125g

[Crazybob]

hey guys, im thinking about getting a 125g to house 2 oscars, and im debating what kind of filtration to use. i have an emperor 400 in my 75g atm and i really like it, so i was thinking either 2 of those, a sump, or a canister lol. i know those are pretty much all the options, but if i went with a sump/canister, should i get the tank drilled?

i was also wondering what experience you guys had with a sump or canister as i have had none.

thanks

 

[adamgreen240]

canisters are great , no need to drill the tank , the input and ouput just bend over the rim into the water. I run a fluval FX5 on my 100gall andi love it , it can handle tanks upto 400gal. Well recomended

 

[Colin_T]

I like trickle filters/ sumps. They give the tank more water volume and can be housed neatly under the tank on an appropriate stand. They can hold more filter materials and if designed properly will be easier to clean and maintain than a cannister filter. They do encourage water loss through evaporation but coverglass can be fitted to them and will reduce water loss.

 

[Crazybob]

hey thanks for the input guys. im kind of leaning toward a sump right now. what would be an ideal size to have for it? and also what kind of motor/engine/pump is required to siphon/ return the water (if i dont get a drilled tank)

 

[Colin_T]

I like trickle filters/ sumps to be at least half the length of the main tank, preferably 2/3s or more.
The main thing about a sump is it must be able to hold any water that drains out of the main tank during a power failure. Many people go for a small sump and it works fine until they lose power. Then the sump is unable to hold all the excess water and they get wet floors.

If you don't want to have holes in the tank you can buy prefilter surface skimmers that hang on the side of the tank and take water from the tank and feed it to the sump.
The pump used to return the water to the tank can be any submersible water pump that can pump water up to the top of the tank (from the sump) and turn the tank volume over at least 5 times an hour.
Eheim hobby pumps are pretty good but these days there are plenty of brands that are capable of doing the job.
Reef Octopus do a surface skimmer (expensive tho) or you can make one out of PVC pipe.

 

[Crazybob]

i have a 29g aquarium (30*18*12") which the outside woodworking is cracked, but it holds water. i was planning on using that as my sump, as i probably wont want it to be a display tank seeing as how it doesnt look good lol. would this be adequate in size? and how do i know what size of a pump to use for the return water?

 

[Crazybob]

another question i have as a scour(sp?) the forums is about sand. i want to use it as substrate for my tank. ive read posts that play-sand would be fine, and then the next one i look at says not to use it unless planting heavily, because of toxins. since ill be keeping oscars i wont have plants, should i avoid playsand? is there something else that would work?

ive heard (read) some people talking about pool sand, but i cant find what it looks like to see what the actual product looks like. ive only been able to find pictures of the bag that it come in lol. how is it different from play sand exactly?

thanks for the help

 

[SJ2K]

Playsands fine, just keep it no more then 1" deep to avoid gas build up or buy yourself a bag of malaysian trumpet snails, they'll constantly stir up the sand also preventing any build up.

 

[Crazybob]

cool, thanks boss

would my 29g be large enough for a sufficient sump? of should i try to get a used larger one if i can?

how too, do i know what size pump i need for the return? is it just the bigger the pump the better? or can i get too big of one that itll drain my sump before water can return to it?.... i know the latter is theoretically possible, but is there a pump that would actually do that?

sorry for all the question, i just really want to get this set up real nicely lol... and thanks again to everyone helping me out

 

[SJ2K]

29g is big enough and the return pump needs to match the draining capacity, the best place to ask/learn about this is the marine section those guys are the most familiar with sumps and will give you all the info you could need.

 

[Paul_MTS]

On that size tank I'd probably go for 40mm/ 1 1/2" pipework then run a 4000lph pump in the sump.

If you only going for 2 oscars in the tank as long as you design the layout of the sump correctly then it will hold enough media to sort the oscars easily.

Here's a design I used for 1 of my sumps..

Water would move right to left in that sump, with the big section on the right containing biological media with a set of foams on top, then moving to the left I would stuff a section with poly wool, next part would have heaters then the last large section would have the return pump.

Have a look through this thread on my tank rebuild, might give you some ideas on sumping your tank.. here

and have a look at this one, covers the complete build of my 4x2x2 100 UK gallons, although I over engineered the pipework on that one... click meeeee