What Kit Do You Recommend?

[Miles_hot]

Hi

I first posted in this forum about 12 months ago full of hope and expectation that I would be sorting a tank out in the next "few" weeks and some of you were kind enough to encourage me. I have now finally built the tank support unit (suffering some pretty impressive project timeline slippage!) and want to buy a tank this week.

The tank will be 35" long, 24" high and between 16 and 18" in width (front to back). This will give a volume of between 220 and 250 litres (48-55 UK Gal). The tank is expected to contain plans and some landscaping and a good level of fish stocking.

Reading around the forum I think that I want an Eheim pump and probably an external heater (minimise the stuff within the tank) however that's pretty much as far as my thinking has gone. What level / type of kit do I need and do you have any recommendations?

In terms of the tank I have found the old emails from Aquariums UK and AC Aquatics but does anyone have any receommendations of places to buy custom tanks (and lids) from? Is there anything to watch out for / great things to include in the design?

Obviously if I've missed something or you need more info just let me know and I'll post what ever is needed

Many thanks

Miles
Edited to add: in last year's thread waterdrop mentioned that the 24" height might be an issue with access but also extra depth does not allow more fish to be kept as the deciding factor is the watt surface area for oxygen etc. Whilst this makes some sense (when comparing say 18 inch and 24 inch) I wonder of there's anything that can ne done to alleviate the limit, air pumps etc, or is it am absolute and all I'm doing is costing more money (tank costs, pump sizing etc) just to "have a bigger one" whilst not being able to actually keep more fish which after all is the purpose of the tank

 

[Miles_hot]

No one got anything for me?

 

[OldMan47]

The problem I have had with an overly deep tank is very simple to state but not easy to overcome. When my 45 show tank is full to the normal full level, I cannot reach the substrate with my hands. My arms are just not quite long enough. I have worked somewhat with tools that add to my reach but it is simply not the same as getting my hands and fingers involved with the plantings, etc. Even simply dropping the tank height to 22 inches would be enough to make planting and decorating easy, like I see in my 120 gallon tank. Try using a simple tape measure to measure from your armpit to the palm of your hand. That measurement is the very deepest you should ever consider.

 

[Miles_hot]

Thanks OldMan - I will re-measure my wife's arms as she's going to be doing all the maintenance work on this.

On a wider note I was starting to home in on the Eheim Pro3e (my default tends to be to go for the highest quality item I can afford) but have been massively put off by reports that it has issues with anything being in line with it (e.g flow and priming issues with the Hydor in line heater). Is this an issue for other Eheim pumps or is it just the electronics in the 3e which confuse it? If not Eiheim what? I started drifting towards the TectraTec filter, as they make in inline UV unit so I assume the filters can handle in line stuff, but would appreciate any ideas. Cost is not a major consideration; ease of use, reliability, quality and best filtration are the drivers.

Is a UV clarifier (mounted on the inlet to clump algae) or a UV Steriliser (mounted on the output to kill stuff) a good idea?

With all this pump / filter / stuff around giving crystal clear and clean water what is the function of the water change?

Many thanks

Miles

 

[Miles_hot]

Any thoughts on the UV stuff?

Miles

 

[saltynay]

Hey miles UV is generally a no for home user environment. The reasons being:

1. Makes fish more prone to disease due to the normal absence of any sort of pathogen. e.g. think of people that live in plastic bubbles because they have no immune system.
2. Costs money for maintenance (bulb change every 6months) and power costs
3. More connections = more points of failure.

The reason commercial environments use UV is it will stop pathogens being spread between tanks so new shipments will have a limited effect on old stock. Secondly the fish are only meant to be in the store for 1-2 months not their entire lives so their immune system is not heavily hampered.

Fluval make good external filters. Have you thought of doing a sump or fluidised sand bed filter? The water change is to prevent build up of nitrites (or nitrates I always get the 2 mixed up whichever one is the final product of the nitrogen cycle) its not actually needed often (always good to change occasionally) if you have thought of every variable in your tank but the list is long.

 

[Miles_hot]

Thanks for the tip on the UV - that will help to keep the costs down a little and removes one item of uncertainty. Flurval certainly seems to have a following but I thought I'd picked up concerns that they leak (having just built a wooden cabinet for the the filters etc leakage is a no no!)

A sump appears to be out as I didn't allow for such a setup when designing the cabinet on which the tank will be based.


Miles