| Filter/sump/protein skimmer for 250L tank |
Subject: Filter/sump/protein skimmer for 250L tank by Anonymous on 4/11/2011 1:53:55 Hi everyone I've rediscovered my childhood love of goldfish thanks to my 12 year old niece and came across you good people as a result of my continuous research. I'm happy to be here, I've picked up an enormous amount. We're both now getting carried away on the 'bigger and better' treadmill after only a month as I come to realise that we need more room for our babies. I just bought a 250L tank as I've unwittingly over-stocked my existing tank (112L) with 5 small fancies and a Borneo Sucker. At the moment they're all small and the ammonia/nitrite readings are 0, but they're going to outgrow it soon. I do have high nitrates, my tapwater is 32ppm even before the nitrogen cycle, so I'm using Tetra Nitrate Minus while I work on a better solution. With the background out of the way, I've been looking into filtration for the larger tank and I haven't quite got what external filters, sumps and protein skimmers can do to make my life easier and fishes' lives better, other than they're 'just better' than internal filters, despite reading a few articles. At present money isn't as tight as it could be, so I can afford to splash on reasonable or even slightly luxurious filtration and if one of the above means significantly better water quality and less maintenance, then I'm all in. Would somebody be willing to talk me through my options and what they mean in terms of advantages and general tank maintenance? If it can dovetail with reducing nitrates then even better :) Happy fishkeeping. |