Opinions on this setup

[seedubs1]

Thinking about doing my first big tank.

1 Silver Aro
1 Motoro Ray

I'm going to build my own tank. It'll be 7'X3'X2' (A bit over 300 Gal.)

Thinking of doing a 3D background and leaving the bottom with no sand/gravel to make cleaning it easier.

Filtration: 1X Fluval FX5

How do you think this setup will do? Will the FX5 be enough? Enough room for the 2 fish?

I also have a couple of questions about the massive amount of water and changing it.
-I've read that about 25% once a week should be about right (that's almost 80 gallons per week)
-With all of my aquariums I've had I let my water sit out for atleast 2 weeks and use conditioner to dechlorinate/dechloramine it. How do you guys accomidate for 80 gallons once per week? This seems like a crazy large amount to change. Do you have just 16X10 gallon buckets you fill and let them sit until you are ready and then dump them in? Or do you just fill it up with tap and put in water conditioner (not let the water distill).

Sorry, I know these questions may be stupid to some of you, but this is my first BIG tank, and I don't want to mess up the animal by my ignorance.

Thanks for the help! Love the forum, have been reading and thinking of this for some time.

 

[erk419]

Not sure about your stocking choice but one fx5 isn't going to cut it. I have two fx5's on my 150. With a tank that size your better off making a sump. As far as the water changes go I use a 5 gallon bucket I add enough conditioner to the bucket for 5 gallons and fill it up take it to the tank and pour it in then repeat, theres no need to let it sat. A lot of people though us a python hook it to the faucet and fill the tank back up then add the conditioner also some add it as they go or before really don't matter it all seems to work. According to the back of the bottle though the "correct" way is the way I mentioned that I did it.

 

[knobhill]

you should add 2 more fx-5's or a large sump to go with the fx-5 you have now. That stock will work but you should add a few more rays with the footprint you have. My silver aro gets along fine with my motoros. Also, if you arent going to have substrate, put tile on the bottom--it looks better.

 

[cc247]

ok for one 7 x 3 x 2 will not be big enough for the ray for life... it will work for a while but motoro's get 30 inch disk in size so they would be from side to side almost... you would be better off getting marble motoro's as they grow smaller and if you get a male they are smaller than the females... and 1 fx5 will not work.. i would put a sump on it... rays need a huge bioload to handle them and perfect water most recommend 10x turnover rate to handle rays... at 300 gallon you are looking at 3000 gallons per hour...

 

[RedFishBlueFish35]

im pretty sure you will need more filtration but im a amatuer so hopefully someone else will come along

 

[nomad]

If you'll go through the hassle of doing a built you might as well make it an 8x4x2 (2 FX5s) alot more appropriate for housing the silver and the motoro.

 

[littlewangzfan]

If you'll go through the hassle of doing a built you might as well make it an 8x4x2 (2 FX5s) alot more appropriate for housing the silver and the motoro.

Agree. Same amount of plywood with minimal scrap if I'm not mistaken. GL with your build.

 

[seedubs1]

Only thing is the location I want to put this in my house is 7'10" wide. And the tank plan, I'll use 5" on either side for the walls. So 7' wide is the max. Could maybe do 4' wide though.

And if I were to build a sump for this, how big of a sump should I do? I've never built one before. Any ideas on what pump to look for and a ceneral size (gallons) for the pit? I would assume pump into a trickle through media and then into some sort of a refugium, or is the refugium not necessary if I have bio media that the water trickles through before being pumped back to the tank?

Most of the plans I see for sumps are for saltwater (skimmer, salt additive chambers, etc...)

 

[seedubs1]

Anybody have any input on how big of a sump would be needed to turn over 2500-3000 gph? I'd think to turn over that much, the mechanical filtration portion of the sump wouldn't be able to keep up. But I don't know if there is some sort of formula to figure out how big this would need to be to keep up with a 10x turn over rate with a tank this big.

Also, from teh advice of turning over around 10x for the ray, I thought the arowanas liked really slow water.....Isn't turning over 10x going to be a LOT of water movement (a bit too much for the arowana)?

Thanks for all of the help.

 

[Pharaoh]

People tend to shoot for about 1/4-1/3 the size of your tank for a sump. Of course, when you have bigger tanks, like a 300G, you may not need to go that big. It is all about how it is designed. Have a look around the DIY forum and check out some of the other sump builds. There are tons of great examples that would be perfect for your tank.