help setting up a 180 gallon tank

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spenceyadigg

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 29, 2008
15
0
31
Diamond Bar
Hey everyone,
I've had a 60 gal tank for a few years now and finally have enough money to upgrade to a 180 gal. I've always had hang on the back filters but after researching, its seems there are a lot of better options out there such as wet/dry system, sumps, or canisters. I dont know the differences between them and would appreciate what you guys recommend for a 180 gal. I also heard that with a sump, you can put your heater directly in there so that you dont see any equipment in the tank. i would like to do this but can this only be done with sumps. which option would be the cleanest, with the least amount of cleaning. im planning on stocking a 10+ colony of frontosas and a few firefin comps. thanks in advance for the help
 
I use canisters (Eheim 2250,2260,2262). I would recommend the 2262 first. Also the type of filter will really depend on your preference. But you can not go wrong with sumps or wet dry systems.
 
spenceyadigg said:
Hey everyone,
I've had a 60 gal tank for a few years now and finally have enough money to upgrade to a 180 gal. I've always had hang on the back filters but after researching, its seems there are a lot of better options out there such as wet/dry system, sumps, or canisters. I dont know the differences between them and would appreciate what you guys recommend for a 180 gal. I also heard that with a sump, you can put your heater directly in there so that you dont see any equipment in the tank. i would like to do this but can this only be done with sumps. which option would be the cleanest, with the least amount of cleaning. im planning on stocking a 10+ colony of frontosas and a few firefin comps. thanks in advance for the help
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When shifting gears to larger tanks in excess of 100g, do a sump as the main filter with many HOB's, Aqua Clear of course.......180g upgrade means to flip the 60g into a sump, it is perfect....Pump for a 180g will cost bewtween $70-100.....Fill the tank up with cheap sponges, about $40 worth........Always use a floss to pre-filter the incoming water, about $20.......Put two Ac101's on the 180 for mechanical filtration.............
 
Personal preference, there are many ways to effectively filter a 180g. Sumps can be cheap if you build them yourself otherwise they are quite costly. Importracer has a good suggestion, with many brands of 180g tank you could still run HOBs. What do you have filtering the 60g right now?
 
Eh, I'm not a fan of HOBs. I think they look... bad. Personally, I'm at the stage where I enjoy keeping fish, but I also enjoy the aspect of making show quality tanks. For me, that means sumps and wet dry filtration. You have the ability to house additional fish, hide filtration and heating, and provide additional gallons. Canisters are ok, so long as they are silent and don't detract from the look of the tank.
 
I use canisters also. But I also use the Hydor in-line 300 watt eth heaters. They fit onto a 5/8" line and get the heater out of the tank. On the 180g you will probably need two. I was running a single on my 120g with no problems but on my 210g I'm setting up, I will use two. This is a bit of a challenge because I have to do some custom plumbing on my FX5 return lines. But this is well worth it! I hate having the heater in tank!
 
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