an HOB filter does. So, I went with a filter with a bio wheel to increase surface area for bacteria, as well as surface agitation...

Anyhow, I'm very excited, and was super-eager to set up the tank and stand when I got home. I got all my tools ready and...the stand is missing a piece! It was mispackaged. So, now I have to drive an hour each way to the store tomorrow to pick up the missing piece so that I can set up the stand.
 
one thing with a hob if your going to do planted tank stick with the low light.

with higher light set up co2 should be used and hobs gas them out. i would just go for 2-4 inch of sand. just mix it up every month or so. a lot of people put chop sticks on the end of the python to mix it up. another thing is MTS they dig is the sand.
 
ah, what fun I've been having planning and deciding on things :) I have to say, my other tanks I've just jumped right into, and, while that's fun, planning things out is even better!

So, I've settled on a canister filter. I was really tempted by the Fluval 5, but they're sooooo expensive ($400!!!). And, considering my lfs has a sale on Canister filters right now, and I can get a Rena XP3 for $140, that's what I'm going to go with. So, between the two filters (the canister and my HOB), I'll have a theoretical 700gph filtration, which is pretty danged good on a 90g tank.

I've decided on coarse sand or a very fine gravel for substrate, in a dark colour. I may copy a nice tank I saw on this board, and build a little retaining wall of rock on one end and have a larger gravel on the other side of it. I think I'll have a few live plants, but mostly silk. I'd really like to get some java fern growing on driftwood - I think that looks so nice.

I'm planning to have the tank heavily landscaped in the back, for the full height of the tank, and quite a lot of cover on one side. Some floating cover, and maybe a grass matt. Lots of hidey holes out of rock, driftwood, flower pots, etc., but lots of swimming space in the front of the tank, and a good open section of substrate for diggers :)

My eventually, one day, over time, when all is cycled, bit by bit, stocking plans are:

A couple African Butterflies
some harlequin rasboras and/or glowlight tetras
A couple Honey gouramis
A couple Pearl Gouramis
4-6 Angels
1 black ghost knife
A pair of Blue or Gold Rams
A pair of Kribensis
A male Apistogramma with 2-3 females
2-3 Kuhli loaches
A couple of cory fish
one of the fancy pleco varieties that don't get too big
maybe a red finned shark
maybe some dwarf rainbows.

Thoughts?

Well, got to go finish assembling the stand, then lift the beast of a tank onto it!
 
Oh, almost forgot to say, I've just got a single light strip, and some floating plants should help diffuse that. I'd like to use some submersible LED lights in the tank as accents...

Also, I'll stick some malaysian trumpet snails in there to help keep the substrate aerated. I've got a handful of them in my goldies' tank, and I really like them.
 
check out big al's online if you're in the USA
Rena XP 3 is only 89.99 there + ~$10? S&H; much cheaper than $140.
You can check them for lighting too. They have the lowest prices on everything, and if they don't they'll price match and cut 5% for you.

Unless you're getting a deal from your LFS on equip with the purchase of a tank, maybe you can show them big al's price and get it there.

Not really sure though, good luck, sounds like a fun tank.
 
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