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i`m just starting to raise fish and soon i`m planning on getting a 150 gal tank.
right now i have a 55 gal with about 5 plecos in it...
i use a penguin bio wheel and a tiger shark pump in it...
i would just like to know wwhat u think is the best....
sand - gravel,
filtration systems,
?????
thank u

oh and lighting cause i plan on having plants.

Well, that's tough to answer, everyone has different opinions. I personally think the world of the whole marineland line of filtration, except the emperor 400 I have... seems like it's a bit too finnicky for my taste.

I like sand, but it shows mulm very well, so you need to have good filtration or do siphoning's often.

the marineland line is great, but on a tank of that size you might want to consider a canister filter. the eheim's are the best, but can be kind of pricey. i use a fluval 404 and it's been great. i also have heard good things about the filstar line. also, canister filters are really easy to attach a reactor to for injecting co2 into a planted tank.

the rest depends on how heavily you want to plant the tank. if this is going to be a really heavily planted tank, then i'd suggest a few things. first, go with a flourite and river rock gravel. the flourite is great for rooted, fast growing plants. sa for lighting, that depends on how much money you want to spend. jbj makes some great compact flourescent systems. you can also build something with metal halide, which is great for plants. which ever you do, try to get at least 2 wpg in the tank.

I run metal halide, fun stuff, but a pain to build...

I will say that on the 90 gallon planted a 2-tube striplight and a single 110w VHO bulb made the plants grow pretty darn well.

;) Magnum filters are wonderful, but only 350 gph each, it'd take a few.

Just like to inject a question. Have you have a canister filter and the power goes off (black out), what happens to the stuff in the filter? Let's say that the black out is a bad one and that the power is off for around 4-7 hours. What should we do? When the lights do come on, will the water in the canister be bad for the fish.

As an overview, bad power outs here (which don't happen often) get to be around 7-12 hours. Most of the time, 30 - 1 hour x 2-3 times a week.

I have been contemplating on getting a canister for ages but have come short of acquiring one because of arguments like these. Thanks for all the help.

Regards,
Mike D.

if you're concerned about a power outage, when the power does go out you can always pump out the water that's in the filter. at least on the fluval lines, there's a priming pump on the top of the filter. you can shut off the inlet side, and pump out the water. this is good for changing media and such, and will get the water out of the canister.

although really, i don't see much of an issue there if most of the time the outages are 30 minutes to an hour. the water shouldn't be effected too much by that.

another option of course is to get a small portable generator and keep it around for situations like this. if it's a common occurance, then you might want to invest in one. usually another concern is that the heaters are turned off as well and the drop in temp can be a serious concern, but in your part of the world i suspect that's not too much of a problem?

First off, the 2nd sentence in my post should have read "If you have..." and not "have you have...".

Secondly, thank you very much for your reply. Yes, I do not have much of a problem in terms of temperature here in my country. Climate is much like South America here.

Regards,
Mike D.