DSwofford

I purchased a 135 gallon tank off of craigslist this week and it came with a Red Sea fluidized sand bed filter. Everything I have looked up on the internet is way over my head since I have only dealt with freshwater up to this point. I will be setting up a 55 gallon salt water tank in the next month or so and I am wondering if I need this and what the heck it is for and how it is used....Insight please and thank you!

aquarist48

Congrats on the new tank! I'm sure some of the "salty" members will be on to help you shortly.

cerianthus

No different than any other Bio-Filters but different media.. I personally would not buy it but since you have it, may be able to put into use. Any pics of Filter.? IS new tank goanna be Salty or Freshy?

DSwofford

135 is going to be freshwater but I am wanting to try my hand at a 55 gallon saltwater in a month or so. I have a 55 gallon with a built in side overflow and sump system. The 135 gallon I bought came with a red sea skimmer, a red sea fluidized bed filter and a huge UV Sterilizer. I got it off a kid that didn't know what he had. He had the 135 advertised as a 125 with a bunch of fish stuff to go with it. When I got there I saw it was actually a 135 oceanic with saltwater equipment and a stand with 16 outlets and a 48" shoplight in the stand, plus the kid threw in a 30 gallon long tank with stand and a 29 gallon show tank. Got all of it for $200!!!!!!!

cerianthus

Any Pics?

DSwofford

i'll post them tonight give me a little bit to get them loaded.

DSwofford

ok so here it is...
Sorry about the pink room, it is my 10 year old daughters former room that I'm converting into my office/aquarium room. I can't wait to paint it, I feel so emasculated when I'm in there lol. My poor deprived daughter moved into the master sweet and the wife and I moved to the basement. (something wrong with that picture) Anyhow, back on track. So there is the 135 and equipment with the 30 long in front of the 135.

pic 1 is skimmer, uv filter and fluidized bed filter, for size reference glass panel they are laying on is 24 inches long.
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...ffe8257430.jpg

pic 2 is skimmer and fluidized bed filter
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...3c0cfabb22.jpg

pic 3 is 135 gallon tank
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...ab111f300a.jpg

pic 4 is 135 gallon tank with 30 gallon long in front of it, with my dog Tank in front of it.
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...0cab89f71d.jpg


As soon as I can unbury the stands and the 29 show, I will post pics of them too. So what do you think?

cerianthus

Deal of a Century if Oceanic tank!!
Are you the one who had ICH problem not to long ago? btw, how is that tank?

1. UV looks like by Aquanetics, maybe 15W? Make sure o-rings are intact!
2. Fludized filter: Can use for either for F or S but would only use on FO.
Should have water returning from Canister or other mechanically filtered
water. For Foelr or reef, dont need it. Where is the sand for it?
3. Skimmer: Bit small for 135 but better than none

?: not a reef ready? Use 30 as sump?

Looking good. Like to see up and running!

DSwofford

Yep that would be me with the ich problem in my 125 gallon freshwater. Tank is great, ran my water at 90 for 6 days, dropped slowly back to 78, put pleco back in. Then went to new LFS store, met an awesome cat that works there where he revealed to me they had an employee that came to work for them from other LFS. He told me it wasn't my water, it was their fish (if I hadn't had my experience I would say that's just competitor trashing) and I believe him. So, added 6 gold fish as a test run and to help reseed any bacteria that might have died due to the high temp. That was Monday and everyone is happy. If all is still well next Monday I am taking the goldfish to pond and going to get a few "more expensive" residents.

Any how, back to this.
Yep, it is a bona fide oceanic! I took my buddy that used to be into fish big time (I bought the 125 from him) with me to look at it, when we got it loaded and were pulling out of the drive he shook his head and said he couldn't believe I just got an oceanic for 200, not to mention all the other stuff.

135 is going to be my African Cichlid tank.

30 gallon is going to be quarantine tank.

I'm selling the 29 gallon show.

I'm going to use my 55 gallon with side overflow for saltwater set up and it will be FO. It has an All Glass Aquarium Megaflow model 1 sump. Pump is a Danner mag 9.5 with 950gph rate. Will that skimmer be good for this setup? Would you suggest I scrap the idea of using the Fluidized filter with this setup? No sand came with it.

Would you recommend a separate pump with a flow rate between 75 gallons and 100 gallons for use with the UV filter?

cerianthus

Scrap fludized if no adequate sand came with it. UV, depends on wattage. Google for proper flow rate. Skimmer seemed ok for 55 G As fas specs, google for more info such as flow rate. Most of my Skimmers and even some UV were DIY including waste Collector w/ ping pong ball to stop overflows so for specs, google. You maybe able to find fludized bed thru Red Sea butt dont know if ti is worse the trouble.. You can use it as Waste Collector or Fish trap w/ little modification.
If doing S/w FO, condider FOWLR as FOWLR would be smoother sailing. Check CL, maybe you will find another bargain!

WETTRIGGER

I have been keeping fresh and salt for over 20 years and have bought just about every piece of equip at one time or another...dont bother with the fluid bed...needs adjustments all the time and doesnt offer much bio filtration...sell it and get something you want for the tank.

DSwofford

Thanks for the info!