# Tank, your thoughts



## baby2boy (Mar 5, 2004)

Hi

First let me say what a pleasure I'm sure it will be to be part of such a great community of like minded people.

Now away with the gushy stuff already! Tomorrow I'll be going to look at a tank, which in a month or so will be housing either 2 or 3 Caribe Piranhas. If all is good I will be purchasing it in the early part of next week, I would really appreciate some feed back on what I'm getting, as you are the guy's who know what's what, and I'm the mere novice







.

The tank is 6'x2'x2' (20mm plate glass) plus stand, with a ehiem ecco filter, two heaters, under gavel filtration with 6 uprights, 2 air pumps, a blue light and a white light.

Along with the tank I could also get 2x16" clown knife fish, 1x10" clown knife fish and a 8 or 10" Pleco; now will these be alright with the Cariba piranhas or should I not get them in the first place? From what I've read it will be a maybe they'll live maybe they'll get eaten situation









The picture of the tank









Thanks in advance

Jon


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## Chouin (Jun 8, 2003)

Very nice tank, but I don't think it will be a good idea to mixt cariba with fish like knife, there will be some lost, wich one??? But the pleco will be ok.
But a lot of people said that undergravel filter aren't good, but I never try, so wait for other reply on this subject.
Good luck
Chouin


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## SERRAPYGO (Feb 4, 2003)

Cariba will make short work of those knifefish. And yeah, you can do without UGF's. They can work effeciently for awhile but, they hold alot of bad bacteria wich can eventually pollute the water.

welcome aboard :smile:


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## MR HARLEY (Aug 12, 2003)

Serrapygo said:


> Cariba will make short work of those knifefish. And yeah, you can do without UGF's. They can work effeciently for awhile but, they hold alot of bad bacteria wich can eventually pollute the water.
> 
> welcome aboard :smile:


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## Noe (Aug 22, 2003)

The knife fish will be eated by the caribe sooner or later. And about the UGF dont use it. They only work in small tanks. In big tank it will only cause you headaches..............


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## baby2boy (Mar 5, 2004)

Thanks for your feedback guy's. I went to see the tank and it 'kin amazing. I've laid down the deposit and am picking it up next week. IT'S HUGE!!

The undergravel filter does not do too much apparently as the huge eheim ecco filter filters the whole tank within 2 or 3 hour's. Is what I might do is reverse the UGF, is that a better idea? Or should it fully be scrapped?

There are 2 Angels, 2 Clown Knife fish, a Pleco, a kissing gourami (which seems to like kissing the smaller Clown Knife) and 5 Clown Loaches. I'll eventually have to rehouse all them other than the Pleco.

I'll look forward to posting some pics next week


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## rbp 4 135 (Mar 2, 2004)

if you get the knife fish say god bye because he wont be in there long good luck


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## EZ_Ian (Feb 21, 2004)

Yea, say no to UGF from experience people like other methods of filtration like a hanging, canister or big sump all depending on tank size







(I think I got that right)

and yea...
:welcome:


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## Red Eyes (Nov 25, 2003)

Congrats on your new tank and Welcome!! Your new tank is 72"x24"x24" which is equal to 180gallons US, are you sure its an Eheim Ecco that your getting? The largest Ecco I see listed is the model 2235 (max tank size = 80gal US, Output = 185gph US) On its own that filter wouldn't be big enough to handle that big of a tank. You might want to check into it.


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## baby2boy (Mar 5, 2004)

Thanks. I'll be sending an email to the guy to check that filter but I've got a feeling it's the Eheim 2217 which is for tanks up to approx 160 US gallons with 264 gallons per hour. Eheim have a model which filters a 396 gallon tank at 502 gallons per hour now that is some serious $h!t.

So the concensous is to do away completly with the UGF/RUGF - that's that sorted. So I would probably have to get me another filter, perhaps an internal one?

Picking the bad boy up on Tuesday so i'll post some pics Wednesday. Then I'll just be waiting for the Venezuelan Pygocentrus cariba


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## MR.FREEZ (Jan 26, 2004)

get some thing with a bio wheel


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## piranhas in farmdale (Jan 3, 2004)

make sure u cycle that tank unless u keep the old water.
do you want a mixed pygo shoal or just cariba?
ne way you could have about 9-12 piranhas in that tank if you want.
jus some simple info.


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## piranhas in farmdale (Jan 3, 2004)

also good luck!!!


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## baby2boy (Mar 5, 2004)

Cheers guy's. Been searching through the site for estimates on what filters i may need. My head hurts







(thanks Nate). The Ecco filter isn't as mentioned above but it recycles 186 gallons per hour.







so pant's to that.

From what i've seen I need to cycle 8 to 10 times the tank capacity an hour, so that would mean 3 Emperor Power Filter 400B for example that's just plain madness. I'm mad but....


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## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

Filtering 8-10 times the tank contents per hour is sweet, but by no means necessary. 5-6 times per hour is more than enough in most cases, even with piranha's. Of course, it depends on the size and amount of fish, but as long as you don't overstock (ie. apply the 20 gallon per fish rule), two canisters will do the filtration job effortlessly. Add one or two medium-sized internal filters for surface agitation and mechanical filtration, and you'll have an efficient and sufficient filtration system.

To illustrate my point:

I have a 50 gal tank with one 5,5" serrasalmus and a few 3-5" catfish, and it's filtered by an Eheim Classic 2213, which does 110 gallons per hour. Also on that tank a 100 gph internal filter, so in total, I have a turnover rate of 4x the tank contents hourly.

My redbelly tank (containing 6 6-8" reds, and about 18" of assorted catfish) is filtered by an Eheim Pro 2228 (275 gph), and two 100-125 gph internal filters. Total turnover rate is just over 6x tank contents per hour.

In both cases I'm well below a 8-10x turnover, but the water is crystal-clear, the cycle as stable as it gets, never had any trouble with water quality, and the fish perfectly healthy...


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## baby2boy (Mar 5, 2004)

Right thanks, that's really sorted somethings out. I'll probably go for 2 Emperor 400's and either another internal or canister filter. That should do the job?

It's getting better by the day :laugh:


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## grumble (Feb 4, 2004)

Congrats and welcome!!!


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## Gaper (Jan 8, 2004)

Not sure if you can, but check out bigalsonline for your filters...I have yet to see anybody beat their prices and shipping is low and only takes a couple days...









Good luck and welcome to the site......


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## baby2boy (Mar 5, 2004)

Thanks to those who've replied, great to be on the site, will be even better when I've got the tank (Tuesday 9th), but absolute tops when the P's are in


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## Puma (Jan 27, 2004)

> they hold alot of bad bacteria wich can eventually pollute the water.


you mean "anaerobic" bacteria? if anything tanks are benefitting from having this type of bacteria these days (DSB in reef tanks....large and very porous live rock) since there is some evidence that it assimilates nitrates.

the smell from the buildup of hydrogen sulfide is not pleasant though...









i would ditch the UGF for the other reasons mentioned though.

the 2 emperor 400's would probably do the trick without the addition of other filters.

if you wanted to you could shoot a power head across one side for some better current, but it probably is not necessary.

HTH


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