Setting up filter for 125 gallon tank

5 posts

Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.


tibber433
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2010 1:34 am

Setting up filter for 125 gallon tank

by tibber433

I am in the process of setting up a 125 gallon tank so I can have a 55 gallon for African Cichlids and a 125 for my Oscars. My question is, I have never had a tank this big before and I am using an undergravel filter with 3 Penguin 1140 powerheads and also a Rena xp3 canister filter. How do I set up the media in the Rena since I have never used a canister filter before. I figured that I would not need the ceramic bacteria things because I will be getting bio filtration through my UGF. Also I was planning on using natural colored pea gravel that you can buy at any rock yard for the 125, but I heard that sometimes that kind of rock releases a toxic chemical that will kill your fish. Has anybody heard of that? How many cheap fish should I use in the 125 to do the initial cycle of the tank?


tibber433
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2010 1:34 am

by tibber433

I am also worried a little about where to set this tank up at in my home. It is a rancher with a basement. The house was built in 97 and has 10" floor joist under it but the tank will be setting parrarel with the joist not perpendicular with them. Should I have any concern, the span of the joists are approximately 15 feet to the center steal beam in the basement.


myklein2
 
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon May 11, 2009 1:38 am

by myklein2

It is recommended that you look into how much weight your floor can support when you set up anything over 55 gallons. You deff want your tank set up perpendicular to the floor joists. You can find a lot more info if you just google it. I found some info here...
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article28.html
You do not want to use a stone that has been dyed. If it is just a crushed stone that is naturally that color you should be fine.


sype2470
 
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2008 6:37 pm

by sype2470

Good point klein2. I had to do the same thing with my 150 Gal Oscar tank. Tibber, how many Oscar's are you putting in? What you use for your filtration is up to you. You can never have too much specially for Oscars. I have two; 1 13' and the other about 9'-10' inches and are messy enough. I don't use undergravel because the fish digs daily specially when mating.


josmoloco
 
Posts: 189
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:21 pm

by josmoloco

My 125g cichlid tank. that i just recently sold was well supported by a rena xp3, fluval 404 and 204. The media was all bio and mech, so it was never replaced. The tank was very heavily stocked, and got a 50-70% water change every 1-2 weeks. The fish were fed 5-8 times per week.....

Setting up filter for 125 gallon tank

5 posts

Display posts from previous: Sort by: