Got a new 265gal tank. Need help with set up

[Mike Koepp]

I am new to this forum and find it very helpfull. I am looking into setting up my new tank. Everywhere I call I can't get answers for everything. I searched and found this forum.

Here are some of my starter questions. Please feel free to agree or disagree so I can learn. Please consider me a newbie.

I have two Emperor 400 filters already and I am looking for a canister to run with them. Low maintance and the electric bill is also thought.

I am going to run a 265 freshwater tank with Muskies, Walleyes, Perch, Bluegills, etc. More or less pond fish. I am a 46 year old fishing guide and want to see what I fish for all the time. LOL

What would be my best choise?
Eheim Pro 3 2080
Eheim Pro 3 E 2078
Eheim 2260
FX5 maybe?

Watt is 30 or 50 watts. Should I be thinks about this?

Looking for any advice at all. Will check back here soon. Go to go.

Lots of

 

[jcarlilesiu]

I am new to this forum and find it very helpfull. I am looking into setting up my new tank. Everywhere I call I can't get answers for everything. I searched and found this forum.

Here are some of my starter questions. Please feel free to agree or disagree so I can learn. Please consider me a newbie.

I have two Emperor 400 filters already and I am looking for a canister to run with them. Low maintance and the electric bill is also thought.

I am going to run a 265 freshwater tank with Muskies, Walleyes, Perch, Bluegills, etc. More or less pond fish. I am a 46 year old fishing guide and want to see what I fish for all the time. LOL

What would be my best choise?
Eheim Pro 3 2080
Eheim Pro 3 E 2078
Eheim 2260
FX5 maybe?

Watt is 30 or 50 watts. Should I be thinks about this?

Looking for any advice at all. Will check back here soon. Go to go.

Lots of

Welcome to AA. Its been a long time since I posted here.

Your stocking options seem to make me aprehensive. First of all, it may be illegal where you live to keep those fish in an aquarium.

Secondly, many of those fish, I.E. bluegill are considered "aggressive" to say the least. I believe Walleye is also. Keeping them combined in a tank of 256 gallons, which may seem large, but think of their natural habitat, is a receipe for distaster. Those fish will get very large, if they outlast the fighting that will ensue.

 

[Mike Koepp]

Illegal/legal. Muskies/Walleyes

The fish stores sell them and it is legal to have them with a reciept. I am a full time guide and work with the WI DNR stocking our local lakes. I am very active in Muskies Inc Org and all aspects of these fish and our local lakes. I know the nature of these fish and know how to deal with the fish. Size and numbers are an on going issue with a tank like this. Filtration is my unknown variable.

Cabelas, Bass Pro Shops, sport shops and restrants take fish that are too big to keep when that time comes. I prefer to keep my tank fish small and will start them very small. One muskie, two walleyes, a couple perch and maybe a couple more fish is all I would start with. Very small fish, say 2 to 4-inch to start.

I know 8 of my friends have local fish and some have large Muskies. My local DNR friend is working with me to help me get the fish. Illegal is not an issue at all.

Filtration is my issue. Please help me decide what filter is best.

Mike

 

[jcarlilesiu]

The fish stores sell them and it is legal to have them with a reciept. I am a full time guide and work with the WI DNR stocking our local lakes. I am very active in Muskies Inc Org and all aspects of these fish and our local lakes. I know the nature of these fish and know how to deal with the fish. Size and numbers are an on going issue with a tank like this. Filtration is my unknown variable.

Cabelas, Bass Pro Shops, sport shops and restrants take fish that are too big to keep when that time comes. I prefer to keep my tank fish small and will start them very small. One muskie, two walleyes, a couple perch and maybe a couple more fish is all I would start with. Very small fish, say 2 to 4-inch to start.

I know 8 of my friends have local fish and some have large Muskies. My local DNR friend is working with me to help me get the fish. Illegal is not an issue at all.

Filtration is my issue. Please help me decide what filter is best.

Mike

Sorry Mike. I wish I could help. That size tank is larger than I am used to, and with those stocking options, Im afraid I can't offer much in way of a filtration suggestion.

I know there are other people here with more knowledge in the realm of these size tanks and stocking options. I will let them jump in to offer up suggestions.

 

[mattrox]

I have heard some people say turn over 10 x the volume of you tank per hour for excellent filtration.

Keeping enough oxygen in the tank may be an issue as I would assume that 'lake' temperature water will be much cooler than room temperature water. Will you run a chiller on this tank? Warmer water holds less oxygen. That means lots of surface area aggitation will help. Certain fish, particularly cold water fish can only live when oxygen concentrations are quite high.

 

[DeFeKt]

With a tnk that size and those sorts of fish, I would definitely start looking into more of an "external" filtration method.. Something along the lines of a 80-100gallon sump. Large pond pumps will keep your flow at a desired rate..

 

[mom2reds]

I will not be much help as far as the info your looking for but I would love to see pics of the fish and your tanks are you going to try to copy there natural habitat(sp) I think that would be cool and very educational.

Good Luck Tess

 

[Zagz]

Welcome to AA, I would be inclined to think a sump would be your best bet. Is the tank drilled for one at all? Do you have the tank yet? For those fish my aim would be 15 +x turnover. If you don't have the ability for a sump, I would use at least 2 FX5's or equivalent.

 

[jsoong]

I have no experience with that size tank or your fish choice .... however, I would agree with those that suggest a wet/dry filter with a sump. Since you are keeping cold water pond fish, I would expect that their filtration requirment would be similar to koi, and a wet/dry sump set up is best for that. The recommended filtration rate for koi is minimum 10x tank+sump volume. With your size tank, you are basically looking at pond pump & filters.

 

[Bearfan]

Welcome to AA, I would be inclined to think a sump would be your best bet. Is the tank drilled for one at all? Do you have the tank yet? For those fish my aim would be 15 +x turnover. If you don't have the ability for a sump, I would use at least 2 FX5's or equivalent.

This is along the lines that I was thinking. Due to the colder water, shoot for closer to 15x turnover.

 

[Algenco]

I'm a Guide also (striped bass) sound like a great idea. Looks as though everything has been covered well. I agree that a sump would be best, or 2 FX5's. You won't be able to keep the Musky long though.

 

[Idealconcepts]

This is along the lines that I was thinking. Due to the colder water, shoot for closer to 15x turnover.

I thought for cooler water fsh their is more dissolved oxygen in the water so you can let the filtration slide a little be, vs fish that need warmer water?

 

[Idealconcepts]

Mike Koepp – for a 265gal as Zagz mentioned you might want to look at a sump, or at least two large canisters. For a tank this size HOB aren’t really an effect filtration device, mainly on the biological side. You can get away with less than 10x turn over, as long as your biological filtration can handle the bioload, the larger turn over will help mainly with the mechanical filtration, and help slightly with the biological. Also keep in mind all most all specs on canister filters is with out the media, so the GPH listed is actually lower and the pumps for sumps/wetdry GPH is listed with a zero head height, meaning the GPH will be lower depending on how high the water needs to be pumped to get back into the tank.

For example I have a 180gal bare bottom tank, its in the spare bedroom and I want cleaning it to be easy, with a Aqua Clear 110 and two Rena XP3’s. The AC110 is rated at max 500gph, since it’s pulling the water up not more than 18 inches or so I’ll guess the GPH drops down to around 400GPH. The XP3’s are rated at 350GPH with out media so with media and the height it pushes the water I think the GPH should be around 250GPH (I think someone on this site actually or it might have been anther site did a test to get a general idea of the GPH with media). If you take the higher numbers I have about 1200GPH of filtration or about 6.6 times of turn over and if you take the lower numbers 900gph that is only about 5x. I also have a Seio 1500gph pump that is just circulating the later and pushing the waste into the filter intakes. Keep in mind the tank remains super clean and I may vac the waste every other month or less, all I do is just do a water change of 50-75%. The current tank in habitants are a Australian Aro 7-8in, 3 Peacock bass 8-9 inch, 5 Birchers 8-12in, wolf fish 5-6in, Green Tex 3-4in, Suncat 7-8in, 2x bullhead catfish 4-5in, and about a month a go I had 4 additional Peacock bass and a Flowerhorn 6-7in. These fish aren’t your cleanest fish in the world and still growing.

My two pumps for my sump are rated at 1140GPH at zero head, but since they are pumping the water back up 6ft and have to travel some several horizontal feet I’m only getting about 1400-1600GPH of filtration or about 4.6x – 5.3x of turn over in my 300gal. I have a under sand jet system powered by a Quietone 4000 (1017GPH) that helps circulate the water and pushes the waste into the overflows.

On a used glass 240gal I am looking to purchase, that is not drilled, I’m looking to use one Fluval FX5 and 2 water pumps on either side to help circulate the water and push waste into the intakes. The pumps I’m looking at getting will be 800 to 1500 GPH each. Since the fish are still not full grown, moving most of the fish from the 180 to this tank, I should be able to get away with only using 1 FX5 (rate at around 900gph with out media and I think around 550-700gph with media). Once the fish get larger and I have the cash I’ll get second FX5 and along with the 2 pumps I should have enough filtration, probably in a year or so.

For your 240, I think your fish are smaller than mine so you can get way with one FX5 and the two EMP400 for a year or two, but I would add the second FX5 around 18-24 months after, and keep up on the water changes at least 25-50% once a week when your tank is established. I think native fish are pretty messy as well so the extra mechanical and biological filtration should come in handy. You could go with all the filters on the tank and get some awesome biological and mechanical filtration.

You can get FX5’s with media usually for around $150-$220 on the web, cheaper than an Ehiem, you could actually buy two FX5 for the price of one equivalent Ehiem (which are very good filters just doesn’t perform twice as good for twice the price). Good luck and sorry for the long post.

 

[mattrox]

I thought for cooler water fsh their is more dissolved oxygen in the water so you can let the filtration slide a little be, vs fish that need warmer water?

True, but bouldn't there slower conversion of ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate by bacteria, their metabolism is slower in cold water and the water needs to be passed over the media more often?

 

[Idealconcepts]

True, but bouldn't there slower conversion of ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate by bacteria, their metabolism is slower in cold water and the water needs to be passed over the media more often?

I don't recall if lower water temps slow done the process or not, you could be right. Maybe someone will chime in and give us some more info on this.