Equipment Needed for 180 Gal Tank

[BettaLover]

Hi Guys!

On Sat I went and picked up my newest tank, a 180 gal long. I haven't dealt with a tank this large before so I was wondering about the different types of equipment I need to get. I'm not going to be able to purchase this all right away (bummer...) but I have some questions so that I can prepare myself mentally, and money wise

First, what type of heater should I get? I was looking in the Foster & Smith catalog and all the heaters that I see only go up to 100 unless I get the expensive silica glass kind. Can I use two 300 W heaters or should I buy one big "strong" heater?

Secondly, the aquarium is used about 3 years old and came with a wet/dry filter with a pre-filter and an overflow box. It was used as a reef tank before, and I am going to be using it for fresh water. I don't exactly know what I should put into the wet/dry filter. Some people say to get bio balls, others say don't. The bio balls go in the top chamber so the water runs over them right, they're not submerged in water all the time? I think I understand where the carbon and stuff goes. The man I got it from was Korean and had a hard time understanding my questions, and I had a hard time understanding his answers Can I still use the pre-filter and the overflow box even as a freshwater tank?

I have purchased a RO and DI unit and am waiting it's arrival. I am planning on getting Discus for this tank if that helps any.

Thank you guys!
*sarah*

[TANKER]

Yes, you can use this filter, simply clean it thouroughly before use. I use bio balls in my filter as well as a floss prefilter in the overflow and in the drip tray. As for heat go with 2 300 watt heaters as this gives you some redundancy should 1 fail. Back to bio balls, your balls should remain above the waterline in your sump as submerging them will kill off some of your bacteria. Bio balls are intended to operate at max efficiency when damp not submerged. To further increase the efficiency you can run an airline into the bioball area which will increase the available oxygen for the biofilter and make it even more efficient. If you plan to use any chemical filtration be sure that it is in the sump after the water passes through the biofilter portion of your filter as chemical filtration can strip the water of the nutrients needed by your biofilter.