Slate rock for fish/turtle tank?

[seedubs1]

Yeah.....That's how it happened for me too. Started with a 29 gallon and a few small fish. Ended up with a 240 gallon and some big mean ass central american cichlids. Tons of fun. People that came over to my house always loved those fish. Especially the 18" Nandopsis Haitiensis. He was a brute.

OP.....don't use limestone or sand stone. Our water is hard and buffered as is. But I doubt you want to deal with monitoring water chem that much to mess around with adding more stuff that'll mess up your water chem. Slate is good to go though.

we got rid of our tanks years ago, when we thought we were going to move out of state. always kinda missed them, though, and would still stop at pet stores to look. husband said never again. then i got a small tank for my office at work, but it didn't work out, so i brought it home. hubby got bored one winter day and decided to set it up, and it just slowly snowballed from there. we are staying with low maintenance fish, no more salt water or discus.

 

[CindyE]

Yeah.....That's how it happened for me too. Started with a 29 gallon and a few small fish. Ended up with a 240 gallon and some big mean ass central american cichlids. Tons of fun. People that came over to my house always loved those fish. Especially the 18" Nandopsis Haitiensis. He was a brute.

OP.....don't use limestone or sand stone. Our water is hard and buffered as is. But I doubt you want to deal with monitoring water chem that much to mess around with adding more stuff that'll mess up your water chem. Slate is good to go though.

I'm pretty sure that's what I'm going to go with, just need to figure out where I'm going to buy it. River rock seems like it would work, but slate is supposedly easier to keep clean.

We've had cichlids before, crazy fish! We've had lots of fish over the years. Some of my favorite were the Discus, a black arawana, and a blue-eyed pleco.

 

[femurphy77]

When my son moved out from home, he asked if I wanted to keep his reef tank in his old room, which was going to be my new home-office. I really enjoyed having it, and I ended up getting more live rock, soft corrals, and various fish and invertebrates. But man, that reef tank required more maintenance than any aquarium I've ever had. At one point, the filter system overflow got stuck and about five gallons of salt water overflowed onto the floor, and that was it for me and I gave it all away.

That is one of my fears with using a sump. My husband just bought a nice used one, but I'm still figuring out how to set it up. I definitely do not want water all over the floor!

When we start setting up our 180 again this winter I'm thinking about going to a sump set up but the possibility of overflow is a definite concern. The big draw for me is getting as many mechanical's as possible out of the tank but all things considered our Fluval only has an inlet and outlet that would be easily concealable so I'll just have to see what mood I'm in. We already have the sump but I'd still need to drill the glass so we haven't committed fully. . .yet!

 

[Hop]

I need some bigger ramps for my red ear sliders. They have become monsters but are having a hard time getting to the basking area. One is nearly 8.5"x11". Has anyone else seen a ramp like this or will I need to build my own from rock &/or brick? I'm concerned about using plastic but they have been doing fine in a large plastic garden type pond.

Ideas?

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

That is one of my fears with using a sump. My husband just bought a nice used one, but I'm still figuring out how to set it up. I definitely do not want water all over the floor!

I used a 30 gal tank as my sump and added plants for water treatment, and i made my own overflow with two repurposed outside filters (one inside and one outside).

I really liked it and it worked well, but my weak point was my home-made overflow siphon set up. If I did it again, I'd add a pump shut-off switch that would shut off the pump before the tank overflowed.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I need some bigger ramps for my red ear sliders. They have become monsters but are having a hard time getting to the basking area. One is nearly 8.5"x11". Has anyone else seen a ramp like this or will I need to build my own from rock &/or brick? I'm concerned about using plastic but they have been doing fine in a large plastic garden type pond.

Ideas?

For my daughter's red eared slider, I used broken pieces from a large clay flower pot and glued them together with clear silicone. It wasn't pretty, but it held up for years. That turtle lived in an aquarium inside during the winter and outside in a large plastic pool in the summer. One summer, I rigged up a filter for the pool and darned if that turtle didn't use the water return line to climb out and get away. My daughter was crushed and I felt awful.

 

[CindyE]

For my daughter's red eared slider, I used broken pieces from a large clay flower pot and glued them together with clear silicone. It wasn't pretty, but it held up for years. That turtle lived in an aquarium inside during the winter and outside in a large plastic pool in the summer. One summer, I rigged up a filter for the pool and darned if that turtle didn't use the water return line to climb out and get away. My daughter was crushed and I felt awful.

One of my turtles got out last night, in a similar way, i think. He wasn't out long, one of the dogs spotted him and started barking.

 

[CindyE]

The more i think about this sump, the more chicken i get. For one thing, it is probably not big enough, it is only rated for a 55 gallon tank. My husband bought it from the same guy that sold us the 125 gallon aquarium. That makes me wonder if it's really even worth messing with. He only paid $40 for it, so I can probably sell it if i decide not to use it. It looks practically new. I did not know he was going to buy it. We had one years ago and didn't like the noise it made and returned it. This is the one we have now: https://www.amazon.com/Aqueon-MegaFlow-Model-Sump-Prefilter/dp/B000O3CFRO and it also has the Hang on Tank overflow, similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/Eshopps-AEO1...7317375&sr=8-2&keywords=hang+on+back+overflow
To be honest, I don't feel like i understand it that well, no matter how much I google it! I don't have a pump for it. We have 2 Fluval C4 power filters to use, also.

 

[seedubs1]

I LOVED my old sump system. Designed it myself, had a local glass company cut baffles for it, and then siliconed the baffles where I wanted them. SUPER easy to clean the tank. Just size so that if your power goes out and overflows you won't overflow onto your floor.

I used an old used craigslist 90 gallon tank for my sump.

2 big filter socks, a drip chamber for plastic scrubbies for the bio filter, and a few sealed mag drive pumps. All I ever had to do was wash out the filters to clean the tank. And I had my water change hose plumbed in so I just threw the end of the hose outside and filpped a lever.....complete water change in about an hour on the 240 gallon tank.

I've also seen some cool drip sumps made out of sterilite baskets and rubermade tubs. Looked equally easy to clean, and easy to design/DIY.

Highly recommend the mag pumps if you're doing a sump. You don't ever have to worry about leakage issues like you do with external pumps.

When we start setting up our 180 again this winter I'm thinking about going to a sump set up but the possibility of overflow is a definite concern. The big draw for me is getting as many mechanical's as possible out of the tank but all things considered our Fluval only has an inlet and outlet that would be easily concealable so I'll just have to see what mood I'm in. We already have the sump but I'd still need to drill the glass so we haven't committed fully. . .yet!

 

[CindyE]

I LOVED my old sump system. Designed it myself, had a local glass company cut baffles for it, and then siliconed the baffles where I wanted them. SUPER easy to clean the tank. Just size so that if your power goes out and overflows you won't overflow onto your floor.

I used an old used craigslist 90 gallon tank for my sump.

2 big filter socks, a drip chamber for plastic scrubbies for the bio filter, and a few sealed mag drive pumps. All I ever had to do was wash out the filters to clean the tank. And I had my water change hose plumbed in so I just threw the end of the hose outside and filpped a lever.....complete water change in about an hour on the 240 gallon tank.

I've also seen some cool drip sumps made out of sterilite baskets and rubermade tubs. Looked equally easy to clean, and easy to design/DIY.

Highly recommend the mag pumps if you're doing a sump. You don't ever have to worry about leakage issues like you do with external pumps.

That's one heck of a sump! Mag pumps are expensive, huh? Would it be stupid to use the small sump my husband bought on our 125 gallon tank? I don't want to keep messing with it and buying stuff for it if it's not going to be worth it. I already have lots of stuff to consider and buy. We have 2 30 gallon tanks set up right now that we will shut down when this is ready, so we can steal some things from them, but I still need more lighting, more filtration, etc.