I recently bought two oscars. They are just babies. no more than an inch long. I have them in a 20 gallon tank. I know...i know its no good. But my dad just told me he would give me his 120 gallon. He used to have a saltwater setup. I was wondering...can i get away with using the existing protein skimmer setup. I am not sure what it consists of. I do know it has all the tubes and bio-balls.

Another question... With this tank comes a massive hood with the lighting. But again, the lighting was for saltwater. It has probably 5 or 6, 5 foot bulbs. Will this be too much for a freshwater/ oscar setup?

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!!

i dont think you need a protein skimmer for a freshwater tank but if you mean he has a sump filter with his saltwater tank by all means use it. imo sump filter are the best at biological filtration bar none.

as for the lighting i think the lights you have are mainly for live coral and plants in which case you wont need them all. personally i found that my oscar prefer a more subdued lighting so you might want to remove a few of the bulbs.

good luck with your new oscars

thanks for the tips. I was reading the website and the sump filter. Im pretty sure thats what he has. There is a tank underneath with water in it. And "bio balls" he says. Am i gonna have to tear everything apart and clean it. Like the sump filter since it was saltwater. I know i have to clean the tank itself. More advice would be appreciated.

Also..this site is awesome. Glad i found a few more fish that can co-exist with the oscars. I was starting to get worried they would be the only thing i could put in the tank.

Chris

i would clean the sump as well. just to be sure there is nothing harmfull in it. better to start with a completely clean enviroment for your oscars.

I think you should clean the tank and all the equipment thoroughly.

As for the bulbs, just use the ones that make the tank lit. You probably will not need all of them. Try the set up with one or 2 standard white bulbs and see how it looks