Habitat - Indoor :: Getting a new tank

[mmerton]

Hello everyone!

This weekend i will be getting a 55 gal for my 3 inch RES. I was hoping someone could suggest some products that i should use. I really need help with the filter and heater. What size heater ? Do i need one of those green covers to protect it? What type of filter or how much GPH turnout do i need?

Any other suggestion would be great !

Thanks

[steve]

Congrats on the new tank! We should do NTD (new tank day) threads

Ideally, you will be looking for a filter that can handle a 150 gallon aquarium -- If you will have the water level near full, you can look at hang-on filters like AquaClear or Marineland BioWheels. Those would be the most economical choices. Then you have your canisters like Fluval 406 or FX4.

For heaters, you need about 3 Watts per gallon, so you can probably use a 150 Watt heater -- Aqueon Pro and Eheim Jager are good brands to look at.

Main issue is your basking area... cork bark is a favorite of mine. What's the lighting situation like? Any substrate?

[mmerton]

Thanks ! Right now i have a basking platform with that suctions to the bottom of the tank and floats to the water level, i think it's a pier type thing. Lighting right now is a UVB bulb and a 50 w heat lamp/bulb. Those seem to keep the basking area around 85-90 degrees but. I have a 100 W bulb that i'm not using that i could switch to if i need more heat in the new tank. I'm mostly worried about the filter. I was looking a a Pen Plax Cascade 1000 . Would that be too small? I have lots of time before he will be moving into the tank since i have to wait for my brother to move out before I take his room and fill it with animals haha. That should be at the end of the month.

Thanks for your help !

[mmerton]

Now that i think about it I don't know if my basking platform will
be tall enough ! I'll look into cork bark, thanks for the suggestion

[steve]

I think it would be a bit underpowered and you would probably want to upgrade it. Is the tank new or used?