So excited!

[qtrhorse89]

I've been wanting a fahaka for almost a year now. I went on craigslist last night and found a beatiful 120 gallon tank with matching black stand and canopy for 250$. I couldn't believe it. It's 7 months old and the guy is moving and can't take it with him. I'm going to today to look at it and most probablly bring it home. I'm bouncing up and down over here. I'm finally going to be able to get my fahaka. Yay! I'll post pics of the tank today when I get home if I get it.

[LilGreenPuffer]

Wow! What a great deal! And how exciting!!!

[pufferpuggirl]

That's excellent! I know how it is when you've been anticipating something and it's finally going to happen. Best of luck and looking forward to seeing that Fahaka when you get it.

[qtrhorse89]

I got the tank! It just needs to be cleaned really, really well. Guy was keeping juvenile alligators in it. He showed them to me, they were each about 10 inches long and they hissed at us. I felt really bad for them actually. The little guys didn't look too happy.

So two questions...this is my first jump into huge tanks. What type of filter should I use and what type of heater. I'm going to go get pool filter sand for the substrate and I already have some pieces of slate that I'm going to clean really well for it. Although the first thing I'm buying is one of those Python's. It would take me a while to fill this thing up with my little three gallon bucket. So I'm going to get the sand, filter, and heater. Then while it's cycling i'll add decor here and there. Sugesstions would be very appreciated!

[Black Widow]

Fahakas like sand and lots of it either yellow sand or coral sand is good, Sand Depth should be 4 inches because they bury themselves right underneath the sand. A few rocks and long seaweedy plants for freshwater are good he will hide in the plants.
Get an External Filter basically the general rule is for tank, the external filter / pump should pump out minimum 4 x times the volume of your tank, for e.g. if you have a 100 Gallon tank your pump / filter should pump out 400 Gallons per Hour minimum.

Once you get your pump add Biospira or other Live Bacteria to your tank let it cycle then start adding a little food to the tank with no fish in, let that food rot as it rots Ammonia will seap into your water which your bacteria will Xfer into nitrites then later into nitrates. Get Ammonia , nitrite and nitrate tests. Cycle your tank for 1 / 2 weeks, as you cycle it test the water for these chemicals paying special attention to your NITRITE Levels as nitrites are the most poisonous to fish. Which will be high at the start as times moves on nitrites will reach 0 when bacteria is fully estabilished in your filter.

Then Add fish

Final equipment you might want to help keep nitrites low is a Protein skimmer, which removes poo / urine from water before it can turn into Ammonia / nitrites. So its good for water quality personally my Fahaka tank dont have a skimmer as i prefer just to do regular water changes but thats just Preference!

Is it a Fahaka puffer that you want to get??

[LilGreenPuffer]

Ahhh... Fahakas are freshwater, so Biospira won't work, and neither will a protein skimmer...

And coral sand is sorta pointless for a freshwater/softwater fish...

[pufferfreak]

Just acquire fine sand as coral sand will raise the ph of the water to what it should be in marine aquariums (hard water).

[qtrhorse89]

So yeah it is a fahaka. Probablly won't get him though for another month or so. I want to make sure my tank is all nice and set up for him/her. I do know about cycling. I've done fishless cycling many times. I'll probably use pool filter sand because it's clean and cheap. What I was wondering is what brand of filter and heater everyone would suggest and where to get it cheapest? Is this something you can buy off ebay for example.

[LilGreenPuffer]

I've heard that AquaClears are the best and last the longest.

[pufferpuggirl]

Eheim make the best filters, but they aren't cheap.

[Dadof4]

Another excellent, but often overlooked, filter is a Fluidized Bed Filter. They are inexpensive (around $60) and are capable of a tremendous amount of biofiltration. You do need to add a good prefilter sponge to the pump that feeds the filter for mechanical filtration though, but that is cheap, and a power head for water movement.

[qtrhorse89]

I ended up going with two aquaclear 110's and the biowheel for a 55 gallon that's on the 30 freshwater right now. The two aquaclear 110's = 1000 gph plus the biowheel so I think that will be sufficient. I ordered the heaters, making my own canopy, and ordered plants for it, and I'm picking up a piece of drift wood later this week. I bought one filter from the lfs but they had to order a second one. So once the heaters and the other filter comes in I can fill her up and start cycling. So here's a pic of the tank. I added 150 lbs of pool filter sand. Do you guys think this is enough? Or is it too much? I tried to measure it after it was in there and I think it's like a 3-3.5 inch sand bed so i'll have to stir once a week. It looks weird in the picture because some of the sand is damp because it was raining and they had the bags outside. Moisture got in.

[pufferpuggirl]

I think the sand looks good, although I'd give it what I call the LFS illusion -- that's where you have the sand sloping, so it's not as thick in the front, but is sloping downward from the back of the tank to the front. Just seems to make it look better (just my opinion though).

[LilGreenPuffer]

I tried that. It didn't look deeper to me, but it did look nice and tidy and gave it a "finished" look that I really liked.

[qtrhorse89]

I'll give it a try. I'm still trying to decide what in my house i'm going to sacrifice so I can get to the tank. I think i'm going to try the ottoman. I'm only like 5' and the tank is as tall as me on the stand. Even on my tiptoes I can't get my hand all the way to the bottom. lol It took me and three other friends to lift the freshly cleaned tank onto the stand and they put the sand in for me. Curse my shortness. I fear for the safety of that ottoman, I have no clue how much weight it can hold. We shall soon find out though!