Questions about 100+ Gal Tanks [ Or: Dang you FishFreek! ]

[William]

FishFreek got it in my head that a 100gal tank for 100 bucks was a great deal.

So now I'm thinking about buying the tank, getting a used stand/making my own stand and the like.


But my main question is, What kind of lighting should it have? It will be a moderate to densely planted FW tank.

Also, what kind of pump system should I choose for it? Should I have a sump? wet/dry filter?


Basicly, I'd just like to get a grasp on everything I'd have to buy/make to get a good grasp on how cheap this deal really is after everythings added up :-\


Thanks

 

[peterp]

Stuff you'd need

Planted tank, 200-250 watts of flouresent lights.

Some kind of bio capable filter fluval404/filstar xp3/ehime 2217 there is another thread going on about filters.

about 130 pounds of gravel

a heater or two

Fish

 

[William]

Okay, but do I need a sump or a wet/dry?

 

[peterp]

You'd get the wet/dry effect by using bio-wheel's.

No idea on needing the sump for a FW setup.

 

[xclan]

biowheels are cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeap at drfostersmith i ordered 2 biowheel 330's for 20.49$ each!!!

 

[Guest]

I truely don't meant to be rude to anyone here, but I have to go against some of what has been posted above.

You don't want or need a biowheel. It will disturb the surface of the water too much. More on this below.

Moderate to dense planting, 300 watts minimum, 400 would be better, unless you want all low-light plants, which will severly restrict your choices of plants. I have 440 watts on my 90 gallon. You will have to build your own hood, and buy a lighting kit. If you can do this under $250, you are doing well. There are articles and threads in the diy forum for constructing hoods, and doing lighting. Also, you may want to ask justDIY, he is really our resident expert on all of this. He may well be able to tell you how to do this MUCH cheaper.

Co2 pressurized system. Pretty much a must with your plans. diy co2 will not cut it on a tank that large. Prolly run you about $150. For co2 to be effective, the surface of the water should be disturbed as little as possible. churning water makes the co2 escape the water quickly, thus being wasted (so no biowheel). Tank that size, with high lighting, if you have no co2, your plants will decline, and the algae will be out of control.

Substrate, Schultz aqausoil. Also sold as Profile, but I don't know where. Much cheaper than fluorite, and IMO, just as good. I think about $100.

Filter, no wet dry needed. moderate/dense planted tanks need little biofiltration, the plants do most of it, feeding off the ammonia, nitrates, etc. True! Still, a decent cannister would be called for. Many choices, I'm thinking in the area of $125 or so.

So, by my calculation, 625 beans minimum, after the tank/stand. Again William, ask some/all of these questions to justdiy, he may well be able to tell you ways to cut these costs significantly.

This sounds like a lot, but if I were you, I'd get the tank, put it aside, and save up your $$. Get/build the rest over time. that is a very good deal for a brand new 100 gallon tank.

Last year, I bought my 90, and it took me 3 more months to afford the rest of my stuff. It killed me to look at the empty tank for so long, but in the end, it was well worth it! I spent over 800 bucks getting mine going, wish I knew then what I know now, could have saved a couple hundred, easy.

 

[justDIY]

oh goodness, my ears were burning and I found out why

william what's the measurements on that tank? if you're lucky and it's 4ft, then you can light it super-cheap by with parts and over-driven common bulbs from Home Depot ... there is also the coralife freshwater aqualight available in 24,36 and 48" ... very aggressively priced to compete even with diy savings.

I'm also thinking that you could get away with perhaps 2" of flourite, profile or whatever as a substrate, covered with another 2" of something like pool sand, chat gravel or crushed stone.

I was able to get approx 90 lbs of crushed stone (very fine sand like crush) completely free from a place that sells concrete mix ... they sold the stone by the ton for less than $20

for filtration, I agree with what paul said - you need something to move your water and give you some mechanical filtration, chemical and biological is handled by the plants. for this you could try building yourself a sump and have a large 'media basket' filled with filter floss ... the sump also gives you room to store fast-growing stem plants for extra filtration ... or go with something like a canister filter

for co2, you could diy co2, but it'd be a real pita ... look at about 10-15 yeast 'generators' and then all the plumbing to connect those all together, good greif... high pressure co2 is the best bet and will pay for itself over time with great plant growth.

 

[William]

8O



Well, Heck.. A picture is worth a thousand words.. and I say this smiley covers my response quite well..

8O 8O 8O 8O 8O

 

[fishfreek]

Well Dang william $100 for 100 gal is a good deal.

Right?

 

[William]

Its a good deal, but everything else involved..


Gulp! 8O

 

[TankGirl]

If you skip the heavy plants you can go substantially cheaper, just to get you started. You can have mucho cool fish and get a lot of pleasure out of it, and then on down the road save up your sheckels for the lighting and CO2. Right now just get yourself a stand, which you can build yourself for cheap, glass tops which you can get cut to fit from a glass shop for cheap, a simple shop light for seeing your fish, a filter, heater and rocks that you can collect yourself, and you will have a fine display.

 

[William]

I've already lined up a booku load of plants for cheap, so the plants will be the least expensive thing in the package

 

[TankGirl]

Well, having the plants means you are going to spend the bulk of your money on CO2 and lighting (which you would not be spending if you did not have plants) but consider the $$ you are saving on the tank itself, and put that toward what you need to keep your plants, and you are probably still ahead! I am jealous!

 

[William]

Not so much anymore.. I walked in today and the 100gal was gone.


I guess it was a sale or something, because right where the 100gal was is now a 55gal tank that is being sold for $99.99


I thought it was their regular price. :\

 

[TankGirl]

What a bummer! Well, I see deals like that all of the time in my local Bargain Trader-type paper, but until I move in the spring I can't avail myself to them. Keep your eyes open, and the deals will come!

 

[William]

I check the classifieds of about 5 different papers every day

 

[dralarms]

A local fish store is moving and buying new equipment for their new location, I'm going to try and get one of their old tanks.

 

[TankGirl]

Oh yeah! That should work out, because they will probably be willing to take a loss on that and write it off. Sometimes you can get some tanks in interesting shapes and sizes that way.

 

[dralarms]

I was hoping for a 30 + gal for a salt water tank (my grandbaby like the nemo fish), but I've decided that I don't want to get into sump pumps and stuff like that, maybe find a good tank for a new freshwater setup