Hey hows it going?
My roommates and I are finishing up our last years of college at California State University of San Marcos. Originally, they had a hand me down 55 gallon tank with a large white oscar, approx 11", and I purchased a 55 gallon of my own to start raising my Red Tail Catfish (Who is now 6"). One roommate, big Force, was drawn to puffers ever since he first had seen a Tetraodon lineatus or a Fahaka puffer. With our addiction ever growing, we had accumulated three 55 gallon, one 37 gallon, a 20 gallon, and a 10 gallon tanks. Seeing as how the oscar and the catfish are going to need a bigger home, we scoured craigslist for deals on large tanks. When all hope had seemed lost for finding a good deal on a tank, one suddenly came up. Needless to say the owner of this 240 gallon aquarium did not do this beautiful tank justice. The fish that were in the tank; two deathly sick oscars and a ton of feeder gold fish that were living in a tank that had never any upkeep since the initial set up. There was a layer of sludge, an inch thick at the bottom of the tank, among other unsuitable decor. After around 3 1/2 hours of draining and loading the stand, tank, and canopy into my truck we were filled with a sense of great joy knowing that we had crossed the line from owning a fish tanks to a very nice aquarium (for college students). After a full weekend of vigorous cleaning of the tank, reenforcing the bottom stand, and painting both stand and canopy black we had set the tank up. Using 250 lbs of pool filter sand as substrate, and was rinsing that much sand was a process, we picked out our other decor for the tank. Looking for more of a natural feel, we decided to go with some nice pieces of driftwood. The wood pieces seemed to fit as if they were meant to be together. We currently have three pieces of Malaysian driftwood, serving as the center piece, and two pieces of African Driftwood , which add much needed balance to the flow of the aquarium. At the moment, we are running a Marineland Maxi-Jet 1200 PRO circulation pump, a Rena 400 air pump with 3" circle stones, and a Marineland Magnum 350 pro canister filter at the moment. We are curious about the canister filters that are up for sale on ebay. If these filters do the job for a fraction of the cost, we would get a little more bang for our buck. Does anyone have any information on this filter; pros, cons, or personal experience would be much appreciated. If anyone is willing to lend any bits of knowledge we would appreciate it greatly. http://cgi.ebay.com/200-G-AQUARIUM-...ultDomain_0&hash=item2c5ceb6c34#ht_7169wt_952
Sincerely,
Via Bella Donna
Matt, Force, Taylor, Ryan, Edric
My roommates and I are finishing up our last years of college at California State University of San Marcos. Originally, they had a hand me down 55 gallon tank with a large white oscar, approx 11", and I purchased a 55 gallon of my own to start raising my Red Tail Catfish (Who is now 6"). One roommate, big Force, was drawn to puffers ever since he first had seen a Tetraodon lineatus or a Fahaka puffer. With our addiction ever growing, we had accumulated three 55 gallon, one 37 gallon, a 20 gallon, and a 10 gallon tanks. Seeing as how the oscar and the catfish are going to need a bigger home, we scoured craigslist for deals on large tanks. When all hope had seemed lost for finding a good deal on a tank, one suddenly came up. Needless to say the owner of this 240 gallon aquarium did not do this beautiful tank justice. The fish that were in the tank; two deathly sick oscars and a ton of feeder gold fish that were living in a tank that had never any upkeep since the initial set up. There was a layer of sludge, an inch thick at the bottom of the tank, among other unsuitable decor. After around 3 1/2 hours of draining and loading the stand, tank, and canopy into my truck we were filled with a sense of great joy knowing that we had crossed the line from owning a fish tanks to a very nice aquarium (for college students). After a full weekend of vigorous cleaning of the tank, reenforcing the bottom stand, and painting both stand and canopy black we had set the tank up. Using 250 lbs of pool filter sand as substrate, and was rinsing that much sand was a process, we picked out our other decor for the tank. Looking for more of a natural feel, we decided to go with some nice pieces of driftwood. The wood pieces seemed to fit as if they were meant to be together. We currently have three pieces of Malaysian driftwood, serving as the center piece, and two pieces of African Driftwood , which add much needed balance to the flow of the aquarium. At the moment, we are running a Marineland Maxi-Jet 1200 PRO circulation pump, a Rena 400 air pump with 3" circle stones, and a Marineland Magnum 350 pro canister filter at the moment. We are curious about the canister filters that are up for sale on ebay. If these filters do the job for a fraction of the cost, we would get a little more bang for our buck. Does anyone have any information on this filter; pros, cons, or personal experience would be much appreciated. If anyone is willing to lend any bits of knowledge we would appreciate it greatly. http://cgi.ebay.com/200-G-AQUARIUM-...ultDomain_0&hash=item2c5ceb6c34#ht_7169wt_952
Sincerely,
Via Bella Donna
Matt, Force, Taylor, Ryan, Edric
