What AIO tank is this, and what filter should I buy for it that will definitely fit?

[Veda]

Hi all,

I'm not actually involved in a reef tank now. Here's the situation, I got this old tank from my former boss, and have no idea what type of tank it is. It's an older all in one tank, don't know if its Coralife or JBJ, or what size. It came with a few things, maybe one or two stock items, but no stock filter.

Before we get too far though, I'm not really interested in doing a full on reef tank. While they're cool, they're more involved and expensive than I'm willing to get.

I'm interested only in doing a simple aquascape with some neon tetras. I would also like to grow moss on some lava rocks, but other than that, I would like to have a very minimalist tank to serve as an aquascape for my living room. I mostly want to do an aquascape because I have such a nice viewing set up with these curved sides, but no time for or experience with a "real" fish tank.

That said, I want to do this right, only buying the filters and the specific items that I absolutely need, and that absolutely will fit into the back of the tank. I'm interested also in upgrading my LED situation in the hood. The original fans on these old things are LOUD! New LEDs, I've read, don't need fans and cooling systems. I just need to figure out what brand and size this is, and would as love to be pointed to a good aftermarket seller who can give me a good LED set up. I have looked at LED upgrades for both the Coralife and the JBJ hoods online, and they're all like $145.00 on eBay!

Link below:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Full-spectr...573906?hash=item1eb704f392:g:LC8AAOSwqu9VMD9R

This light system is gorgeous, and would serve as a beautiful light in the tank, but is it really necessary to spend $145? If so, so be it, (again, I'm not interested in this for the fish per se, I'm interested in it for the aesthetic of the tank). I want the tank light to fit under the hood and look nice, I'm just wondering if anyone else has had any luck with a reputable LED upgrade seller.

So, based on the pictures below, could anyone tell me what brand and size tank this is, and what filter*, if any, I need for my neon tetras?

*Also, on the topic of filters, when people talk about "media baskets" does that mean that there is no actual "filter" and that the filter itself is actually a combination of a water pump, media basket, and return pump? I'm only used to the Whisper hang on back filters, with my 1 years of experience with goldfish in a 10 gallon tank. So, I'm new to the concept of kind of "constructing" your own filter. Am I interpreting this right? Should I approach this this way since I have the different chambers in the back of this tank?

Much appreciated, thanks all.

 

[OrQidz]

I'm not sure which brand the tank is; it looks opposite of a biocube (my BC has the return on the left).

You can certainly use an AIO tank for freshwater as well as marine. A couple of caveats: freshwater and marine filtration is not completely interchangeable. In a reef tank, the live rock does the ammonia and nitrite detoxifying. We use the back chambers to house chemical filtration and filter floss to remove detritus. For a FW tank, you will need something in those chambers as your actual biofilter. The AIOs come with bioballs or big sponges. Most reef people chuck them out, but you will need something like that. You could use a couple of good sized sponges from the LFS and any kind of filter media in a bag.

You will need the pump that goes in the return chamber. Or a pump, that is. I'm not sure without knowing the brand of the tank, but a lot of people use a maxi jet as a return for the biocube. I would not spend a lot of money on an media basket unless you really want to - you don't need reef quality filtration for a FW tank.

For a minimalist aquascape growing only moss, you can get by with pretty cheap lights. You can certainly do the LED upgrade, but it will be expensive and reef lighting is probably going to grow a lot of nuisance algae in a low tech FW tank. You can run the tank without the lid and just use some kind of light you find at the LFS.

Good luck with your new tank!

 

[jayball]

For the chambers in the back all you really need is some foam or filter floss (mechanical filtration) and ceramic media and/or bio balls (bio filtration). Carbon can be put in a bag and sandwiched in there somewhere as well to help polish the water.

For lighting, I cannot follow your link but make sure you do not overdo it. High light freshwater tanks require CO2 and an obnoxious amount of work (dosing and waterchanges) to keep the nutrients balanced.

A tank with tetras and moss is easy and super low maintenance. Have fun.

(Edit: So yeah, basically X2 to the person above me)

 

[Veda]

Hey all,

Thanks very much for the helpful responses. I have read on the aquascaping reference site that I'm have to run about 2.5W per gallon. So, since it looks opposite from a JBJ bio cube, let's assume it's a coralife. Assuming I'm using a 29G coralife, I'm going to need about 72W total. I definitely don't want to have to clean excessively, tetras I know should not be that much work, and I don't want to create extra gunk especially if it's not even ultimately helpful to the fish. I'll see what they have at my LFS, I think I'm going to go with a water pump and DIY media basket combined with a return pump.

With the lighting situation--

I very much want to keep the hood on the tank, I like the way it looks, it looks clean, and more complete this way to me. It also cuts down on evaporation and light escaping from the tank to blast us in the eyes. Is there any way I can replace these ancient lights within the hood, 1) on the cheap, 2) safely, and 3) without giving the tank too much light? I know that they have those adjustable hang over light LED strips but I just hate how unstable and kind of "unpolished" those look.

Dislike these:

But, how realistic would a complete switch out of the old CFLs with these LED strip lights be?

Really like these, would like to gut the hood completely and replace with:

This is what the inside of the hood looks like right now. Will I have to run fans or do you guys think that simply having the fan vents in the hood will provide enough ventilation for the LED strips? I like these because they'll allow me to have just enough light, and in the colors I would like. Please advise whether this would be safe and therefore worth the investment. I'm really not interested in running those loud fans.

See hood now:

Also, see the intake grate here? I'm not sure whether this piece of glass blocking the other holes below it came stock, or whether the previous owner installed it for water flow control, but either way I'd like to know how exactly to place the pump for the best water intake. Thanks so much, all.

I'm so excited to buy the RIGHT stuff and get this thing cycling. I can't tell you how many times I've overzealously bought the wrong supplies for a new project.


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