Big Tank Questions

[RonR.]

The carbon filter sounds like a good deal. Brand/model number would be appreciated and where's the best place to buy.

[eklikewhoa]

Look for whole house carbon filters or car wash carbon filters

[New2petro]

Does anyone have a link to the place where they purchased there carbon bottle.
What type of info is out there for a carbon bottle. I have goggled it in the past and only come up with sports drink bottle holders.

[nightster]

Re: Big Tank Questions

+1 on carbon bottle with seachem safe as peace of mind.

[eklikewhoa]

I'm using a carbon bottle as well but still use amquel plus. Been a habit for 15+ yrs now.

[eklikewhoa]

My 260g fluctuates with room temp and I'm running a 300w heater. Never gets to where I need it to be either.

I would get a decent heater, they're cheap insurance.

[moganman]

As far as the heaters, if you are planning on keeping Texas Natives, I wouldn't even consider a heater. Please invest in Seachem Safe if you choose to use a dechlorinator. Prime to Safe is to pennies to dollars. Goodluck

[SunnyHouTX]

Re: Big Tank Questions

With a tank this big skip the chemicals in your water and invest in a carbon bottle that connects directly to your kitchen/bathroom or outdoor water source. You can buy drain hoses from any hardware store. And just buy a quality rubber water hose to fill your tank with. There is nothing in the hose that will harm your fish. Then get a sink adapter so your carbon bottle can connect to your sink and the hose will connect to the bottle. And that's it. Simple is key. If you have any questions on where to find any of these items shoot me a pm. Good luck.

Exactly what I do, but I still add Seachem Safe as a habit.

[allysangels]

congrats on the new big tank... i'm sorry if i missed it, but i didn't see any mention of what you plan on stocking?

[newb]

For your heater just use one...your just wasting money otherwise. I deal with BIG tanks everyday and one is plenty. If you are running an Eheim 2260 then just get a Rena 300 watt inline heater. It connects to the return of the Eheim and keeps it out of the tank. For a power head I would use a Vortech MP40w as it has the smallest presence in the tank. With a tank this big skip the chemicals in your water and invest in a carbon bottle that connects directly to your kitchen/bathroom or outdoor water source. You can buy drain hoses from any hardware store. And just buy a quality rubber water hose to fill your tank with. There is nothing in the hose that will harm your fish. Then get a sink adapter so your carbon bottle can connect to your sink and the hose will connect to the bottle. And that's it. Simple is key. If you have any questions on where to find any of these items shoot me a pm. Good luck.

[New_Cichlid11]

Same as prime is seachem safe which is more concentrated and does the same as prime. 4 kilos will last u years and only cost like 75 bucks

[RonR.]

Clyde, consider using Prime. I switched over from Amquel about 3-4 years ago. I know you're going to have to treat alot of water..........2x as much as me most likely.

I buy the largest Prime by SeaChem that I can get....it's the concentrated one. The size is 67.6 oz (2 L) It's around $42. I just found an even larger 1 gal size (4 L) for around $75 at Amazon.

I add a capful of Prime for every 100g of new water added. Just to be safe I do 2 capfuls after I've drained the 90g of water out and begin to add my new water. I add my water directly from the tap.

We're going to enjoy seeing your new tank.

[Clyde]

Thank you everyone, I should have included more information on the filtration. I will be running an eheim 2260 and a wet dry and plan to use at least one powerhead to keep water moving. I like the look of the heater in the sump, but recently put one of the heaters directly in the tank. I need to check the sump size to see if a large titanium heater will fit.

I currently do my water changes by siphoning directly into a trashcan, then transfer the water using a submersible pump connected to a garden hose. It is important to have the sponge filer on the intake to keep it from sucking up media, but this method allows me to water my lawn during the summer, but this time of year I just put the outlet in the bath tub. I will make a PVC attachment, now I am just using the end of the hose submerged in water, but the PVC attachment with a valve should make the process easier. If I increase the diameter of the siphon line and use a bigger submersible pump, removing water will be much faster.

I will need to start using safe as my dechloinator to hopefully save some money, but my fish seem to prefer amquel plus. I have tried t treat the water remaining in the tank and as the tank fills I add more dechlor. I would like to start using the trashcan to dechlor just the water to be added to the tank to reduce the use of excess dechlor, but that process seems too involved, due to potential to overflow the trashcan.

I plan on posting pictures once I start adding dish, but that seems like a long way off now.

Thank you for the posts

[johnnymisty]

EK and others, here goes............I bought my titanium heaters and my pvc water changer from jehmco.

http://www.jehmco.com/html/heaters.html

The model number of my 500w heaters is TSH-500-LC. Scroll down about 1/2 down the page. Bought them several years ago. You need to get a controller since these don't have an internal thermostat.

Here's the Johnson single stage controller I have:

http://www.etcsupply.com/johnson-a419abc1c-single-stage-prewired-p-123.html

Call them up and tell them you're going to put the probe in an aquarium. I had my probe sealed to protect it.

My pvc gizmo is called a Safety Siphon. The model number is

JSSSP-FGHT.

Here's the link:

http://www.jehmco.com/html/safety_siphon_aquarium_drain.html

You get the idea. You could probably make one on your own. My original submersible pump lasted 5-7 years so I just replaced it with a higher rate one. For a larger tank I would probably go 3/4" pvc (or bigger) and follow this design. I think my replacement pump is a Maxi-Jet 3000. I bought it new for around $100. You can go smaller or bigger based on your budget.

If I've broken any forum rules here, I apologize in advance. Just trying to help my fellow fish heads.

Thanks for the info that siphon is bad arse

[RonR.]

Don't think there's any problems with linking on this site like how other forums are.

post them up Ron!
I'm looking for a new heater soon too for my new tank.

EK and others, here goes............I bought my titanium heaters and my pvc water changer from jehmco.

http://www.jehmco.com/html/heaters.html

The model number of my 500w heaters is TSH-500-LC. Scroll down about 1/2 down the page. Bought them several years ago. You need to get a controller since these don't have an internal thermostat.

Here's the Johnson single stage controller I have:

http://www.etcsupply.com/johnson-a419abc1c-single-stage-prewired-p-123.html

Call them up and tell them you're going to put the probe in an aquarium. I had my probe sealed to protect it.

My pvc gizmo is called a Safety Siphon. The model number is

JSSSP-FGHT.

Here's the link:

http://www.jehmco.com/html/safety_siphon_aquarium_drain.html

You get the idea. You could probably make one on your own. My original submersible pump lasted 5-7 years so I just replaced it with a higher rate one. For a larger tank I would probably go 3/4" pvc (or bigger) and follow this design. I think my replacement pump is a Maxi-Jet 3000. I bought it new for around $100. You can go smaller or bigger based on your budget.

If I've broken any forum rules here, I apologize in advance. Just trying to help my fellow fish heads.