New to MFK quick into

[WHODAT83]

So I was never a big fish/aquaria person until we drove 2 clown loaches and 3 danio's from Louisiana to Wisconsin and then out to San Diego. Ill tell you when you drive straight through from Wisconsin to San Diego with your girlfriend just to keep some $5 fish her papa got her, you better believe you've come committed to the hobby. Since the day (5 years ago) we drove this fish half way across the county we have upgraded from her 20 tall to a 55 gallon, then to a 180 gallon and have now settled with on a 300 Gallon..... well maybe.

The following currently reside in our aquarium unfortunately we lost about 10 fish due to a nitrite/nitrate spike. In the last week we have made some dramatic changes to how we are filtering our water.

2- Large Clown Loaches
1- Small Clown Loach
a couple of dension barbs
5- Large Bala Sharks
5- Congo Tetra's
1- Titanic Pleco
1- Sunshine Pleco
1- Cactus Pleco
1- Blue Eyed Pleco
1 - Standard Pleco
a few siamese alleges eaters

So here is the setup we currently have, any thoughts, comments, concerns are always taken as positive criticism. Since the spike we re-introduced our bio balls, I understand the volume is not nearly enough for 300 gallons and we are working on introducing more bio filtration, we just have to figure out how to work it into our sump.


looking forward to learning from yall!!!

 

[JK47]

Nice tank and welcome to MFK. For additional bio filtration an excellent addition would be an Eheim 2260 or 2262. They hold a significant amount of media and are excellent long running canisters. You could install one without turning off the tank. If you want to redo the sump I would suggest replacing it with a larger sump that has a different layout. Whatever you decide please post uodatesupdates. I for one would love to see things as you progress.

 

[kno4te]

Welcome.

 

[M@T!@$]

So I was never a big fish/aquaria person until we drove 2 clown loaches and 3 danio's from Louisiana to Wisconsin and then out to San Diego. Ill tell you when you drive straight through from Wisconsin to San Diego with your girlfriend just to keep some $5 fish her papa got her, you better believe you've come committed to the hobby. Since the day (5 years ago) we drove this fish half way across the county we have upgraded from her 20 tall to a 55 gallon, then to a 180 gallon and have now settled with on a 300 Gallon..... well maybe.

The following currently reside in our aquarium unfortunately we lost about 10 fish due to a nitrite/nitrate spike. In the last week we have made some dramatic changes to how we are filtering our water.

2- Large Clown Loaches
1- Small Clown Loach
a couple of dension barbs
5- Large Bala Sharks
5- Congo Tetra's
1- Titanic Pleco
1- Sunshine Pleco
1- Cactus Pleco
1- Blue Eyed Pleco
1 - Standard Pleco
a few siamese alleges eaters

So here is the setup we currently have, any thoughts, comments, concerns are always taken as positive criticism. Since the spike we re-introduced our bio balls, I understand the volume is not nearly enough for 300 gallons and we are working on introducing more bio filtration, we just have to figure out how to work it into our sump.


looking forward to learning from yall!!! View attachment 1207692View attachment 1207693

View attachment 1207694

View attachment 1207695

Beautiful tank man!
Welcome to mfk

 

[GaryG.]

welcome, That is a Gem of a tank. I hope to get one that size one day.

 

[WHODAT83]

Thanks for all the replies!! I will definitely keep yall up to date on what we are doing. We are moving to FL in a couple months and will be doing the bear of the drive with a spare 55 we have loaded up in the back of my truck, it will be heated, air raided, and covered an possibly filtering to relieve the stress of the trip. Unfortunately we may have to find a new home for the bala's, Congo's and Denisons. Although we will restock as soon as we get the tank back up and running..

Quick question for yall, so I mentioned we had a spike in nitrate and nitrite. We took care of the Nitrite and are working diligently to get our nitrates down through water changes. When we had our emergency we did a 50% followed by a 10% followed by a 20% in the last 5 days. We may have sent our tank into a mini cycle due to the fact that I changed out the media that was submerged and back to filter socks, I then then just added the bio balls today to try to "rapidly" build back beneficial bacteria we may have lost, due to a lack of bio media. I also made the mistake of rinsing my Matrix before adding it back into the reactors about a week ago.

Do any of you have any suggestions on the safest route we could take to build back our beneficial bacteria and lower our nitrates, now at 40ppm via API Freshwater Test Kit (done right)

 

[ehh]

pretty awesome tank. i was not expect that monster when i opened the thread lol.

 

[WHODAT83]

Nice tank and welcome to MFK. For additional bio filtration an excellent addition would be an Eheim 2260 or 2262. They hold a significant amount of media and are excellent long running canisters. You could install one without turning off the tank. If you want to redo the sump I would suggest replacing it with a larger sump that has a different layout. Whatever you decide please post uodatesupdates. I for one would love to see things as you progress.

Thanks for the advice. About a year ago I thought about throwing in a canister strictly for the bio load. I am still really entertaining that idea, so thanks for the canister suggestions.

As for the sump, I absolutely dislike that current layout. With us moving to FL in the next couple months I do plan on doing at least an 80 gallon sump if not larger. That is unless I do to a canister. Now that I think of it I should have done that with the matrix instead of the Phosban Reactors.

I will keep yall posted!!!

 

[WHODAT83]

pretty awesome tank. i was not expect that monster when i opened the thread lol.

Thanks!!

 

[JK47]

Thanks for the advice. About a year ago I thought about throwing in a canister strictly for the bio load. I am still really entertaining that idea, so thanks for the canister suggestions.

As for the sump, I absolutely dislike that current layout. With us moving to FL in the next couple months I do plan on doing at least an 80 gallon sump if not larger. That is unless I do to a canister. Now that I think of it I should have done that with the matrix instead of the Phosban Reactors.

I will keep yall posted!!!

I have trickle style sumps as well and am far from happy with them. I'm in the process of rebuilding four tanks at the moment for that very reason. A big sump is a wonderful thing. Canisters are fantastic as well.

Here is the sump for my 600 if it helps give you ideas. My sump is not for filtration though but it would be a great one so the principal is the same.

If you give yourself enough room in your sump you can run whatever media you want and eliminate the need for canisters. They can be a great quick fix though