Aquaone Ufo 350 Owners - Im A Newbie!

[HA54SYM]

Hi all,

I'm newish to the hobby, well had a couple of tropical tanks when I was a kid under 10! but never understood the science and then moved onto a few koi ponds when in my early 20's.

Now I'm 30 and want a smallish corner tank for my home office, and have seen a UFO 350 at my LFS and really fancy giving one a go.

Fancy having a black sand base, with a few plants, wood or rock and a few community fish.

I have a few questions to start off with.......

1. Has anyone got one of these tanks, any tips and thoughts on above setup with sand etc?

2. Is thier such a thing as over filtering? IE can I use the orignal hood filter and another outside tank external filter too, or would it be a waste of time / money?

3. What about keeping a few plants, I'm after something easy to look after and attractive (hardy I guess) and do you require a C02 setup to keep healthy plants?

4. What sory of stocking levels do you think for a UFO 350?

Look forward to your replies,

Dave

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the site.
I don't nkow your particular tank so starting with question 3. You don't need CO2 or fancy fertilizing schemes to work with plants. What you can do for low maintenance is get only low light plants like java fern and anubias. They grow very slowly and don't require a great deal of care.

 

[HA54SYM]

Welcome to the site.
I don't nkow your particular tank so starting with question 3. You don't need CO2 or fancy fertilizing schemes to work with plants. What you can do for low maintenance is get only low light plants like java fern and anubias. They grow very slowly and don't require a great deal of care.

Thanks for the reply, its actually the 550 UFO I'm interested in getting and its around a 78L unit.

I do like plant scapes, but it has to be fairly low service for me.

Regards

Dave

 

[rabbut]

I was thinking that the UFO 350 does not have an in-hood... The modle number mix-up explains it. I've spent the last few months answering customer queries about loss of flow through the 350's UGF filter....

to TFF

I'm not very well up on the 550's specs, but will answer your more general questions for you

2. Is thier such a thing as over filtering? IE can I use the orignal hood filter and another outside tank external filter too, or would it be a waste of time / money?

So long as the filters aren't pushing a current into the tank that is so strong that the fish cannot cope, you are not overiltered If you can get an extra filter and don't mind the extra cost, go for it

3. What about keeping a few plants, I'm after something easy to look after and attractive (hardy I guess) and do you require a C02 setup to keep healthy plants?

With a trickel filter in-hood, there is no real point in using CO2 gas, as the filter will gas it off almost as fast as you dose it With this filtration type, you are better f using something like Seachems Excel instead if you decide that carbon dosing is required. The best way to get out of dosing any type of fertiliser, is to stock low-light loving plants, such as;

Amazon Fern
Vallis
Bacopa
Elodia
Anacharis (may now be banned from import to the UK, so check before purchase or avoid it altogether to be safe )
Java Fern
Java moss

4. What sory of stocking levels do you think for a UFO 350?

At abotu 80l, there is about 18g. The "guideline" is 1 inch of adult length fish (excluding tail) per US gallon. In theory this means that you can have upto 18inches of adult length fish. More experienced hobbyists with a well matured tank (over 6 months old) can start to push it a little more, but remember this is just a guideline. If the fish you are going to be keeping are messy or large, the guideline does not apply.

Remember to fishless cycle the tank with liquid ammonia or fish food before you add your first fish

HTH
Rabbut