i just ordered a new 135 gallon from glass cages and im wondering what to stock it with i want to get a black aro and a clown knife fish but idk what else what should i use as far as filters go i looked into this penn plax canister filter anyone have one is it any good? so any advice you can give me will help i posted this in the acient fish section and didnt get any responces so im also planning on adding some american cichlids so i figured id post it here too
new 135 gallon
- Thread starter someonestolemyname
- Start date
I use penn plax's cascades in both my 55g and 120g, one 1500 in the 55 and two in the 120, they work very good, some critique them for having some "bypass" so not all the water that gets in goes throwgh the filter media, but I think the ammount is negligible, they have large media baskets, good and quite pumps, cleaning is easy, in short I do recommend them.
On the downsize they come with no bio media, only one sponge, some floss and one carbon bag, so you must add the cost of the bio media (anybody said sea-chem matrix?) to your total, so if you where looking at them just for the price you might get disapointed.
Other options you might want to look at are rena's xp3, xp4 or fluval's equivalent, and the very acclaimed but expensive eheim. I do still preffer penn plax because they work fine and I can get parts and support for them from my lfs, wich are two more things you need to consider before getting your filters.
Now back on topic wich CA/SA Cichlids, that size of a tank gives you some options, but the two fishes you mention limit them some how, imho I wouldn't put those in a 135g, as both will get very big, but that's just me, but thinking that you did, the bio load is already in the highs with them so you should have a very hard maintnace schedule if you placed many more fish in there, I would recommend maybe a green terror, because you need fish that is brave enough to get by the clown knife but not too brave to rip your aro.
If you don't put those two fishes then the options are very large to mention in this already large reply, but you could think a couple of oscars for example next to a large black knife and some silver dollars.
Maybe if you let us know more of your intentions, how aggressive you want your tank to be, how bad you want the aro and clown knife, and how often are you willing to do water changes you can get better answers in what to stock in your new tank.
On the downsize they come with no bio media, only one sponge, some floss and one carbon bag, so you must add the cost of the bio media (anybody said sea-chem matrix?) to your total, so if you where looking at them just for the price you might get disapointed.
Other options you might want to look at are rena's xp3, xp4 or fluval's equivalent, and the very acclaimed but expensive eheim. I do still preffer penn plax because they work fine and I can get parts and support for them from my lfs, wich are two more things you need to consider before getting your filters.
Now back on topic wich CA/SA Cichlids, that size of a tank gives you some options, but the two fishes you mention limit them some how, imho I wouldn't put those in a 135g, as both will get very big, but that's just me, but thinking that you did, the bio load is already in the highs with them so you should have a very hard maintnace schedule if you placed many more fish in there, I would recommend maybe a green terror, because you need fish that is brave enough to get by the clown knife but not too brave to rip your aro.
If you don't put those two fishes then the options are very large to mention in this already large reply, but you could think a couple of oscars for example next to a large black knife and some silver dollars.
Maybe if you let us know more of your intentions, how aggressive you want your tank to be, how bad you want the aro and clown knife, and how often are you willing to do water changes you can get better answers in what to stock in your new tank.
Whatever you want, what fish do you like @ the store or on the net. Its up to you perosnally i like fish with personailty oscars, terrors red/green i mean do waht you want.
Hi.. I have 6 parrot cichlids and 3 ID sharks rangeing in size from 6" to 12" in my 135gal . I've thought about selling or giving away the sharks and getting a couple albino oscars. Can't decide though.. I enjoy watching my sharks grow..
I have used plax canisters before and I was not wowed by them I would say get a couple of xp3 and you will be wuch happier
