250g design/plan (Uaru, G-cats and Eels)

[arielucidates]

Wow! An old school German style schtube. Don't see those everywhere.

Smoking deal on the tank, too.

Schooling? Rummy nose tetras keep it tight and are always on the move.

Thanks! What is a schtube? I never heard that term, but I assume it's this type of aquarium?

I took my kids to look at fish at the LFS and afterwards just randomly decided to check Craigslist and see what price tanks were going for, because I noticed the fish were probably close to double the cost they were 5+ years ago. But when I saw that tank I knew it was too good to pass up. I'm hoping to maybe get it going this fall, but I'm also due in September with our 4th so maybe that won't happen. Although it would be very relaxing to sit and watch the fish while nursing a newborn, lol.

I do like Rummynose but I'm wondering if they are a bit too small? I wonder if the eel would eat them.

 

[Trouser Cough]

A schtube is a room that you used to see in older German homes that was all wood. Walls, ceiling, and sometimes floor. The effect when you walked in was that you were in a special room as opposed to the standard sheet rocked walls that we all see everywhere. It was my experience that in a schtube it was common for the other stuff in the room to be made of the same kind of wood that the walls were trimmed in.

About eels. Yes, some of them will eat anything that'll fit. Schooling fish sometimes avoid them a little better than non-schooling in that they communicate danger w/in the shoal.

 

[arielucidates]

A schtube is a room that you used to see in older German homes that was all wood. Walls, ceiling, and sometimes floor. The effect when you walked in was that you were in a special room as opposed to the standard sheet rocked walls that we all see everywhere. It was my experience that in a schtube it was common for the other stuff in the room to be made of the same kind of wood that the walls were trimmed in.

About eels. Yes, some of them will eat anything that'll fit. Schooling fish sometimes avoid them a little better than non-schooling in that they communicate danger w/in the shoal.

Ahhh thanks! And yes, the stand of the aquarium has removable sides made of the same wood as the walls and ceiling, so that makes sense.

Right now I'm leaning toward the Emperor Tetra for the schooling fish. I know last time I checked they don't qualify as "cheap" but they are a bit bigger and less likely to get eaten, and I think their colors would really compliment the Uaru and Satanaperca. Plus I just watched a few videos on YouTube and they appear to form a fairly tight school, which I prefer. But definitely still open to other ideas. I tend to generally prefer more subtle colors, like the Uaru, True Parrot, or earth eaters versus African ciclids, and Harlequin Rasboras or Glowlight Tetras versus Cardinal tetras.

(Harlequins are one of my favorite schoolers. I actually I kind of forgot about them, but they might be a great, cheaper an option for this tank, at least when everyone is young and a bit smaller. They aren't that big, but they get more deep bodied than a rummynose.)

 

[arielucidates]

This is what the plumbing looks like. The owner said he used a Fluvial FX-5. Probably what I need the most help with is designing a filter that can handle the waste of large fish with the easiest possible maintenance. Something let allows me to do aquaponics and grow veggies would be cool and help keep the nitrates low. Wondering about something designed like a bog filter? I had a sump on my 150g tank and it was always just a pain. It was always so dirty and somehow still didn't seem to handle waste that well. I think it was badly designed so I really want to put thought into the filtration/sump design this time. I know there was a study where that found pea gravel to be one of the best biofilters, so wondering about using that. And then also wondering about mechanical filtration. I felt like filter socks always clogged up so fast they were a pain to maintain, but what other options do I have?

Filtration is really not my expertise, so I'd love pointers, tips, suggestions or links to good filtration threads. I really want to do it right this time

 

[Cal Amari]

I'm also due in September with our 4th so maybe that won't happen. Although it would be very relaxing to sit and watch the fish while nursing a newborn, lol.

Well I let my wife do the nursing, but with all 3 of our kids I found sitting in front of the tank to be as soothing to them and me as a pacifier. From newborn all the way up until they were running around whenever they were fussy or crying I'd take them and sit in front of the tank and just start pointing at fish until they got distracted from being upset, it was hypnotic, and I still cherish the memories.

 

[Trouser Cough]

A single FX-5 on that tank wouldn't be adequate for that tank unless the bio load were tiny.

For starters I'd pick up an FX-6 and split the plumbing... one canister for the center and another for the two overflows. For the overflows I would feed into one of them and return from the other such that the surface of the tank was always clear and gas exchange was optimal.

Can you describe your old sump a little better so we can have an idea what may have been so bad? Many would throw rocks at their old canisters once they had set up a sump so your experience is a little unusual.

 

[arielucidates]

A single FX-5 on that tank wouldn't be adequate for that tank unless the bio load were tiny.

For starters I'd pick up an FX-6 and split the plumbing... one canister for the center and another for the two overflows. For the overflows I would feed into one of them and return from the other such that the surface of the tank was always clear and gas exchange was optimal.

Can you describe your old sump a little better so we can have an idea what may have been so bad? Many would throw rocks at their old canisters once they had set up a sump so your experience is a little unusual.

I would rather use a sump than a canister filter. I figured the filter the owner was using was not that big just based on looking it up, but they didn't seem to have very many fish in the tank, so presumably it worked for them. I think there were a couple problems with my sump. I didn't have enough mechanical filtration before the water entered the sump so it filled with a lot of mulm. The filter material I used for getting solids would often just clog up and then the water would flow on top without getting much mechanical filtration. I also didn't do the baffles well and they didn't really do what they were supposed to. Then the water entered a big bed of Bio balls but it always filled with so much gunk because of the ineffective mechanical filtration and because of the way my sump was set up it was so low that I couldn't get an effective siphon to clean it out, so it just built up. Also the 150 gallon tank I had it on had a bad footprint - 48"x24"x30" tall. Because it was so tall and the overflow was just on one side so it was hard to get enough flow in the right areas to get the detritus off the bottom into the sump in the first place. I'm thinking for this tank having a sump (maybe my old 45g long) and using a bunch of foam like is used in sponge filters. Those would be easy to pull out and wring all the detritus out, and the bigger holes wouldn't get clogged to quickly as the sock type filters. I've always liked sponge filters and if you had a section of tightly packed sponge that the water flowed through you'd essentially be creating a huge sponge filter. Plus it would provide both mechanical and biological filtration. I could have another section with bio balls if I needed more biological. Then I could pump it up to the top of the tank and maybe do some type of aquaponics bed with a Bell siphon and draining back into the tank. I think some setup like that with a big enough pump would give me the mechanical filtration but be easier to clean out, and tons of places for beneficial bacteria to grow. And then the plants would take care of the nitrates. It's just the mechanics of putting it all together that will be tough. I'm pretty good with most types of DIY but plumbing is not my strong suit and I still can't fully envision the way this tank is plumbed, so I probably won't have a solid plan till I get it home. Since I planned to start with juveniles I might initially just do a canister filter to give myself more time to design a sump. When all the babies are small they'll be very little bioload on a tank that size.

 

[Trouser Cough]

With all due respect I wouldn't spend too much time attempting to figure out how the tank had been filtered previously as that design is best not reutilized moving forward.

 

[arielucidates]

With all due respect I wouldn't spend too much time attempting to figure out how the tank had been filtered previously as that design is best not reutilized moving forward.

I more just meant that I'm not 100% sure how the holes are drilled. It looks to me like it has two corner overflows and then another hole in the middle which presumably is for the return? I'm not sure, because it's drilled completely differently than the only other tank I had that was plumbed.

 

[Trouser Cough]

Not so much. All three of those were plumbed as inlets to apparently a single FX5 which means flow in the tank would've been nonexistent and very little would've been picked up from the tank itself. 2/3rd's of what that system was doing was little more than clearing the surface.