Stocking help for a 150

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a sump 1/3rd the size of the tank isnt great filtration for messy fish like Os? never knew that. you know more than me though..
but how is that logical?
a sump is like.. a very big filter. total gallonage(is that a word?) would be about 200(with sump), so 1/4th of all the water space in the tank would be stuffed with scrubbies, floss, sponges etc.
 
It's a case of Nitrates, the sump will filter fine and release some of the Nitrates, but you'll be doing a lot of water changes to keep them low.

Messy fish produce lots of Ammonia, which produces a lot of Nitrite, which produces a lot of Nitrate. I think a lot of people don't understand this.
 
I think that is enough filtration. I have 4 large oscars in a 125 with a 12" royal clown, 16" albino channel cat, 10" Juruense, 10" Lima shovelnose, 9" Marbled bullhead and one small but extremely nasty african cichlid that I don't know the species of. I just know he kills other africans until there are no tankmates if you give him the chance. 150 gallons is good for 3 oscars especially with that filtration. I had a magnum and a sump on my 125 and it kept the water crystal clear. Now all I have is a tetratech 350 hanging on it and it still has crystal clear water. Just clean the tank regularly and keep up on the water changes once a week. I do my water changes more frequently because I don't have proper filtration on it.
 
Crystal clear doesn't necessarily mean quality water, what kind of parameters are you running with that many fish and those cats in a 125? How often and what percentage water changes are you doing?

Edit: Answered half of it right before I posted, and daily.. ;)
 
are you implying that i dont understand the NH3-no2-no3 concept?

the nitrate issue is with any filter.. theres no way(besides plants, which i could add to the sump.. and some type of algae that i dont want to get into) to get rid of nitrates without water changes.
the guy said it wouldnt hurt to add a canister. that wouldnt help with nitrates.. i dont think that is what he was talking about.

people make sumps very differently, so how is it safe to say that a sump 1/3rd of the size of a tank is bare minimum filtration for messy fish?
i think if it's stuffed with mech and bio media and has a good turnover rate i should be set.

if im wrong itd be nice if someone let me know
 
yeah jhutch, i thought it sounded like sufficient filtration.
right now for my 55 gallon i do water changes with a hose to siphon/gravel vac the water out, then run up and down the stairs a million times with 1 gallon jugs lol.(i look at it like a workout)

its safe to say im getting either a python or some faucet connectors and safe tubing from home depot to fill the 150 when i get it.

i think my point to this post was that water changes will be much easier for the 150 when i get that stuff, so i wont be dreading them at all. Os will have good water, no worries on that.


what happened to the other filters on your tank? you must be doing water changes almost every day, if not.
 
easydoesit;1788987; said:
are you implying that i dont understand the NH3-no2-no3 concept?

the nitrate issue is with any filter.. theres no way(besides plants, which i could add to the sump.. and some type of algae that i dont want to get into) to get rid of nitrates without water changes.
the guy said it wouldnt hurt to add a canister. that wouldnt help with nitrates.. i dont think that is what he was talking about.

people make sumps very differently, so how is it safe to say that a sump 1/3rd of the size of a tank is bare minimum filtration for messy fish?
i think if it's stuffed with mech and bio media and has a good turnover rate i should be set.

if im wrong itd be nice if someone let me know
Click to expand...

You're way too defensive and you come off rude as a result.

Your filtration is fine, but it doesn't mean you can heavily overstock the tank and expect to get away with it because you've got high filtration. Your stocking is fine with that filtration for a 150, so my comment was necessarily directed at you, a lot of the members have this attitude.

Regarding sump size and filtration, there are so many variables that can affect how well sumps work, 1/3 of the tank size is good but it's a very general rule, personally I think media capacity and flow rate are the most important features, not overall volume. I've got a 70L (total capacity) sump running on a 530L tank and it's more than adequate for it's purpose.

Bottom line is 3 Oscars in a 150G with a sump is fine. Just watch your Nitrate levels as they are messy fish. Conspecific aggression is another probable issue.
 
i wasnt being defensive, i was just asking if you were talking about me.
if i came off as rude, i didnt mean to lol. just how i worded it i guess.. by bad.

i dont want to overstock the tank. i was just wondering how many Os would be good in a 150 w/ okay filtration. i dont know if i want to do 2 and maybe end up with 2 aggressive same sex fish.. or do 3 and have 2 possibly pair up and become territorial with the third.
i dont know which pro outweighs the con.
 
Oscars are going to be trial and error, numerous people keep multiple Oscars together without a problem on here, but I've also read of people starting with 6 or so and ending up with 1. Nature doesn't always follow set rules, I'd try 3 personally, just don't be too suprised if you need to activate a backup plan some time into the future.
 
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