Used 180 gallon set up questions

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Psylant

Fire Eel
MFK Member
May 24, 2011
1,079
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Canada
Hi MFK community! Last night I bought a very solid, very heavy glass 180 gallon aquarium. It's over 3 times larger than any other tank I've owned! It only came with a stand, tank, and one RENA XP3. I'm on a fairly tight budget so bare that in mind if you could!

I have a Fluval 305 kicking around, and the largest sponge filter at my disposal also. Do you think I will have enough filtration with those 3 pieces of equipment? I know ideally more is better. I was thinking perhaps an AC110?

Another question of mine is heating a tank this big. I have a 300W heater already from a previous set up, how much more do you think I'll need to maintain a temperature ~78-80 when my basement is 68-71F?

For lighting I was just going to get some 2'x2' glass panels cut and use those for a lid, with 2 sets of 4 foot shop lights, with daylight spectrum bulbs. http://www.homedepot.ca/product/whtie-shop-light-4-feet/944526 Anyone have anything to say about that?

Thanks everyone! Sorry for so many questions and a wall of text!
 
Congrats on the new toy!

You can start setting up the tank with the filters you have, but go easy on the live stock until you can add more filtration.

I'd add at least another 300w heater especially when it's going to be in the basement in canada. a jager 300w is good for this addition.
 
With a light stocklist those filters would be fine for a while, but I wouldn't go overboard or into any monsters. My preference is either a sump or HOB filters or both. In my perfect tank world I would go with 4 AC110s and a sump full of media.

I'd add atleast one or two more heaters for redundancy. Jager has always been my brand of choice when it comes to heaters, but I've heard good things about deep blues.


Shop lights look fine to me. Inexpensive and easy to hang. Unless you plan on getting into a planted tank you might want to go with something more.
 
Thanks for the replies. I assumed that I wouldn't be able to stock it very heavily. I plan on on getting a couple CA/SA cichlids as babies and growing them out, giving me a bit of time to save up some cash . If anyone else wants to toss in their 2 cents feel free! I'm all ears ;)
 
I agree you have enough filters to stock litely. If it was me i would probily get or build a sump for it before i dropped cash on more filters.Be cheaper in the end to filter your monster. Big tanks need big bio and sumps are an easy way to get it. I have a 300 watt jager heating my 180 in the basement no problems but a back up is always nice. Congrats
 
not sure if they have walmart in canada but you can get those large containers at walmart(or similar store) for like 10-15 and use those as a sump!
 
Of course we have Walmart! The problem with a sump is the overflow, pump, and plumbing. The tank itself is probably the cheapest part!

And thanks... I'm kinda proud of it even though it's empty haha.
 
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