Ok firstly I am from South Africa so our product names vary a bit and I have to continue doing the conversions the whole time...

I got myself an Oscar (red Tiger) and it is currently in the quarintine aqaurium. I went and bought his home for him and I am currently setting it up... And I read a lot about filtration.. Set up is:

250 liter aqaurium
1 x 500 liter/Hour Bio Filter with built in powerhead and heater
1 x 300 liter/Hour Power head
1 x Back up heater
1 x Submersible light

Now a question that I really need answered is sand or gravel?
Is my filtration sufficient?
Is the tank sufficient it will only be the on O.??

Sound's like you have it covered. 250 liter about 66gal is good for one O. Filtration sounds good and a backup heater is a great idea.

Don't know much about submersible lighting but I guess that's more a matter of preference than anything else unless your going to have live plants. Then it might becomes an issue.

Substrate is another one of those personal preference things although each have their good and bad points. Sand needs to be stirred and can do damage to your filters. Gravel is more work to keep clean.

I like gravel myself I think it looks more natural for a freshwater tank.

I'm sure others on the site will chime in with their opinions.

Good luck with your new setup and keep us posted.

Cool, another metric

Think I personally wouldn't put an Oscar in a 250 litre tank - my 300 litre looks still small to me - but guess if you have plenty of filtration it should be doable with sufficient water changes.

Not sure about the filtration since I only have internal power filters, and the external ones seem to be way more efficient, still I'd probably go for something bigger to reach a higher turnover rate per hour in a small tank like that. Think I got 2x 1000 litres (max.) and would still do more, lol.

I don't really get what exactly you mean with submersible light, failing the language probably. Is that something on top of the tank which is waterproof, or really being IN the water?
I'd always put something above the surface cause it's the natural direction for light to hit the fish, and they tend to swim with their backs turned to the light.

About the substrate, johnl said it already: It's a matter of taste. My taste is sand There is a video in the videos section on how sand is cleaned, and the easy cleaning is one thing I love at sand, beside the looks.

However you decide, make sure to post a pic if possible once you have it all set up

Only click the submit button once. Once you click it, you may well get a delay, just be patient, the message will be posted. If you click the submit button more than once, you double post. If you do find yourself double posting, please delete it straight away. Once somebody has added another thread, we can't delete the double post without deleting all the ones after.

Sounds like you've got a good setup for one Oscar. I prefer sand, or fine gravel. If you want something that's easy to clean, looks good, then go for sand. What you've got to remember with sand is that a lot of the crap stays on top, it doesn't get embedded like gravel. Cleaning gravel means pushing a vac into it and waiting for the water to clear. Cleaning sand is completely different, you only hover over the top and you can see all the dirt disappearing. Personally, I think sand makes for a cleaner tank

I don't think I clicked twice if I did it was an accident I know to be patient.

Oscarfishlover wrote:



Dont want to tell the BOSS how to suck eggs but as long as you delete the second post it doesnt delete the posts after it

Sorry, I realised what I said. You are okay deleting posts after the very first one. If you delete the very first post, that's when everyone after will be deleted as well

The light can be in or out of the water... In my case I decided to cut a glass lid for the tank which means I do not have a place where I can bolt on the light... Will post pics tomorrow of what it looks like... So I take the light and place it about 2cm under my waterline on the black background you can't see the suckers holding it there and there is nothing bolted to the lid this gives you a clear view through out the whole tank no matter where you look from and it looks very neat and tidy... I opted on fine gravel as a middlepoint solution to my question on substrate... I have two filters in which if I add them together I get 900 litres per hour...

I tested the water last night and it checked out perfect I will be relocating the fish tonight to its new home... I also added a piece of drift wood in the tank... So any advice that I could use?

That sounds all fine to me, wouldn't know what else to advise for now besides monitoring the water quality after you put the Oscar in, but bet you know that yourself.
So leaning back and waiting for a pic

Well here is a pic please excuse the wires I am still in process of tidying it up..

Here we go...

Oh there it is, looks neat!
I definitely like the looks of the gravel. I had pictured the piece of wood somewhat bigger though. My Oscar used to hang out under a big piece often when he was little, and still loved to squeeze himself through as adult, lol.