Shaina

Hey all!

I found a secondhand 110XH All-Glass aquarium for sale (friend of a friend of a relative...), and it seems like a pretty decent deal. However, I have a couple questions with which I'm hoping you guys can help me:

1) It comes with a 300 gph sump filter. This doesn't seem like enough filtration to me...what do you think? If it's not, would I need to upgrade to a bigger fillter, or would adding a nice HOB fillter (say, an Aquaclear 110) be sufficient? I'd rather over fillter a bit than under.

2) A 110HX tank apparently has the same footprint as a 75 gal, but is much taller. I'm not worried about workability (hey what are footstools for?), but I *am* worried about dead areas forming in the tank. I was planning on putting in air bubbles, but would powerheads be necessary as well? I don't really know much about them.

3) What's a good light source? I'm fine with DIY as long as I can get instructions somewhere. The tank current just has a stock 48" light strip; I plan to switch it to planted down the line (would need a different filter first), but am thinking that the wpg might not directly apply since it's sooo tall...that's a lot of water to filter through in relation to its footprint.

4) Due to the lower surface-to-volume ratio, I'm thinking when it's done it will be stocked with ~80" of low-med bio-load fish, lots of plants, driftwood, caves, etc (it's going to take a long long time to get to that point). Do you think that's too heavy of a bioload, or would it be possible to add a few more fish?

Other info: currently an (not too badly) overstocked cichlid tank, but I'm hoping to rehome most of them and populate it with a tropical community. Something like:

2 Angel
5 Kuhli Loach
6 Oto
15 Harlequin Rasabora
7 Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish
1 Bolivian Ram


Sorry so long...I'm hoping to go check out the tank this weekend so any help or suggestions of what to look for/ask will be much appreciated! Trying to not set myself up for failure here :-/

Shaina

-bump-

Any suggestions? (Sorry, I know it's too long...I'll do better next time )

susitna-flower

I'm green with envy~

Not to long, I just think sometimes posts come in so fast it is hard to keep up, and if it gets down on the page, people don't see it.....

You are so lucky, I'm sure you had to pay dearly for your tank, but it sounds lovely....Which tank will have the cichlids?

An XH tank would be lovely with Angels! As for light, you are right, it will be hard to have enough for high light plants. You should have a minimum of 4 X 96 W compact fluorescent lights. Check with www.plantgeek.net for specific suggestions.

Let us know how it goes.

Shaina

Well I don't have the tank yet--going to go check it out this next week (keep your fingers crossed for me!)

I was thinking of doing low-light plants on the bottom, then maybe have a "shelf" of rock on one side, with a rim, substrate in it, and maybe put some med-level plants there, where they will be closer to the light source? I don't want to go too high on the light, in hopes of avoiding needing a CO2 injector. Plus, the shelf would give an extra shady area under the shelf for the fish to rest if the feel the need to hide away from the light for a bit.

I don't know how feasible that is though...I'll have to play around with stacking rocks (maybe shale if I smooth the edges a bit?) so they are stable, then securing it with silicone...

There I go planning before I even have the tank for sure lol.

Also, I will have an old 20 gal from my parents, my 10 gal, and have the possibility of getting a free 75 gal from a friend's parents (they don't use it anymore but can't decide if they want to give it up either...that's pending as well).

So in the next few months I could conceivably go from my 10 gal college tank to around 200 gal . Then again if everything falls through it could be just me and my 10 gallons of fun...

susitna-flower

The tanks are the easy part....its the filters and lights that really set you back....Hope it all works out.

Shaina

Thanks

The filter and lights are included (for the 110XH)...but will need upgrading before I can get the tank where I want it. They will serve until I save enough for the next stage...let's call this part Phase I . It's also why I'm not counting that 75 gal in any of my plans...even if I get it, I'm guessing it will just be a bare tank, so it will be a while til I could get that going too.

But yeah, pricing out lights/fixtures and filters nearly made me choke, lol. I'm hoping to set up a AHsupply light fixture, unless I find a better deal.

Shaina

Well I decided to turn down the 110XH, despite it being a great deal.

(1) I realized that while I'm more than willing to stand on a step stool, the fact of the matter is my arms are not 30" long so I couldn't reach the bottom of the tank without snorkeling or using special tools.

(2) I live in an apartment and that's a lot of weight for a 48" x 18" area, even though the floor *seems* to be sound.

(3) Thanks to research I discovered that to convert it into a planted tank I would have to get very specialized, extremely high output fluorescent lights to achieve the desired intensity at the bottom of the tank. Since I'm a plant beginner, I didn't want to do that to myself just yet.

So it's back to perusing the classified ads. I found a very promising 55 gal but other than to say that it was still available, the owner hasn't bothered to get back to me regarding a few question I had and a good meeting time, so that's not looking good either.

**Tries mightily to be happy with just her 10 gal**

My 10 gal just has 3 neon tetras, a few snails right now (5-6 little ones), and 2 water wisteria (easiest to grow plant my LFS had...), so I'm thinking of getting a few otos. There's quite a bit of brown algae in there thanks to my leaving a few rocks in tank water by the window , so I thought it would be a good place for them to acclimate and recover from the fish store. As an added bonus, they will be healthy and ready to go if/when I get my bigger tank. Plus I think they are interesting

So maybe 5 neons and 3 otos? Too much for my little tank?