FYI, If you don't want to use one of those spong filters (I'm not a fan of them unless it's just n my shrimp tank, shrimp produce Little waste!!) I bought a Sun Sun canister filter off Amazon for about 50 bucks. It's for up to 75-100 gallon turtle tank with the water pump being outside of the water. but I have it running on a full 40 gal. It comes with a spray bar. I have the spray bar facing the back of the tank, so there is little to no water movement. The same company makes canister filters for smaller tanks as well and they run about 20-30$. It's a small difference in price in comparison with the spong filters. And you really are better off going bigger when you first start off. I learned the hard way with my fish..
Having been one of those people who has spent 130.00 on a marineland canister filter for my 55gal community fish tank. I don't see one difference in performance between the Marinland and Sunsun type filters. Well, I see a price difference, but not a filtration difference.
Actually, there was a difference... The Sunsun canister filter came with UV filtration as well.. :kill:
I could very well be blind, but I'm not seeing if you mentioned what size tank you are going to use?
But for cooling, eBay has some good prices on Hang on back reef aquarium cooling fans. I use a 10" desk fan on my 40g and it cools the tank by about 14 degrees. (Walmart 8bucks) But I also have 3/4 inch insulating foam taped to the back and sides on my tank(Lowes 20bucks) On days when it hits 90-95* I plan to enclose all 4 sides in foam, use a combination of water bottles, the insulating foam and the fans. I tried this method on the 55gal I'm currently cycling, only half filled) It was 78* in my room, same water temp (insane winter!). With the combination of of two, 6" fans, the outer tank walls being covered with 1" insulating foam (available at lows, pricey, but still cheaper than a chiller
and 3, 20 ounce frozen water bottles to start. I lowered the temp fast as I just wanted to see if I'd be able to maintain a low temp. It took about 3 hours to drop it down to about 62* and one water bottle about every 4-6 hours to maintain a temp of 62-65 Keep in mind, the more water surface you have the faster and easier you'll be able lower the temp. What would we do without Evaporation?
Btw, while you're cycling your tank. Use an aquarium heater, bump up the temp to about 78-80 degrees. This will help speed up the cycling process
and if you can, get some seed bacteria. ie: A friends used filter media, some gravel from an established tank, even plants. If I thought the benificial bacteria would survive, I'd ship you some from my Lotl tank. But I don't think it will.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, and I'll ship it to Gummy13.
I used Seachems Excel, established filter media, gravel, plants and shrimp pellets to start my cycle. 3weeks, and it's done, but I want a stronger bacteria bed, so I'm going to wait another three weeks
I suppose I can give you some floating plants to help get it going? I don't mind
not like I don't have enough lol
If you think I can help you, just Pm me
Also, Lmk if you would like a small container of azzola (fairy moss) and a couple dwarf water lettuce. it's great stuff for blocking out light and loaded with Benificial bacterias. It should give you a good start
and grows fast
Lmk know what size tank you have and I'll see what I can do
Cheers!
