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!
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!
, but I would suggest using at least two canister filters or else you could use a overflow/ stump tank.
these are the boom 
