# New To This, Bought My First Big Tank



## A Taylor (Feb 26, 2015)

Hi there, after registering on another UK Piranha forum only to find out how inactive it is I thought I'd try this forum, I registered a little while back but I hope to keep using this forum from now it seems like a lot more goes on!

Anyway, I'm new to keeping Piranhas, had a few fish tanks in the past but only ever little ones with little fish, the current one that I house my 4 juvenile Piranhas in is a Juwel Rio 125, not exactly big enough for 4 red bellies I know but I've just bought a 340l tank off ebay comes with the cabinet, filters, heaters etc...

I'm posting just to get a second opinion from this community to see if I'm on the right track!
The tank I bought is a 340l 10mm thick glass tank in a nice wooden cabinet, it comes with the following:


2 x TetraTec EX1200 External Filters

2 x Hydor ETH 300w external heaters

Arcadia Ultra Seal T5 Double Lamp Controller

Bulbs: Osram 880 Skywhite and Sylvania Growlux

Also it comes with a gravel cleaner, syphon pump, some wood & decorations

All in all it's cost me £400 (about $580)

So do you think this is a suitable set up for 4 red bellies? In terms of filtration, flow rate, lighting, substrate, heating, any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks. Oh yeah, currently they are about 3-4" long, about 3 months old.


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

I think you are off to a great start... pack the canisters with as much media as possible and you should be fine with routine water changes.

Also might want to add a few powerheads, but thats up to you

I would highly suggest a good liquid test kit, something like the API Master kit so you can keep an eye on water params.


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## A Taylor (Feb 26, 2015)

Great that's good to hear!

Yeah I'd consider getting a powerhead, just out of curiosity would a wavemaker do the same job?


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

Wavemaker, not really...

You want a more linear flow, not back and forth.


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## A Taylor (Feb 26, 2015)

oh right, well what kind of flow rate should I aim to get for a tank that size, one big one, or two smaller ones?


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

Personal preference really, I prefer high flow and typically use 2 in case one stops working.

240L is about 90 gallons, so I would use something like 2 maxijet 1200s. If you want more flow you can buy the ecomod kits which are a larger impeller / guard. The Hydor Koralia powerheads are decent as well, but more expensive.


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