opinions on which tank to purchace.

[mos90]

hi all. i am going to be purchacing a 300gal for my silver arow and 3 payara scombs. right now my arow is around 13" and scombs around 5". they are in my 125 gal 72X18x21.

im debating between 2 tanks, both are 300 gal. the first is 96x24x31 and the second is 96x30x25. im thinking that the 30" wide tank may give the arow more room to turn when he get large. the tall tank is a little cheaper but not much.

was thinking of filtering with 2 fluval fx5's. i know a sump would be good but im not sure how to do this.

whats everyone think?

 

[Conner]

The wider tank would definitely be better. Also not sure if 2 FX5's will be enough filtration, unless those are the only 4 fish going to be in it. I'll let someone else chime in on that though.

 

[Pharaoh]

spend the bucks and get the wider one.

2 FX5s would be sufficient, but you might end up wanting more.

 

[mos90]

id love to setup a sump system but im clueless.

ill go with the wider one.

 

[Kcoastsurfguy]

Wider is better for an Aro, so they have more room to turn

 

[BadOscar]

Either of those tanks should be fine. I kept a silver arrow for more than 10 years, he just passed at 30" in length. Even though he was 6" longer than my tank was wide he had no problem turning around and could have grown several more inches without issue. My tank is 96"x24"x28". I can't really say on the FX5's. I used 2 Ocean Clear filters, one was mech and one was bio, the return dumps into the tank over 4 bio-wheels.

 

[mos90]

i heard those ocean clears are good filters. ill look into those.

 

[BadOscar]

i heard those ocean clears are good filters. ill look into those.

They are real easy to clean. I have a model 325 with a 25 micron cartrige. I found it really polished the water but required cleaning a little too often. The pressure would build up and water flow would go down. I cut a couple holes in the cartrige and intalled 100 micron pads over the holes and it does not build up pressure anymore. I only need to clean it every month or two now. I would probably look at the model 317 for mech instead they come with 50 and 100 micron pads.

I also have a poly bead model, I don't think they make it any more, not sure. I didn't like the poly beads at all. They would gunk up and even a backwash would not clean them out. For a long time I was running cut up straws in this filter and it worked great. I have it stuffed with scrubbis now and so far I like. I would look at a model 318 or 319 for bio and if you end up not liking the media it comes with just stuff the sucker with scrubbies.

I'm using an old style Rainbow Quite One pump to power it all. Not sure what they are rated at. 1000 gal/hr I read somewhere I think.

 

[mos90]

where did u get the lines to hook everything up?
and the bio wheels.

 

[LowCel]

I had the same choices and I went with the 30" wide 300 and have been very happy that I did. The footprint is the most important thing to the fish, it gives them plenty of room to get away from each other and to have their own territories.