Tommorrow morning I am picking up a 180 gallon fish tank from a guy at work with the measurements coming in at 72x24x24 with the stand. I picked it up for 500 bucks. It is a glass tank. I just got into this hobby and have spent numerous hours and hours on this forum and the net starting up fish tanks. I started a 45 gallon that I cycled with buo-spira and have it up and running for 2 months now with everything good to go. I want this 180 to be a saltwater tank. All I am starting with is the 180 gallon and the stand and am assuming the hood and light. On my freshwater tank I use a topfin 60 that pumps out 300 gallons per hour. I am clueless on what to use for the 180. I was thinking 2 emperor 400's or is that not enough. I dont know anything about canisters but heard good stuff about eheim. I will ask other questions later about the live rock and amount of salt and all that other stuff at a later date unless ya feel like adding that in but what I really need to know about is the filteration I need. Money really isnt tight so feel free to let me know what ya think I should get. I want good filteration. Would 2 bio wheels be better than a canister, or a biowheel and a canister. Please give me some advice. Also I was thinking 2 300 watt heaters. Is that what I'll need? Thank you for your time and input and what ya think my setup is worth, just say an average 180 used tank and stand. Havent seen the stand yet.
my next tank
- Thread starter schwartzy
- Start date
ok well you have to decide whehter you are doing a reef or a fish only tank, either way your first investment should be a good protein skimmer, forget everything you know about freshwater, bio wheels are the devil for salt water tanks, don't buy the emperors either get a nice skimmer and 3 or 4 power heads to move water around, and a bunch of live rock and that will be all the filtration you need, for skimmers Berlin, TurboFlotors, and aqua-c remoras I have had good experiences with, you might need 2 remoras on a tank that size. if you want a reef you will need to invest in some nice lighting HQI metal halides, which gets pricy but if you just want Fish and live rock standard flouresents should do fine. also go buy a few good books before you set any of this up, Mike paletta's "The new marine aquarium" is a good one to start with, hope this helps and welcome to the tank
Brahm
Brahm
i agree with aresgod completely. the one thing i would add is that if you can find a shop which will guarantee drilling i would get the tank drilled and run a sump...this will greatly improve your options as far as what skimmer you can get. the other advantage is you can hide your heaters and other equipment in the sump so they don't clutter up the display and if you set things up properly with SCWDs and big return pumps you won't need powerheads in the main tank either
whatever you do, you want to recycle about ten times the volume of your tank every hour (so ~2000gph) which means a few BIG powerheads
as far as what your setup is worth, I think $500 is a good price for a used 180 assuming its in good shape
freshwater and saltwater are like two different universes so most of the standard FW info you have is pretty well worthless.
whatever you do, you want to recycle about ten times the volume of your tank every hour (so ~2000gph) which means a few BIG powerheads
as far as what your setup is worth, I think $500 is a good price for a used 180 assuming its in good shape
freshwater and saltwater are like two different universes so most of the standard FW info you have is pretty well worthless.
I would go with 2 that would be fine, they will each work less to keep the temp correct and if one fails you have a back up, and yea camaro is right a sump would be great but the drilling thing is the only problem, but if you can work that out then definetly go with a sump, much better in the long run
Are you goin reef or fish only. Reef go with a sump. Fish only go with a wet dry built into the sump. Either case I also recommend a very powerful protein skimmer and some live rock. Also Camero pointed out that youll definatly want more water movement. Dont get the emperors too small and inefficient for a tank this size.