Greetings! In an attempt to stay brief- my acrylic 250gal is 72"x24x24, drilled at the top for overflow but only contains roughly 210 gallons of water. Reason being is that I'm using the tank to house both turtles, and a small CA/SA Cichlid community. The turtles in particular are 2 juvenile Eastern Painteds (4" female, 5.5" male), and 2 2.5" yearling Red Eared Sliders (believed to be a male, female pair). I'm in the process of obtaining a juvy (2-3" at the very most) mud/musk turtle, preferably the Three Striped Mud or Razorback Musk. The turtles are kept fed the majority of the time, and rarely show any aggression towards their tankmates.
To continue, my tank also houses:
Please note I am completely open to any thoughts regarding my current setup, am well aware that my bio-load is off the charts, and realize my fish are all liable to become expensive feasts in the long run; but I digress.
Essentially, I plan to keep the majority of what I've already listed off. A second pair of convicts would be lovely, but as mine have already shown aggression to even the larger painted turtles, it's probably not doable. My goal is to purchase and grow out 2 or 3 more Oscars, to "guarantee" myself a mated pair in the next year or two to come. Some other fish I have my eyes set on would be a school of 4 Clown Loaches, a Gold w/ Deep Red Spotted Severum, or a Jujupari. I refuse to purchase any painted fish as I've already made the "beginner's mistake" of endorsing the act on a Blueberry Oscar that isn't likely to last another month.
Unfortunately, my only means of showing you all my setup is with a terrible 3.0MP cell phone camera that highly distorts the lighting of the tank.
Aand onto the less exciting details of my tank:
Thank you in advance,
-Chris
To continue, my tank also houses:
- 1.1 spawning pair of 2" Convicts
- 3 3" Oscars
- 1.0 4" Jack Dempsey/Convict Hybrid
- A colony (20ish) of Ghost Shrimp (serving as feeders)
- 3 adult 4" Crayfish
- 1 8" Common Plecostomus
- 1 4" Bristlenose Plecostomus
- 40+ Malaysian Trumpet Snails (substrate aerators)
Please note I am completely open to any thoughts regarding my current setup, am well aware that my bio-load is off the charts, and realize my fish are all liable to become expensive feasts in the long run; but I digress.
Essentially, I plan to keep the majority of what I've already listed off. A second pair of convicts would be lovely, but as mine have already shown aggression to even the larger painted turtles, it's probably not doable. My goal is to purchase and grow out 2 or 3 more Oscars, to "guarantee" myself a mated pair in the next year or two to come. Some other fish I have my eyes set on would be a school of 4 Clown Loaches, a Gold w/ Deep Red Spotted Severum, or a Jujupari. I refuse to purchase any painted fish as I've already made the "beginner's mistake" of endorsing the act on a Blueberry Oscar that isn't likely to last another month.
Unfortunately, my only means of showing you all my setup is with a terrible 3.0MP cell phone camera that highly distorts the lighting of the tank.
Aand onto the less exciting details of my tank:
- Current filtration (expanding on this slowly - current readings 0-0-10ppm-7.0)
- Eheim 2213 Classic canister
- Whisper 30-60 hanging (resting inside the tank using suction cups)
- Dual Cascade 300 submersibles (used mainly for their built in powerhead/aerator)
- Zoo Med 501 canister
- Hydor 300W heater (set to 79*F)
- 100lbs of pool filter sand substrate, typically 1.5" deep
- Quite a few stacked extremely porous volcanic rocks and slate rocks stacked to create an "invetebre condo" lining the rear walls
- 18" bubble wall rear centerpiece
- For those interested, the turtle basking area was created using a suctioned foam basking spot and around 3 sq ft of cork bark that I've stripped and cured from a dead oak tree
- Heated with 1 Zoo Med 26W UVA/UVB fluorescent bulb + 1 generic 150w UVA basking spot lamp
- Other lighting consists of a single 100W UVA daylight bulb
- Lightly planted - intend on creating a prairie of java fern/moss eventually
- 3 generic amazon swords
- 2 massive water lettuce plants (filtration aid mainly)
- 2 massive blooming hyacinths (filtration aid)
Thank you in advance,
-Chris
