Looking At 155 Gallon Tank

[pscl227]

Hey guys!
just doing a little preliminary research.....
I'm looking at getting a 155 Gallon tank for a feature in my new house, apart from considerations about the floor (which is stone, so we should be ok there!) I am wondering about things like:

1. Filtration
2. Heating
3. Water changes
4. Stocking

1. I imagine the filtration for a tank this size will have to be rather epic, I'm guessing you can just go for your bog standard external canister filter, whats "done thing" in terms of filtering this volume of water

2. As far as heating is concerned, it will roughly need 1Kw of heater elements in order to correctly heat it, perhaps 4 x 300watt elements to spread the heat distribution, and provide some redundancy? Or is there any external method of heating water for a tank i should consider?

3. Water changes, this is my major worry, obviously no problem filling it up, chuck the hose in and forget about it for a while, but as far as water changes go, how would you go about it, because obviously buckets are of out the question, and i don't imagine you want to put cold chlorinated hose pipe water into the tank, so how would people go about thi?

4. Stocking, not only thinking fish here substrate as well, my initial reaction is "discus, discus, discus!!!" but are there any bigger fish that could live happily in a community tank? what kind of substrate would people use that is easy to clean and grow plants in?

thanks for the help, Paul

 

[Pleccy]

The best way to filter such as large tank would be to use a sump, although the tank would have to be drilled for an overflow wier. A more simple option would be to use a very large external filter such as a Fluval FX5 or maybe even two of these. For heating I would go with four 300w heaters, also if you go for a sump they can be be hidden in this. Water changes would be a problem, but you can get large, food-grade water kegs that will do the job, just fill this up with tap water and leave it to heat for day or so, once the water is ready you can use a hose that leads outside into a drain and pump the water from the container and into the tank or sump.

When choosing tankmates make sure they can tolerate the high temperatures required by discus. Possibly candidates would be peaceful Geophagus species. Also a large shoal of tetras or pencilfish would look stunning.

 

[minxfishy]

Water changes would be very easy, just get yourself a python, will drain the water out and with the flick of the switch (or actually twist and turn the knob! ) will put the water back in for you, just add the dechlor prior, during and after filling, plenty of people here use this method and its as easy as pie.

2 x FX5's would be my preference but then Ive no idea about sumps also yep 4 x 300W heaters. Also pictures are required once its set up or you will be shot on sight by TFF members

 

[pscl227]

Also pictures are required once its set up or you will be shot on sight by TFF members

well not moving in till just after Christmas and it will probably be another month after that till i get it so we have time to sort the house, but do not worry, i will be showing it off mercilessly!

what other fishy options would there be, really want something big is, but not partial to small fish! Would love to go marine, but the cost of stocking something this size i think would scare my bank manager too much!

 

[Straydum]

Pleccy's reply should help you quite abit. i agree with earth eaters though they are known to be quite boisterous amongst themselves especially in a larger group. the good thing however that the aggression is more spread out. if not there's always angels. a group of altums would be gorgeous

 

[minxfishy]

Substrate is I guess a personal choice here, if you are going for fairly clean fish, ie no Oscars, no plecs, then sand would look great, but if you are having large fish, then they produce large poo and then I would use pea sized gravel, only because Ive had tanks with O's that made such a mess that it was horrible to look at, even with daily vacs.

Stocking, well obvious would be an Oscar, or even two, but it depends on what fish you like, if you want discus, be prepared for many water changes and even with a python that would be a chore on such a large tank, but thats just my take on discus, I dont really know anything much about them.

 

[Pleccy]

Oscars, while they are large cichlids, are quite an aggressive species so they wouldn't make ideal tankmates for discus. Also they wouldn't be able to tolerate high temperatures.

 

[minxfishy]

I wasnt for one second advising them as tankmates for discus

 

[pscl227]

cool, thanks guys, please keep posting if you have any more stocking suggestions, got lots of time to do research, might be a good excuse to buy some more books! which is always nice!

 

[Pleccy]

I wasnt for one second advising them as tankmates for discus

You implied it in your post!

 

[minxfishy]

No I implied that two Oscars would be an obvious stocking for a large tank, then because he had mentioned discus in the OP... if he wanted discus..........

Oh forget it, some days I wonder why I even bother

 

[pscl227]

chill guys! thanks for the info so far! I've had a chance to have a quick flick thru my existing fihy books and have came across several fishies i would like to keep, obviously i don't want to keep all these together as a lot of them are incompatible with each other.

-Silver dollars, i think a good sized shoal of these would look absolutely stunning swimming about
-Galaxy / harlequin rasbora, imagine seeing 50 of these together in a shoal!
-Paradise fish
-Clown Synodontis
-Zebra pleco (stupidly expensive, but would be something really different!)
-Possibly a dedicated cichlid tank (nice tank !!)
-Boesemans rainbowfish, never seen them in the flesh but they look stunning in my books
-Clown loach
-Brazilian freshwater puffer

 

[Million]

Have a look at tinfoil barbs, they're beautiful fish, shoal well, and grow reasonably big but not massive

Harlequins are gorgeous, to be honest a huge shoal of any little fish will look stunning, but it's a balance of what else you want in there. You could keep discus with little tetras etc as they're peaceful. Just look at the master's take on this...
http/images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h...l%3Den%26sa%3DN

I would rather have a nice planted community than a massive tank with a few huge fish and otherwise bare, but that's just me, I like it 'au naturel'!

 

[pscl227]

I would rather have a nice planted community than a massive tank with a few huge fish and otherwise bare, but that's just me, I like it 'au naturel'!

I 100% agree with that, but i am looking maybe for a balance, a nice planted tank with some fair size, but not huge fish in it