New Setup, advice would be great

[Kaza]

I have finally set up some new tanks, Three, four foot tanks one on top of the other. I have divided two in half, as breeding tanks. So the top tank has a large canister filter and will be used as a grow out tank. However I am not sure what to do with the bottom two,(four). Do I use individual canisters or buy a big pump and connect sponges to them. I DONT want to do daily water changes so I need good filtration.

Also what about lights, they will get dim light in the day time, but do they need additional light? how much light do they need? should I put lights on a timer so long each day?

I have a fully cycled filter to add to one of the small tanks as I am hoping to set it up quickly, I have a pair trying to produce in a community tank. I will also add a sponge. However this will only be tempory as I would like a good system for the lower four tanks. Any ideas I'am not handy, hubby is but cant push my luck too far. Any advice would be appreciated.

[kalebjarrod]

individual canisters would be the way to go, less chance of a problem that way. no chance of a deaises spreading

sponges will also assit, your filter that has been cycleing may be a asset to speed up the cycling process of the tanks. start with a quailty set of sponges in each and use the filter to seed these sponges by runing it in each of the tanks. also look at saving for a series of canisters if your not a DIY freak

lights are nice to view by but not a nessecity, depends on your budget and skills. whatever suits your application

[Kaza]

What do you recommend in the way of canisters. I have a Rena which I love. quite, easy to clean and work on, but I think they are hard to get now. I also have a Eihem paid $500 for it and I really dont think it is worth it, I cant lift it, self priming it takes someone a lot stronger than me. I have heard that aqua clears are good but maybe too much water flow in a breeding tank? However if you used a long spray bar, a prefilter and turned it down I would think it would be OK?

[Kaza]

I am thinking of ordering the fluval 104 or maybe the prime 10 which is better?

[Merrilyn]

I'm running several of the Fluval 104's on breeding tanks at the moment. They are well priced and seem to be doing a great job. They have a control on the top of the cannister to adjust the water flow, so I can just keep it ticking over without creating too much current when the pair are spawning.

I put a sponge on the intake pipe, to prevent fry getting sucked into the filter. Works for me.

[Kaza]

Thanks I ordered 4 of the Fluval 104's from 'age of aquariums' last night, I will leave them BB but to kick start things, I will add some gravel etc from another tank, and seed the filter if I also add seachems 'stability' could I add fish staright away?

Also how do you have the filter media set up?

[chris]

Sorry to jump into this thread, just a quick question, Kaza how do you divide you 4 footer into a 2 footer

[Cuong]

I would assume he uses eggcrate style dividers.

[leanne31]

Actually she took them to a glass place who makes aquariums and he put a piece of glass in the middle so its now two tanks I seen her set up yesterday quite good actually.

[Aurora]

Kaza's actually a girl, but yeah egg crate is normally the way you would divide a tank, to allow water flow.