New Tank Arriving Soon

riksworld · Nov 14, 2009

Hi all,

just orderd my new tank form a lfs, allready have 2 x 200ltrs up and running, just after some advice

the new tank is 6ft long, 2.5ft high and 2ft in depth, the tank will have a sump preinstalled into the cabinet with some t5 lights running, the weir will be built into the tank so no messing about with external boxes, the toal size including the stand comes in at 6ft high, 6ft long and 2ft depth, time for some step ladders i think

ive got the internal size as around 800 litres with the sump running as well, proberbly be a tropical setup as i know this or am i wasting this tank size with a tropical setup?

would i need 2 heaters for this setup as its alot of water?
whats the best fish to keep in such a big tank?
any other advice on such a large tank?

if you have any advice or comments about stocking and running a tank please reply

any posts would be thanked

grumpysteve · Nov 14, 2009

ooooh, with a tank that size theres a lot of possibilities! how about a nice cichlid tank? there'll plenty of room for you to have a good selection.

i've heard that T5's aren't as good for deep tanks though. might be worth hearing some other opinions about that? but if you go for cichlids you wont want plants in there anyway.....

ideally you'll want 2 heaters, one at each end (am i contradicting myself here from what i said in another thread? hahaha)
you don't NEED 2 if you have one that is sufficient, but 2 would be better.....

if not tropical would you be thinking marine? theres a lot of other things to consider if you want to go saltwater. mainly, do you have the time and money to invest in a marine tank of that size?

riksworld · Nov 15, 2009

Thanks for your reply

At the moment im more leaning to a tropical tank because of the amount of money and time for a marine setup, even tho they are nice

ill probally stick the heater(s) in the sump, try and hide much of the stuff as possible

what is involed in seting up a cichlid tank, any good lfs that sell good stock?

grumpysteve · Nov 15, 2009

riksworld said:
Thanks for your reply

At the moment im more leaning to a tropical tank because of the amount of money and time for a marine setup, even tho they are nice

ill probally stick the heater(s) in the sump, try and hide much of the stuff as possible

what is involed in seting up a cichlid tank, any good lfs that sell good stock?

cichlid tanks need a fair bit of research, most of them are quite aggressive so you need to find out what you can mix, and how many of each you need to try and stop the aggression. i'd also advice a fishless cycle and add all of the stock pretty much at the same time, otherwise you'll have to move around the decor to break up territories to stop aggression. TBH i've never personally kept cichlids, but i'd like to so i've done a bit of research. good stock can work out expensive, but the end result is stunning. you'd be better off asking someone that knows a lot about cichlids as to what to stock it with though, but there is plenty of choice...... sorry i couldn't be more helpful with that!