Greetings from About to get in over his head

[bradalj]

Glad I found this forum, it has been an interesting read the past few days. I have been a fish keeping enthusiast for over 20 years now, but have been very very low key recently ie currently I have a Large Vase with a Betta in it I did have for 10 years a 4ft Regular Tropical so have a little experience...

However, I have under construction an 8x2x2.5 (not sure which goes where but 2.5 is the height) tank with a high gloss white cabinet. I am Looking at an Eheim 2080 Pro 3 Cannister, a UV Clarifier, a 300W Jager heater and a pair of T5 twin system lights.

I am planning on making it a Discus Community Tank, around 7 Discus, 6 Blue Rams (2M 4F), some Cory's/Catfish/Loaches for cleaning, a school of cardinals and a school of rummy noses, plus I may let my Betta stretch his fins out. Any advice on how much of what appreciated.
The tank will be planted and have rocks and driftwood. Would love to hear from anyone with thoughts on what I should use for the substrate, I am still unsure but leaning towards something white, or Black.

I'm sure you will see many more posts over the next few years. Bye for now.

[SpeedEuphoria]

Welcome to AA!!

Your talking an 8 foot tank correct, so the volume would be ~330 gallons?

You are going to want a lot more heater, Discus like hot temps. The normal rule for a heater is 5w per gallon. I find 4watts per gallon to be plenty, but for Discus 5watts is prob a better estimate. Some of this depends on your climate in your house.

You may look into the 2180 as it has a 500watt heater built in.

You also prob need 2 of those filters(either one) as thats not enough for a 300+ gallon tank, even though the manufacturers say it is. Normally you want to cut in 1/2 what the manufacturer says and go by that as a general rule.

You may be better off going with a sump or something else for that large of tank IMO

[bradalj]

Thank you for the info, I have been advised by a couple of fairly reliable LFS's the following:

"For heating you will need a 300w jager. This is the only 300w heater that can do up to 1000litres, almost all others only heat 300 - 400litres per 300w, so you would need 900w (3 units) for the same result."

but that was before I increased the height to 2.5ft which has taken the volume from 900ltr (230gal) to 1130ltr (290gal), so I may need to revisit that. Grab two of them instead, which is probably for the best in case one goes down for the count.

2 Canisters would prove too costly @$950 each, so thanks for the sump idea, I will have to look into how that works as I have no idea what that is. I'm sure Google will know

Thanks

[SpeedEuphoria]

Originally Posted by bradalj

so thanks for the sump idea, I will have to look into how that works as I have no idea what that is. I'm sure Google will know

People here will know also, you can make a post in the general hardware section to discuss sump options. I'm not up on them as I have smaller tanks. I know I read about "wet/dry sumps" which you may want to look into.

For filtration, instead of using a canister, look into something like this(I'm sure the experts will have advise on the better brands/models):
Nu-Clear 530 Canister Filter - 30 sq. ft. 25 Micron Mechanical Filter, For Tanks Over 100 Gal. > Canister > Filters > Saltwater Aquarium Supplies

Its like a large bucket filter, then you buy a large pump to have the water flow and do the plumbing with PVC and valves/ect.. This will end up cheaper by far than the canisters.

On that heater, the manufacturer says that the 300w version is for up to 132-220 imperial gallons(which is 158-264 US gallons), so like I said you will need more. This is also a 240v model, if your in the US it seems that the highest 120v model is 250W which says its good for 105-158 Us Gallons. Since your talking Discus and they like higher temps I would tend to use the lower range on the specs. Again this depends on your house temp.

Here are the specs from Eheim:
http://www.eheim.com/base/eheim/pdf/...to_3609_GB.pdf
http://www.eheim.com/base/eheim/pdf/...o_3608_USA.pdf

[neilanh]

Welcome to AA!

Great questions - if you post your questions in the FW forums you'll tend to get more responses, not all members peruse the Intro forum.

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard

[mike47517]

Welcome to the sight!!!