125 Gallon Tank Advice

[Thaiboxer]

Hi all -

I finally snapped and bought my 125 gallon tank this weekend. To avoid MTS, I will be migrating my current 55 gallon tank to the new one. I know almost everything I need to do, but have a couple of questions:

1. Heater Size - I have one nice heater right now, I believe it's a 150 watt. I am thinking about buying another 150 watt for the big tank and run them parallel. That way, if one fails it's probably not powerful enough to overheat the tank. How many watts total would you recommend for a 125 gallon? The room is ~70 degrees year round, the tank is kept at 80-82 if that helps.

2. Powerheads - I have an undergravel filter for the big tank as well. Would two Penguin 1140 powerheads, one on each plate, be enough? overkill? Opinions?

3. Filtration - I currently have one Magnum 350, and got another thrown in with the new tank (used). I am planning to sell one with my old tank. I also plan to buy an Aquaclear 500, and run them together. Is this enough filtration for South American Cichlids?

TIA for your help!

[grimlock3000]

1- I would purchase another 250w heater to get to 400w total, or just over 3w/gallon which should be good for a tank in that stable room temp.

2- I would not use the UGF in a tank that large. People can argue UGFs both ways, but if you ever have trouble with it clogging or decide to fully clean it out or remove it, you are going to have a massive ammount of waste in the UGF of a 125g. Even with weekly gravel vacs, the ammount of build up in the UGF can be huge. Here is a good UGF article here which talks about some of the downsides:

http://www.bestfish.com/ug.html

There are some pro UGF articles out there as well, I will try to find one and give you a link so you can see both sides.

Update: Found an good article with pro-UGF information:

http://www.petlibrary.com/fw_trops_ugfilter.htm

You could setup the UGF for reverse flow, which pushes water down into the UGF grid, which then pushes the waste up from the gravel into the water so a power or canister filter can catch it.

3- That filtration should be fine, you can always add another fitler later if you need to.

[madasafish]

Thorough agreement with Grimlock. Nicely framed over the UGF issue, too.

Filtration... just as a rule, you should bet on having a flowrate in gph that is over 6 times the capacity of the tank. On larger tanks, this may be further elevated in order to deal with increasing lengths and depths of water movement, and especially with larger fish. This means that you should ideally have 750+ gph going on your tank. And as I'm a huge fan of biowheels, I might recommend that you supplement your present Magnum with a Penguin 400. This would really set you up for good biological fitration.

ACs are moderate consumers (shouldn't be fed quite as frequently as most tropical fish), though they're not as bad as goldfish. A flowrate of this or higher should be sufficient. Also, I'm sure BrianNY wouldn't mind sharing some info with you about his new 125 setup.

Of course, this is the size of FW tank at which ppl start to think seriously about large sump filtration units. I'm working with a 100 gallon Tenecor that has a built-in filtration set-up at the back with a large bioball sump. If you feel up to the challenge, you might consider looking at the options on Bigalsonline.com. They've got good prices. So do other sites, such as Drsfostersmith.com.

Good luck and........... envy!

[BrianNY]

Thanks for the lead in madasafish . In total agreemnt with you and grimlock on UGF. I think it's problem waiting to happen. If your going to be keeping large SA Cichlids Thaiboxer, invest in a python. It's greatest invention since the aquarium IMO.

Heaters - I'm using (2) 250 Watt Ebo-Jager. Discus require 82 to 84 so I wasn't going to scrimp here.
Filters - 1 Eheim 2217, and 1 Fluval 404. If I had it to do over again, I'd go for 2 Fluvals. They are so much easier to clean.

All of the above was purchased at bigalsonline.

HTH

[Enki]

Congrats on the tank! I'm jealous

[myriam]

Yeah, I'm with Enki. Someday I will have a huge tank like that at the foot of my bed! Post some pix please!

[Thaiboxer]

Thanks all!

I'll start with the easiest part - my brother is bringing back my digi-cam tomorrow, so I'll take pics of all steps of the process and post them. I have a gallery on my web-site, so I'll link to that. Watch for pics in a week or so... we'll see how fast I get it set up.

Now for business:
1. After reading a bunch, I've decided against running UGF. I'll put the plates in to take up space, and run bubble walls with air underneath the plates because I like the effect. I plan to probably put a single powerhead on one end, and run the current right to left for the whole tank.

2. I just ran up and checked, and my current heater is a Visi-Therm 250w. Nice. I'll buy an Ebo-Jager 250w tomorrow when I order my new filter.

3. I'm debating between an Aquaclear 500 or an Emperor 400 for my HOB filter... I'll make a snap decision tomorrow and go with it. Maybe upgrade down the road with another can, either Fluval or Magnum.

CC to BrianNY, I already have a python and yes, they are one of the greatest inventions. Ever. I clean my gravel every other week or so and love it!

CC to Grimlock3000, my Oscar is named Grimlock. Funny coincidence Thanks for the great advice, and the articles! Those were extremely helpful, and thank you for providing both sides of the argument!

[grimlock3000]

I would not put the plates in there to take up space, stuff will fall in there and be harder to gravel vac out. You would just be creating a big pocket for waste to fall in, although it will take longer to collect waste when no power head is attached. The simple fact is you do not want to have any sort of waste trap down under the gravel. Just put the bubble wand right into the substrate and bury it for a cool effect, it is a far less permanent solution.

Either power filter you are looking at would be great.

[Thaiboxer]

UGF plates are out. Thanks Grimlock!

[madasafish]

Again, that's exactly what I would have said (i.e. Grimlock's response). Putting the plates in there will give you all the problems of an UGF and will provide you none of its benefits. Hehe. Good to see you've decided against it.

And just as importantly... Go with the Emperor. You won't regret it. I've never heard a single complaint about the Emperor line, and am very happy with my Penguin filters (same company, slightly less good but still great filters). I'm getting an Emperor 400 within the week. The Emperor provides more flexibility and much more reliable biological filtration. Please trust us on this one!

HTH

[Sati]

Thank you for the links about UGF. I never exactly understood why a UGF would help my tank any, but left it in since it came with the tank. It's nice to have some knowledge now, heh.

[Thaiboxer]

I'm working on the glass cleaning tonight.

I've opted to build a new stand, starting tomorrow. I'll make a thread in the DIY section and post pictures of my project progress.

Thanks for the help everybody!