Good to be back in Houston

[jrspears]

Hello everyone. Just moved back to Houston after 20 years. Good to be back. Attached are pictures of a 310 gallon 3/4" thick acrylic tank I built on the floor of my garage. Had a friend build a 42" tall 2X2 thick wall square tubing stand. I am running two Eheim 2260s right now. I swapped out the 2250 in the picture a week ago. Still waiting for the tank to cycle before stocking with Stuartgranti Maleri peacocks and Copadichromis Mlotos that I have at my brothers house.

I have had the tank setup for about 4 weeks now and I still have not seen a spike in ammonia. The filters were running on an established 110 tank for some time before I set them up on this tank. All of the stuff in the tank is either new or was dried out for at least a couple of weeks. I ran it about 2 weeks with some feeder goldfish. About 2 weeks I pulled the feeders and added about 18 inches of cichlids (6-7) and three 4 inch plecos. Is there any chance that I will not see an ammonia spike due to the filters retaining the good bacteria from old tank? Or is it just going to take longer due to the size of the tank.


I would to stock more fish now but don't want to face the same fate when I got too aggressive when I brought the fish and 110 g tank to houston a few months back. I lost almost all of my copas and peacocks when the ammonia spiked and ich did them in. I had around 40 prime males and that number was pared back to 13.

Thanks,


John

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[sunkenmetal]

Welcome to the box...

If the filters came from an established tank and didn't dry out then you are fine.

I see an overflow in the tank are you going to add a wet/dry?

[barrettsline]

Welcome back to Houston.

[jrspears]

I was not planning to add a wet/dry setup. I have had very good luck with Eheim 2250s on my previous tanks. They are quiet and I have not had any water quality issues. In fact I have had very good water quality using them. I was expecting that 2 2260s would handle the 310 gallons. Opnions?

[barrettsline]

More never hurts. Wetdry are good filters

[sunkenmetal]

More is always better but that is just my opinion.

Where are you moving back to houston from?

[SunnyHouTX]

Yeah, of those filters are already established, you're not gonna see an ammonia spike. Add an ammonia source to keep the filters going.

[Geral]

Welcome back , nice tank

I think you would be ok with the bacteria build in
The 2 2260 just dont clean them for a while

[allysangels]

welcome!

[HERM]

Welcome , Very nice tank !

[mistahoo]

I think you posted earlier, but welcome again!

Question! If you're not planning on installing a wet/dry, why do you have an overflow box in your tank?

[mistahoo]

And as everyone else has already stated, the two canisters should be enough to keep your ammonia from spiking since they were already established.

[jrspears]

Moving back from South Texas. Spent the last 20 years living in McAllen and working in Reynosa Mexico.

I built the tank to specifically fit in a space in the house I sold. Never set it up there. I built it with an overflow box because I did not want to have the spray bars, suction tubes and all of the hoses running everywhere. The overflow box was a cleaner way to go from my opinion. I was also thinking that if one day I was to sell the tank, having overflow boxes would be important to a potential buyer of a tank this size.

The only drawback I am thinking is that with the water going into the filter coming from the top of the tank, I am losing some efficiency of picking up debris that settles to the bottom of the tank and would have been picked up with suction tubes located near the bottom of the tank. Should this be a concern or just a little more attention when doing water changes vacuuming the gravel?

[HERM]

I would utilize the overflow , it would help remove a lot of nastys that float and make an oily surface . And you can never have to much filtration .JMO

[troy tucker]

Welcome to the Box & back to houston...

Fantastic tank...