Back Again Into Fish...some Questions And Info (kinda Long)

[rlglassy]

Hello all. I am getting back into freshwater fish after about a 20 year haitus. Now have different life, wife and house...In the past I have had big tanks. My favorite was my 215 (7ft x 18in x 30" tall) . The only filter I used on it was an undergravel filter. About every month I put on the DE filter for an hour or two. The tank was always clear and clean looking and the fish were always healthy. In this tank I kept a silver arrowana(20"), large tiretrack(22") a large royal and a large blue-eyed pleco, 5 large discus, a big spotted scat, a couple big striped leporenus, Golden and banded severums, 6 australian rainbows, elephant nose, and some others....

The ugf always worked good for me, but when I mention using that as the only filter for the tank that size, I get weird looks and comments.
My new tank now in a 150 gal. 4ft x 2ft. x 30 tall. It came with a ugf. I know that filters have come a long way in 20 years and I have talked to others and done research and the EHEIM filter seems to be one of the best filters on the market. I bought an Eheim model 2260 based on what the saleman on the fish store told me. When I got it home, I did not realize it was so big. It just barley fits underneath the stand. After reading more online about that model, I saw where that model should be good for a tank up to 465 gal.. If any of you have tanks close in size to 150 gal and use eheim filters, what model do you use or would reccomend??

I have not set the tank up yet. But I only want 1 filter, no powerheads or over the back filters.

You guys probably already know about doing this setting up a large tank, but I thought I'd share it anyways.

I do not want to leave a permanent indentation in the carpet whenever the tank is took down for moving or whatever. What I have done in the past for my big tanks was (I built well ... overbuilt my stands) I made a "pad" to go under each leg of the stand. Usually 6" x 6" or 4 x 6. The "pad" was a peice of pegboard with 3/4 in roofing nails glued into the holes. I usually made twice as many holes to put more nails in. Then I'd spot glues the "pad" to the bottom of each leg of the stand. So when the fish tanks was in place for many years and it was time to move it or sell it,.... when I lifted the stand off the carpet, I just had to run my hand under where each leg was and it looked like there was never a fish tank there. No dents in the carpet.
With this new 150 I have now - it came with a stand with a 2' x 4' flat bottom. I beefed up the supports from inside the stand. I got a piece of 2' x 4' pegboard and glued 2/3 in roofing nails thru each hole and have a peice of 3/4 inch plywood on top of the pegboard. then the tank stand will sit on top of the plywood. I hope you guys don't think I'm too weird.....if any one want to see pix, I can post some before I set the tank on it.

Thanks for letting me share here and I'm sure I'll be back - soon.

 

[yvez9]

undergravel filters are a thing of the past. most people use canisters or sumps for large tanks now as it is usually easier to maintain and are more efficient.

as for your filter, i don't really always trust the rated tank size it can support. for exmaple, my new filstar xp3 filter is rated at 350 gph for tanks up to 175 gallons. that would only be 2 gph, which is not enough IMO. I'm using it on my 90 gallon so that's about 4gph. a canister filter should give you 3-5 gallons per hour.

check for the output of the pump and if it's anywhere between 450 - 700 gph you're good to go. more could mean trouble but it also depends on the fish you plan to keep

 

[Tolak]

Welcome back into aquatics & welcome to TFF! I usually take the size of tank, or gallons per hour that a filter will do, & divide by two. Everyone, even Eheim, will overrate their product, it's a sales tactic used by anyone selling anything.

It is always better to overfilter, that canister should work out really nice. You can always point the output of the filter straght down, or towards the back of the tank to reduce turbulance. I always overfilter, it works out for the best. My most severe overfiltered tank is a 55 with a 2222, 2224, old AquaClear 200, & a homemade 1,000 lph undergravel jet filter. It houses angels, who don't like a lot of turbulance, output placement is the key to keeping them happy.

All of my tanks are in the basement, with the exception of a 65 gallon show tank in the living room. To avoid permanently flattening the carpet, I got a clear desk pad that is used under desks in an office. I put this under the stand (overbuilt, homemade) and left around a foot in front of the stand to protect the carpet from the inevitable splashes & spills that occur during maintainance. Another weird sounding, but good looking & working setup.

Definitely post pics of the tank when it's done, and once again, welcome!

Tolak

 

[rlglassy]

Welcome back into aquatics & welcome to TFF! I usually take the size of tank, or gallons per hour that a filter will do, & divide by two. Everyone, even Eheim, will overrate their product, it's a sales tactic used by anyone selling anything.

It is always better to overfilter, that canister should work out really nice. You can always point the output of the filter straght down, or towards the back of the tank to reduce turbulance. I always overfilter, it works out for the best. My most severe overfiltered tank is a 55 with a 2222, 2224, old AquaClear 200, & a homemade 1,000 lph undergravel jet filter. It houses angels, who don't like a lot of turbulance, output placement is the key to keeping them happy.

All of my tanks are in the basement, with the exception of a 65 gallon show tank in the living room. To avoid permanently flattening the carpet, I got a clear desk pad that is used under desks in an office. I put this under the stand (overbuilt, homemade) and left around a foot in front of the stand to protect the carpet from the inevitable splashes & spills that occur during maintainance. Another weird sounding, but good looking & working setup.

Definitely post pics of the tank when it's done, and once again, welcome!

Tolak

Sorry about the empty reply.... just getting used to the forum mechanics.
Thanks for the replies.....It looks like I may best served by the eheim model 2260. It is rated for up to 500 gal with a 300 gph rate flow. I was kinda leery about it cuz the salesguy was really kinda pushing it on me. I have had no prior expereince with cannister filters and am doing some reasearch before I get it set up.

My main question about this cannister filter is how do I set up the media in the cannister??. I don't mind doing that, but I need to have a picture in my head on how I should "pack" it. I understand there should be 3 layers with maybe some other fiber filter pads in between the layers. The cannister size is 18 liters. Eheim says to used thier glass-like substrate material (15L) for the main part of the media. But they want $62 for a 5L size. I need 3 of those. Are there other kinds of media that would work OK in that cannister??? Once I get an understanding of the cannister filter, I'll be OK. Thanks again guys....(and gals) I'll report more as I get this setup.....if you want to hear about it. I have other fish stories to share with you also as time goes on.

 

[john5748]

Welcome to the forum,

I too have came back to freshwater fishkeeping after years in hibernation after getting a complete setup off a friend who had decided to quit for whatever reason (I am sure he will come back to the fold though).

I was given as well as the tank and stand an Eheim cannister thermofilter (model 2217), this is a old model but it works great for me.

Originally it was set up with only gravel in between the filter pads which seemed to work ok for a few months it was only after I had been on here for a while that I was told I should have the Eheim filter media in there instead, I have now changed this over and it appears to be better.

The Eheim filter media I mentioned is called:

Efimech - Ehfimech is a coarse mechanical filter material which is to be used as bottom layer filtration. It's hollow ceramic design crates eddies which disperse the water into many paths trapping large debris, whilst creating an even flow of water for subsequent layers of media.

Ehfisubstratpro - To create biologically sound water as found in nature, you need EHFISUBSTRATpro. Biological filtering is based on a natural decomposition of harmful substances using helpful bacteria. They convert ammonia and nitrite into relatively non-toxic nitrate. The efficiency of biological filtration is limited by the media that bacteria are growing on. With over 450 ml per litre (22, 000sq. ft. per lmp. gal. / 18, 3000 sq. ft. per U.S. gal.) EHFISUBSTRATpro is a specially designed sintered glass. Bacteria are able to stick better to a surface which has a complex pore system. EHFISUBSTRAT has been specially developed to offer optimum sites for bacteria colonization. The effectiveness of these bacteria is linked to how much oxygen and toxins can flow by. With faster decomposition of toxins compared to other media. Highly effective, economically priced, it is the best biological media available to aquarium hobbyists.

I have pasted the description of both products from their website as it explains what they do better than I could, hope this has helped and not confused you more.

John.

 

[CFC]

The efi substrat pro is about the best biological filtration media you can get and when used combined with ceramic rings (which eheim call efimech) provides almost perfect mechanical and biological filtration, i use these with a layer of efifix and a couple of fine grade sponges above the efisubstrat pro to catch any smaller particals which may have made their way through the filter. If the cost is still too much for you to bare look into things like alfagrog or bioballs which are commonly used in large volume sump systems.

The 2260 is about the only filter you will find which can reliably handle 150 gallons as a single filter, i run three 2217's on my somewhat overstocked 200 gallon tank as well as a couple of powerheads with floss filters inside the tank.