Title: 150g Amazon tank
Sergeant Major - March 31, 2006 04:19 AM (GMT)
Ok, well it's basically settled... I'm going to turn the 150g tank into a freshwater amazon tank. Ok, so I don't actually have it yet, but I should sometime around July or August... then it will be November before it get's it's stand, which I'm going to build from scratch.
I want live plants, and a piece of driftwood as a centerpiece. The 150g I'm buying is 2 feet tall and 2 feet wide and I think 5 feet long if I remeber correctly, so I can fit a very nice piece of driftwood in there.
I'm wanting to also install an RO filter with an automatic fill valve that will keep the tank at a pre-determined water level. I know how to do that, it will just take a little bit of work installing it since I'm going to tap into the refridgerator water line. I also want to install an automatic drain from a sump-style filter that will drain into the refridgerator drain line. The tank will of course be next to the refridgerator.
This is what the sump-arrangement would look like. The RO filter would empty into the sump, but the shutoff switch would be in the main tank (not pictured), the heater and CO2 system, any additional air-stones, etc will go into the sump which will be higher than the main tank, there will be a pump in the main tank that will pump water into the sump, then an overflow will return it back to the main tank. Which will let me just put two tubes in the main tank, and a pump at the bottom.
Anyway, I'm trying to decide on the fish. I could definately go with Tiger Oscars, but I also want some other much smaller fish, so I don't know if I could really get away with the oscars. Also thinking about some plecos... and 2-3 angelfish... I want some schooling fish, so possibly 10-12 cardinal tetras (which is where I would run into problems with the oscars). What do you think I should stock in an amazon themed 150g tank?
I want live plants, and a piece of driftwood as a centerpiece. The 150g I'm buying is 2 feet tall and 2 feet wide and I think 5 feet long if I remeber correctly, so I can fit a very nice piece of driftwood in there.
I'm wanting to also install an RO filter with an automatic fill valve that will keep the tank at a pre-determined water level. I know how to do that, it will just take a little bit of work installing it since I'm going to tap into the refridgerator water line. I also want to install an automatic drain from a sump-style filter that will drain into the refridgerator drain line. The tank will of course be next to the refridgerator.
This is what the sump-arrangement would look like. The RO filter would empty into the sump, but the shutoff switch would be in the main tank (not pictured), the heater and CO2 system, any additional air-stones, etc will go into the sump which will be higher than the main tank, there will be a pump in the main tank that will pump water into the sump, then an overflow will return it back to the main tank. Which will let me just put two tubes in the main tank, and a pump at the bottom.
Anyway, I'm trying to decide on the fish. I could definately go with Tiger Oscars, but I also want some other much smaller fish, so I don't know if I could really get away with the oscars. Also thinking about some plecos... and 2-3 angelfish... I want some schooling fish, so possibly 10-12 cardinal tetras (which is where I would run into problems with the oscars). What do you think I should stock in an amazon themed 150g tank?
Perfectblue - March 31, 2006 05:39 AM (GMT)
I have a couple questions.
1.) What size is the sump going to be?
2.) Why did you decide to place the sump higher than the main tank? You could place the sump underneith the tank which will be out of sight. Also if you had the sump under the main tank you could use a overflow box to drain the water to the sump and use a pump to return the water to the main tank.
Stocking. Personally I would go with a peaceful community tank housing Cardinal Tetras, Cherry Barbs, Hatchetfish, Cories, Otos, and a Bristlenose Pleco. :)
Good luck with the tank and keep us updated.
1.) What size is the sump going to be?
2.) Why did you decide to place the sump higher than the main tank? You could place the sump underneith the tank which will be out of sight. Also if you had the sump under the main tank you could use a overflow box to drain the water to the sump and use a pump to return the water to the main tank.
Stocking. Personally I would go with a peaceful community tank housing Cardinal Tetras, Cherry Barbs, Hatchetfish, Cories, Otos, and a Bristlenose Pleco. :)
Good luck with the tank and keep us updated.
Sergeant Major - March 31, 2006 01:51 PM (GMT)
I know it's an odd arrangement for the sump to be above it, but it would still be out of sight with the stand I'm going to build... here's what it will basically look like... this tank belongs to a friend of mine and is SW, not Amazon, but you get the idea of what the stand will look like:
I guess the benefit to putting the sump above is that it would eliminate the possibility of flooding the way I want to do it... if the pump dies, it's no big deal, whereas if the pump dies on an under the cabinet sump, I could potentially have 150 gallons of water soaking through the floorboards. The sump will be approximately 10 gallons, but I will have to build it myself out of acrylic, or find a 5-10g acrylic tank for cheaper that I can drill the side on for the return line. The main reason for having the sump at all is to be able to hide all the equipment, heater, CO2 injector, filters, RO water filler, etc., so that all I have in the main tank is the pump line, the return line, and the shutoff switch that will turn off the RO filter/filler when the main tank reaches it's full water level.
Underneath I'll keep a 10g quarantine tank... I'll just re-use one of my existing 10g tanks which I otherwise have no other real use for (I'm wanting to get rid of the 2 10g tanks, they are just too small for me now).
For substrate, since it's going to be a planted tank, I'm thinking of going with between 5-7 bags of eco-complete so it makes it a little bit darker than flourite (it's got a large footprint, but I think that much would provide a good base).
Things I definately want are going to be trumpet snails to turn the substrate, I would like 1 or 2 other larger above the substrate snails, but I'll have to see what I can get that won't eat through the plants. I'm not sure if freshwater clams would be true to the biotope, but I'm thinking about 5-10 of them. I think 1-3 plecos is a must (I already have 2 small ones, so I could just move them over to it). I've always wanted to keep a couple of tiger oscars, but didn't have room for them before, this. The problem is that I simply must have smaller schooling fish also. I wonder if a school of tetras could out-swim a single oscar to stay alive... I doubt it, but I wonder none the less. Also maybe a few cory cats, 5 or so.
I guess the benefit to putting the sump above is that it would eliminate the possibility of flooding the way I want to do it... if the pump dies, it's no big deal, whereas if the pump dies on an under the cabinet sump, I could potentially have 150 gallons of water soaking through the floorboards. The sump will be approximately 10 gallons, but I will have to build it myself out of acrylic, or find a 5-10g acrylic tank for cheaper that I can drill the side on for the return line. The main reason for having the sump at all is to be able to hide all the equipment, heater, CO2 injector, filters, RO water filler, etc., so that all I have in the main tank is the pump line, the return line, and the shutoff switch that will turn off the RO filter/filler when the main tank reaches it's full water level.
Underneath I'll keep a 10g quarantine tank... I'll just re-use one of my existing 10g tanks which I otherwise have no other real use for (I'm wanting to get rid of the 2 10g tanks, they are just too small for me now).
For substrate, since it's going to be a planted tank, I'm thinking of going with between 5-7 bags of eco-complete so it makes it a little bit darker than flourite (it's got a large footprint, but I think that much would provide a good base).
Things I definately want are going to be trumpet snails to turn the substrate, I would like 1 or 2 other larger above the substrate snails, but I'll have to see what I can get that won't eat through the plants. I'm not sure if freshwater clams would be true to the biotope, but I'm thinking about 5-10 of them. I think 1-3 plecos is a must (I already have 2 small ones, so I could just move them over to it). I've always wanted to keep a couple of tiger oscars, but didn't have room for them before, this. The problem is that I simply must have smaller schooling fish also. I wonder if a school of tetras could out-swim a single oscar to stay alive... I doubt it, but I wonder none the less. Also maybe a few cory cats, 5 or so.