The situation:

I have a 30 gallon tank with 2 new oscars (2.5 inches each). This tank will be the oscars' home for the next several months. They will have only a pleco as a tankmate. These paramaters are unchangeable. Please rest assured, however, that I have my fish's best interests at heart and will strive diligently over the next several months to get them an appropriately sized tank.

The question:

What sort of filtration would you recommend for 2 oscars in a 30 gallon tank? The substrate is gravel right now but I plan to switch to sand. I don't want too elaborate of a setup, just something appropriate for the waste these oscars will produce. I will be performing frequent partial water changes as well due to the undersized tank. Any other suggestions would be welcome (except telling me to get a bigger tank, please see above).

Thanks in advance.

first of all welcome to the forum.............seccond...you need a bigger tank!!!!! for two oscars and a plec you need a tank about 125 uk gallons and your 30 gal will only house your fish for about 3 months as they grow an inch a month so in 3 months time with adequate feeding they will be 6 inches long and about 3-4 inches deep so unless you have a new tank.. set up and fully cycled in about 12 - 14 weeks you are going to have serious health problems that unfortunately the golden fleece of filters wont help you with!!!!!!!! a full cycle will take you 6 weeks to complete so you have about 6-8 weeks to get a new tank and fill it with water to start your cycle...if you intend to keep all three fish .......for the new 125 gal tank i reccomend a fluval fx5 and for your old 30 gal if you keep it for a hospital tank a cheap internal filter will do as any meds used in the hospital tank will kill your bio filter anyway .....hope this helps

biggamehunter, thank you for the welcome! Yes, you're advice will be helpful for once I move the oscars to a larger tank. I'll keep your suggestions in mind for my new (hopefully) 125 gallon.

However, as I tried to make clear in my first post, I am fully aware it is an undersized tank and I am working on that new, much larger tank for them. That being said, I am stuck dealing with a 30 gallon tank in the interim. Whether that interim is several months or a couple weeks, it will still require adequate filtration.

I have an AquaClear 30 on it right now and I'm pretty sure this is insufficient, even for only 12-14 weeks as you suggested would be my maximum time-frame. I'm thinking of just getting another one of these to double it. Will this work alright till they are moved?

Any suggestions that would address my immediate situation would be most helpful.

if you get an fx5 it will be massive filtration for the 30 and will come to use for the new tank .....also it will be already cycled when you swap it over so you wont have to wait for the new tank to cycle.........this im afraid is the only advice i can give you as anything smaler will be wasting money as it will not be adequate to run the new tank that you will need shortly it would be wrong of me to advise you on 30 gal filtration for 2 oscars as the whole idea is just unfeesable but if say you wanted adequate 30 gal comunity fish filtration a fluval 205 external would be more than enough for the tank and come quite cheap heres a link.......

I meant to say "helpful for when" I suppose, sorry for any confusion. I just meant that your advice will be helpful once I am ready to move the fish to the larger tank. Hope you didn't take any offense for none was intended.

That's a pretty good idea, definately save me from wasting money on a filter that will become obsolete. Will its flow-rate make the water too turbulent? Is it adjustable? Forgive my noobishness, I don't know much about filters.

Cheers!

no probs mate ...the flow rate is fully adjustable down to a drip just about...but the fx5 would be massive on your 30....the 205 would suit it much better ..but would be wasted later......so its a bit of swings and roundabouts i am affraid...

you might think of picking up an aquaclear 110 for your 30. it is kinda big for your setup but should be alright in the short term. also when you get a larger tank you can run it in conjuction with whatever filter you get for the new tank.

jsut a thought.