I need help please!!!

[AVALover5498]

Ok, So I'm kinda new to freshwater and I'm so glad I found this site. I used to be really big into reefs and It's costing me way to much so I'm going to be making the upgrade to a freshwater predator tank. So, I need your help. I'm going to be ordering a 300 Gallon tank from glasscages.com within the next month and I need some help with the setup. Let's talk about what I want to keep first. I'm hopefully going to be able to get my hands on 3 tropical gars in the near future and I want them to be the focal point of the tank. I also want to keep some peacock bass and a couple dats. I might also try a smaller catfish species.

The first thing I want to know is what type of filtration I should have. I've been looking into getting this brand of canister filter. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=3602&N=2004+22777 Is this a good brand? If so, which one should I get and how many? Now, I need to find some cheap black sand. If anyone knows of a place that I could score some I would be very greatful. Lighting with this tank isn't going to be that important since I'm not going to be keeping live plants. I wanna do a kind of spot light effect. I was going to buy a couple brooder lamps and put them in my canopy and put them on the spot I want to highlight Like driftwood, rocks, ect. Is this a good idea? Or should I just stick with some strip lights? Also, I need to know about flow. In a reef aquarium you HAVE to have good flow, or your tank will fail. Do I need to add some powerheads or will the filter be enough flow?

I think that pretty much covers what I would like to know. Just keep in mind that I'm a jobless high school student so I'm limited to what I can afford right now. I hope to hear from you guys in the future. I just wanna thank you guys for the website and all the information that it's provided me with.

Best Regards,
Chris Seibold

 

[AquataHolic420]

get an FX5 if youre going to get a canister, im sure others will say the same, and i'd say yes to powerheads, GO WITH DATSSSS,

 

[AVALover5498]

Where would be the best place to buy that filter? Also, How many would I need?


-Chris-

 

[WyldFya]

Personally I wouldn't get the FX5, and never will. I prefer the eheim 2080, and 2078 to the fluvals. I'll try to dig up the comparison, but someone did a side by side comparison of performance between the 2080 and the FX5. I'll let you decide which is more along the lines of what you want.

 

[TankBuster]

Check the buy and sell forum on here. Someone was selling one the other day. I honestly would go with a wet/dry or if you are used to reefs, do a freshwater refugium with a flourite substrrate in the refugium, I have started one and in the process of finding the best plants. I have one on my salt tank and brackish tank, plants are not doing well inthe brackish refugium because I did not acclimate them long enough but I iwll keep going until I get it right. As a reefer, you know how well the refugiums work so that is my advice.

 

[WyldFya]

Here is the comparison.

 

[WyldFya]

Check the buy and sell forum on here. Someone was selling one the other day. I honestly would go with a wet/dry or if you are used to reefs, do a freshwater refugium with a flourite substrrate in the refugium, I have started one and in the process of finding the best plants. I have one on my salt tank and brackish tank, plants are not doing well inthe brackish refugium because I did not acclimate them long enough but I iwll keep going until I get it right. As a reefer, you know how well the refugiums work so that is my advice.

Get some floating plants, they suck up all their nutrients from the water column rather than getting their nutrients from the substrate, that and they are cheap.

 

[AVALover5498]

I honestly would go with a wet/dry or if you are used to reefs, do a freshwater refugium with a flourite substrrate in the refugium, I have started one and in the process of finding the best plants. I have one on my salt tank and brackish tank, plants are not doing well inthe brackish refugium because I did not acclimate them long enough but I iwll keep going until I get it right. As a reefer, you know how well the refugiums work so that is my advice.

I use a refugium on all my salt tanks and I would go no other way. But they are very spendy and I'm trying to save money. Thanx for the suggestion though. I don't want to deal with live plants so I'm going to be relying on a good filter. I really like the FX5 more than the Eheim. It's almost half the price. Should I get one or two?

I'll use two powerheads on the tank. I have a couple brand new ones laying around that I was going to use on my salt tank but never put them in. They only push 400 gallons but they should work for a while.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, you have no clue how much it means to me.

-Chris-

 

[AVALover5498]

Oh, and thanx WyldFya for that link.


-Chris-

 

[WyldFya]

Not half the price from what I've seen, and not able to utilize as much bio-media. I spent $319.00 for my 2080 filled with media.