RTC friendly debate thread!

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necrocanis

necrocanis

Catfish God
MFK Member
Oct 10, 2005
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montana
Before I start lets just say there's way too much debate in other threads where people are asking for advice. So here's the rules for this thread

1. No trolling
2. No flaming
3. No insulting whatsoever
4. Provide evidence for your arguement.
5. Have fun, post pics if you want, and let's see where this goes!

So to start with: Let's say that I think I could keep a RTC for life in a 600 gal tank with the dimensions of 8'x4'x2.5'. The filtration would be a 200 gal sump, with 6 cu ft of biomedia, a 1000 watt heater (temp of 82 f), and return pumps running at 3000 gph returning the water over the top of the tank through multiple outlet pipes forcing air into the water. An additional 1000 gph powerhead will be added to help sweep the bottom and add flow. Anyone see anything I should do different? What are other members take on setting up a tank for a RTC? :D
 
Will that be the only fish in the tank? The only reason I ask is that at a 5X turnover I find that the water clouds more easily under normal stocking to heavier stocking levels. If I was setting it up, I would shoot for a higher turnover. Also, being in Montana, I would think that you'll need a lot more than 1000 watts worth of heaters to maintain 82 F in the winter, more like 2000 - 2500 watts.
 
The tank will be inside with an average ambient temperature of 75 f. It would be on concrete floor. Also forgot that the biomedia would be included in the wet/dry section of the sump with the bottom 1/3 being submerged. Oh and yes this is a hypothetical single catfish setup. This would personally be much better than what I have done in the past. My actual aspirations are much higher than this setup being discussed, but it's mainly to get everyone thinking and posting. Any input is welcome.
 
ok.. is the 1000 gph powerhead on a foam filter? and how big is the hunk o foam? probably need something far larger that the ATI hydro V.

i think 1000 W of heater MAY be enough if it's inside a well insulated and heated home.

i'm not liking the size of the tank.. it needs to be a minimum of 5' wide.. i know when Lucy was still alive she liked to swim around.. she would thrash so much in that little tank she was in that she would splash water out just so she could get some exercise.

i think 10' x 5' would be a much better footprint.. then you could have room for something for the RTC to swim around.. like a nice hunk o driftwood or manzanita.
 
Hey Necrocanis, what size pond are your big cats in, like your rtc/tsn and will they be staying there for their remainder, or do you have bigger plans? Also are they in a garage, if so how are you keeping the heat?
 
im thinking my 500g will be good for life, if not a really long time with almost the same setup. its 8x4x25" with a 100g sump filled with pond matrix, a small 25g wet dry off that, and a 5500gph reeflo hammerhead gold pump. i figure he will prob max out a lil over 3 ft
 
and i tested my jbj tru temp 1000w heater, it heated it from 55.8 to 81 degrees overnight and held steady. now i just need to fix the plumbing
 
i think that the footprint should be bigger for an adult rtc. i have seen some big ones. this set up will get you many years, but not for the life of the fish. i would have atleast 10x turnover flowing over your media. the reason i say a larger footprint is the activity of the big cats. they like to cruse and if it is close to the same width of the tank the cats tend to lounge around and not be as active. this to me indicates some level of stress.

in the end it would have to come down to practicality. if it is what you have space for then it will do as a min tank. then you have to think if you will ever get the chance to build it a proper house. once you can establish that out you can see if your own ethics can keep this magnificent beast in a small house when it reaches a massive size.
 
Constant water changes are a big part of keeping a monster tank healthy. A lot can go wrong and if you have a constant water change on you can get away with a lot. I have drip systems on all my setups. Even my 30 gallon growouts have 1 gallon per hour drips. To me its not worth the risk not to. Only maintenance I do is a little bit of vac work when necessary. I have the drips set up on the growout tanks to drip from there into my larger setups keeps all the water changing all the time.

I think its worth the try to see if your cat will be happy in there for life. They don't all max at the same size and to if you can properly house it for years then you have plenty of time down the road to find an alternative home if needed. I get annoyed with the flaming on rtc tank size. Sure somebody who hasn't been keeping tanks or fish for long and gets a rtc definitely needs a little talking to, but if you have been keeping fish for any length of time and you want to dedicate you attention to a tank buster than go for it. I have had tanks set up for 10+ years continuous now. Sometimes only one, other times up to a dozen. I have no doubt I will do what is needed to house a fish if it gets too big for it's current tank. Have never failed before.

If you have devoted years to keeping one fish and now it finally outgrew it's several hundred gallon tank I guarantee you will do what is necessary to find a larger tank/pond for it.

I plan on building (in the future) a 8 by 4 footprint tank. Probably a little deeper than 2.5 foot though. The only fish I would ever own that would need it would be an rtc. I think it is a logical step up from a 6x2 footprint. If I need to go bigger after 5 years so be it.

Good luck with your cats.
 
i feel I am treading on dangerous ground here so let me say first off that I am not advocating this....... but doesn't it reach a stage where hormones etc will stop even a RTC from getting to its full size in a smallish tank ? Few fish, even in the wild, reach their maximum potential size.

I haven't actually kept a red tail, tho I would like to, but would probably be restrictd to a 7ft X 2.5ft tank.
 
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