# Video of my first fish tank. It's 250 gallons and I'm a total newb to this. Help?



## alex37211 (May 31, 2011)

Okay so I bought a house and found this tank built in. It was full of standing salt water for a year, so I drained and cleaned it out. I then filled it with a hose and put some "de-chlore" in it and bought a new pump for the filter system. 
A local breeder sold me some African Cichlids and gave me a jar of dirty water he squeezed from one of his filters. 
As per his instructions, I poured the nasty water in and released some 20 or so fish. They seem to be doing well after 3 days.
I have a couple questions if you guys don't mind. I ask them in this video I just made. Thanks.

YouTube - ‪my first fish tank‬‏


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## FishTeen (Feb 6, 2011)

Wow, tank looks good. May need a little tweaking here and there, but for now your set-up is pretty much all you need. If you ever end up making it saltwater, give me a P.M, and i'll take u through the whole process.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Very nice tank!! So the question is how to get the other side working? If I take what I saw correctly, if the pump you have in there is keeping up with the flow of water into your wet/dry, then your best bet may be to split. Or, you could put two smaller pumps in the sump with their own return lines...two pumps that equal the return gph you currently have. Unless there was more to the question....


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## alex37211 (May 31, 2011)

Thanks for the compliments on the tank.



jrman83 said:


> Very nice tank!! So the question is how to get the other side working? If I take what I saw correctly, if the pump you have in there is keeping up with the flow of water into your wet/dry, then your best bet may be to split. Or, you could put two smaller pumps in the sump with their own return lines...two pumps that equal the return gph you currently have. Unless there was more to the question....


My main concern is whether or not the tank has enough aeration from just that jet on the top. And I do want to split that pump to get both sides working, but that would lessen the agitation on the water surface and cause even less aeration. Would his be okay to do? Or would I need one of those bubbler things on the bottom? Or should I get one regardless?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

You don't need a bubbler or more surface agitation, IMO. For that matter, you don't necessarily need any with use of a wet/dry. Your water is interacting with air as it passes through the bio-balls and the water returned to your tank is being oxygenated. I would say do what you need to get the other side working, if that is your goal. Just keep up with the incoming water into the sump and you should be fine.


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## fishman81 (Jan 12, 2011)

alex37211 said:


> Okay so I bought a house and found this tank built in. It was full of standing salt water for a year, so I drained and cleaned it out. I then filled it with a hose and put some "de-chlore" in it and bought a new pump for the filter system.
> A local breeder sold me some African Cichlids and gave me a jar of dirty water he squeezed from one of his filters.
> As per his instructions, I poured the nasty water in and released some 20 or so fish. They seem to be doing well after 3 days.
> I have a couple questions if you guys don't mind. I ask them in this video I just made. Thanks.
> ...


I think others have answered the questions better than i can, i've never had such a fancy setup. I have lots of smaller tanks, but from what i know looks marvelous. I am a fan of testing alot, i use an API Freshwater Master kit which is quite popular and accurate compared to others. Read up on the nitrogen cycle, i never did this when i started and i killed alot of fish! Since you have a gigantic tank this may not even be a big deal for you, but good knowledge to understand what's going on.


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## e-zlight (Mar 20, 2011)

Man, sweet setup to just stumble onto. I'd drain that tank, and go saltwater. Already have what looks to be a decent skimmer, and a reactor. 

Wanna sell the house?


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## Bowbass (Mar 23, 2011)

Well, As you can see everybody has tank envy. If you were to go out and buy everything to duplicate the set-up it would set you back a pretty penny. In other words flat out it was expensive to buy and that's if the previous owner installed it himself. If he had it installed and paid for it,,,WOW,,,. It must have broke his heart to leave that behind.... If you post the gph of the pump at the height its at now with one and then double that height (to compensate for two outlets and add a touch to it that will tell you (us) how much volume your turning over. Everyody will have an opinion about that I'm sure. Tell us what was in the tank. You didn't mention and plastic plants and coral. If that was in the tank I would be interested and alittle concerned maybe about how you cleaned it?
"One man's fish is another man's bait."
Steve


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## automatic-hydromatic (Oct 18, 2010)

that's a REALLY nice setup man! simply awesome!

yeah I think you've got plenty aeration as is to be honest, with the agitation at the surface, as well as the wet/dry filtration underneath


that one thing you pointed out in the bottom tank (that bottom tank is called a "sump", if you want to throw around technical words  ) that stands up tall, has the wing nuts on the top, and the top portion of it is brown and really nasty looking inside of it, that would be a protein skimmer; something that's pretty much useless on a fresh water setup. if it were me, I'd just completely pull that out of the system. heck if you pull it out, you MIGHT have enough room to just throw another one of those pumps in there like the one you did, and if the system will fill the sump up as fast as your pumps can pump it out, you can have both of those outlets at the top pushing out the same amount that one is now!


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## Bowbass (Mar 23, 2011)

Hey,
My advice and it's like an opinion (everynody's got one that's different) is leave the sump because you might may want try saltwater next. A lot of hobbiest eventually see a salt tank that they just flip over, but they don't have the equipment or the size of the tank they really need. The larger the tank the easier it is for newbies. At least that's what I think...
If you take out the sump, in addition to possibly breaking or at least effecting the system, you will not easily or inexpensively change to salt. The one pump is enough to push the water up and out with action. If it moves water and you want more ,,,add a bubbler to the back. Beautiful set up that most of us would love to get with a house...
Steve


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

He needs the sump whether he stays fresh or not the way that is setup.


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## alex37211 (May 31, 2011)

jrman83 said:


> You don't need a bubbler or more surface agitation, IMO. For that matter, you don't necessarily need any with use of a wet/dry. Your water is interacting with air as it passes through the bio-balls and the water returned to your tank is being oxygenated. I would say do what you need to get the other side working, if that is your goal. Just keep up with the incoming water into the sump and you should be fine.


Awesome. Thanks! That's what I was looking for. 



fishman81 said:


> I think others have answered the questions better than i can, i've never had such a fancy setup. I have lots of smaller tanks, but from what i know looks marvelous. I am a fan of testing alot, i use an API Freshwater Master kit which is quite popular and accurate compared to others. Read up on the nitrogen cycle, i never did this when i started and i killed alot of fish! Since you have a gigantic tank this may not even be a big deal for you, but good knowledge to understand what's going on.


Cool. I will definitely read into that stuff. I just want to keep my fish happy and healthy. 



Bowbass said:


> Well, As you can see everybody has tank envy.... You didn't mention and plastic plants and coral. If that was in the tank I would be interested and alittle concerned maybe about how you cleaned it?
> "One man's fish is another man's bait."
> Steve


The tank was salt water before. I drained the water out. It had sand in the bottom and all those rocks and rubber things plus a lot more that I just threw out. As far as cleaning, I got in there with a rag and bucket of soapy water and scrubbed every inch. Then I hosed it all down and shop-vac'd it out. 



automatic-hydromatic said:


> that's a REALLY nice setup man! simply awesome!
> 
> yeah I think you've got plenty aeration as is to be honest, with the agitation at the surface, as well as the wet/dry filtration underneath that one thing you pointed out in the bottom tank that stands up tall ... would be a protein skimmer;...useless on a fresh water setup. if it were me, I'd just completely pull that out of the system. heck if you pull it out, you MIGHT have enough room to just throw another one of those pumps in there like the one you did, and if the system will fill the sump up as fast as your pumps can pump it out, you can have both of those outlets at the top pushing out the same amount that one is now!


Thanks. If that protein skimmer isn't hurting anything, I'd rather just leave it be honestly lol. For now, I'm gonna just get a Y-splitter and see how it works using both inlets.



Bowbass said:


> Hey,
> My advice and it's like an opinion is leave the sump because you might may want try saltwater next....Beautiful set up that most of us would love to get with a house...
> Steve


Thanks!


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

Awesome tank, my question would be how did you not know or see it was there when you were buying the house??

220G I would have at least questioned if it was a weird hot tub or something.


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## alex37211 (May 31, 2011)

mec102778 said:


> Awesome tank, my question would be how did you not know or see it was there when you were buying the house??
> 
> 220G I would have at least questioned if it was a weird hot tub or something.


Of course I saw it when I was buying the house. And I had no question as to what it was. It's pretty obviously an aquarium lol. Perhaps I used the wrong wording when I said I "found" this tank in it. *#3


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## Rob72 (Apr 2, 2011)

just wanted to say thats a very nice setup you have i really do like it 

Rob


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

Kind of thoughts so but was curious. I've seen tanks that really you have no idea what it is or meant for.

Beautiful setup, I wonder if the items in it are just decoration or was it live rock/coral that died.


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## alex37211 (May 31, 2011)

Quick update:

I did get a y-splitter to run both sides off of the same pump and it has been working great for a month now. 

Furthermore, I have not lost 1 single fish!!! I can't believe it! lol

I haven't done anything but fed these 30-some cichlids once per day and they seem to be thriving. I am planning to get my water tested anyways (never did that).

Thank you sincerely to everyone who offered their advice!


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Good to hear. Are you doing weekly water changes?


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## RobertTheFish (May 30, 2011)

Great. Now I have a whole bunch more stuff on my wish list.

Awesome setup. 

And PooPoo on the guys saying to go saltwater. Those fish look awesome so if you like 'em just keep en and enjoy them.


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## alex37211 (May 31, 2011)

jrman83 said:


> Good to hear. Are you doing weekly water changes?


Weekly? Am I supposed to? I haven't touched anything except for to turn the light on and off and feed them.


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## e-zlight (Mar 20, 2011)

alex37211 said:


> Weekly? Am I supposed to? I haven't touched anything except for to turn the light on and off and feed them.


Should do weekly or bi-weekly water changes. 10-15% of the volume. Some guys get away with monthly if they have some live plants in there.


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