Hi everyone. This is my first post after lurking for a good few months, using your site to make sure I stay informed on how best to care for our Oscar and other freshwater fish.
Let me start by saying that this tank came drilled and plumbed for a closed loop when I purchased it; it's not something that I'm going out of my way to do. We're upgrading a very undersized Oscar and turtle tank to a 180 gallon tank that had been used as a reef tank. The price and unusual dimensions were exactly what I've been looking for for this upgrade so I didn't balk at the holes for the closed loop. The tank itself is drilled for the CL (2 intakes and 4 returns) and has a typical "reef ready" overflow in one corner.
In order for the water level to be high enough to utilize the overflow, the turtle's basking area will be built on top of the tank and a door for the canopy will be replaced with plexi or glass for a window into the area.
I'm going to use the overflow to essentially run a planted tank as a sump in the stand. That way, we can have whatever plants we want (with proper lighting and other supplementation) without faux-gardeners #1 and #2 digging them up constantly. We can easily have additional mechanical filtration in that sump tank as well. The existing tank currently has a HOB filter and a DIY sand filter.
Our initial thoughts are to try to utilize the closed loop system instead of just resorting to plugging the thing up. The original purpose of it, to use a secondary pump to provide in-tank turnover and cut out the need for powerheads, isn't something that I feel like we need for an Oscar and turtle but if you feel it should be utilized that way I'd love to hear your thoughts. The only concrete thought we've had on what to do with this so far is to run a sand filter off of the CL plumbing but that leaves half the CL still unused.
Would that be a good place to add another sand filter, a beefy commercially made canister filter with some good mechanical filtration media, or something else? Or, should we just cap it off?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas. Thanks!
Let me start by saying that this tank came drilled and plumbed for a closed loop when I purchased it; it's not something that I'm going out of my way to do. We're upgrading a very undersized Oscar and turtle tank to a 180 gallon tank that had been used as a reef tank. The price and unusual dimensions were exactly what I've been looking for for this upgrade so I didn't balk at the holes for the closed loop. The tank itself is drilled for the CL (2 intakes and 4 returns) and has a typical "reef ready" overflow in one corner.
In order for the water level to be high enough to utilize the overflow, the turtle's basking area will be built on top of the tank and a door for the canopy will be replaced with plexi or glass for a window into the area.
I'm going to use the overflow to essentially run a planted tank as a sump in the stand. That way, we can have whatever plants we want (with proper lighting and other supplementation) without faux-gardeners #1 and #2 digging them up constantly. We can easily have additional mechanical filtration in that sump tank as well. The existing tank currently has a HOB filter and a DIY sand filter.
Our initial thoughts are to try to utilize the closed loop system instead of just resorting to plugging the thing up. The original purpose of it, to use a secondary pump to provide in-tank turnover and cut out the need for powerheads, isn't something that I feel like we need for an Oscar and turtle but if you feel it should be utilized that way I'd love to hear your thoughts. The only concrete thought we've had on what to do with this so far is to run a sand filter off of the CL plumbing but that leaves half the CL still unused.
Would that be a good place to add another sand filter, a beefy commercially made canister filter with some good mechanical filtration media, or something else? Or, should we just cap it off?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas. Thanks!
