Well, I have wanted to have an Oscar for many years now. My friend had one when I was a teenager and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Looking back at his tank it was way too small. I have been lurking on these forums for quite some time on and off however I was living in an apartment for the last few years and now we got our first home!! Thank you tax credit! Seeing how I am actually building the tank now, I decided to make an account.

I'm starting off with a 55 gal. aquarium from Wal-Mart with a matching stand for it: reviews.walmart.com/1336/10312736/reviews.htm

From what I have read, the tank is actually a decent tank but I've decided to replace the filters. I would have loved to have gotten a larger tank, but this is all I could get the wife to spring for. Wait until she sees the credit card bill with all the filters and extras

As far as for the filters, I was not able to go all out and buy a Fluval FX5 because I am still on a bit of a budget. I went with two Cascade 1000 Canister filters: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002DJ9NY/ref=oss_product That will be two filters rated for a 100 gallon tank with over 500 GPH output and 2 because of the suggestion if one breaks down your not SOL. From what I have read on the forums here that should be sufficient, but let me know As far as the media and bio filters, I'm not completely sure how these trays work until I have the actual filters and instruction manuals. I'm hoping it will be self-explanatory.

I'm pretty sure that the tank comes with heaters and I'm hoping that they will be sufficient as I live in Northern Michigan. Again, from what I've read here, as long as it's not running constantly and is holding the temperature at 75-77 degrees I should be fine I guess.

Setup: Once I rinse out the tank really well and get it leveled with the stand, I'm thinking of adding black or a dark colored gravel. I bought 2 fake plants www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/15684/product.web and www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/15683/product.web and some African Mopani Driftwood which I will somehow find a way to boil and sterilize. I got a Python www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000255NXC/ref=oss_product and some water dechlorinator www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001L1R7IU/ref=oss_product for once it’s all filled up. Reading the forums on the fishless cycle, I have no idea where I'm going to find pure Ammonia, but I'll get to that.

I guess the main reason why I am writing this is to specifically ask a member a question and to say HI to everyone. My question is to Noddy. I absolutely love your oscar tank btw. I guess what I’m going for is a miniature version of your tank with only one oscar. One thing that is not explained well on the forums, or maybe I'm just a little slow, are your bubbles LOL. I BELIEVE they are called Aerators. I love the look they add, however, are they necessary, noisy or expensive to run. If they are quiet and not super expensive I think I would like to add two to my tank just for looks. On the other hand, it is only a 55 gallon tank and I already have 2 canister filters running and I guess I don't want to create too much current and cause my little oscar to be blown all over the place.

So I guess that’s it unless I'm forgetting to mention something horribly important here. I'm going to be getting an infant tiger oscar and I will buy his food when I actually get the fish once the cycling of the tank is complete. Oh, I also bought a test kit www.aquariumplants.com/Red_Sea_Marine_La...t_Kit_p/red21100.htm which I will also have to figure out how to use.

Thanks! Sorry it turned into a longer rant than expected, but let me know what you think!

Immortalduck wrote:

Welcome! you should be commended for doing so much planning - it will definitely pay off. I\'m sure you\'ll get all your questions answered.

My first observation was about your heater - you\'ll definitely need a heater. 75-77 is just a tad on the cool side - I keep mine 79-80.

If your setup doesn\'t come with a heater, there are many inexpensive options available. A baisc guideline is to have three to five watts per gallon for every 10 degrees Fahrenheit above room temperature that you wish to have keep the tank temperature.

((Desired Tank Temp less Room Temp) divided by 10) X System Gallons X 3 = Watts Desired

As your Oscar gets bigger, you may find they can be hard on heaters - so you may consider titanium and avoid glass.

Best of luck!'

Holy Crap, Hi and Welcome LOL...

You have done a great deal of planning and THANK YOU for that. LOL To answer your question Aerators are fairly cheap, very quiet these days, and not too expensive to run. You will find a jump in the electric bill with it all running anyway... I would say if you like the look go for it!

And I agree with MeghanR, 79-80 is where I keep my tanks too!

Cool. Thanks for the quick replys. I'll make sure to get the temp up to 80ish when I set it up then, ty. Does anyone have any brand suggestions for aerators?

Also, while reading, I'm finding a lot of questions on the tank cycling. I've read the main "how to cyling" post however if I was to cycle it with small fish (maybe tetras or something) and just wait for the oscar to get big enough and just eat them? Or this this not considered PC. I know to stay away from gold fish because of the high fat content, but do tetras make a yummy snack for a growing oscar just the once if I know they are disease free because I grew them up myself?

I am currently cycling with 4 danios and when I get my oscar I will leave them in the tank for him to eat when he gets big enough to. In the meantime, I have started cycling a feeder tank to quarantine feeders for about a week and a half before I feed them to my oscar. I may even try breeding feeders in the future. Who knows? LOL Anyway, yes you can leave the cycling fish in the tank for your oscar to eat. He will most likely consume them before they start causing a strain on the nitrogen cycle.

Any other fish suggestions other than "danios"? Just incase the store I got to does not have them. It's Wal-Mart and thier selection is limmited.

If it is at all possible, I would strongly suggest you find a different source for your fish as Walmart is NOTORIOUS for their poor fish care, diseased fish, and lack of caring for their aquatic animals. Every fish I have ever gotten from Walmart has died, and I refuse to buy more fish from them because I feel that by doing so I am encouraging their inhumane treatment of animals.
Anyway, any hardy tropical fish will work for cycling your tank. You can use danios, tetras, or guppies. I chose danios because they were cheapest and alot bigger than tetras. I felt like my tank would look really empty with four little 1/2 inch tetras running around in it.

WOW! Feeling the excitement there immortalduck,..........and I like it!

Welcome aboard! You are going to make a good Oscar parent

Same here. I started out the same way with a 20 gallon tank with goldfish and shortly after moved on to pirahnas. Fed the goldfish to the pirahnas and maybe less than a year after that upgraded to 55 gallon tank which I still have 15 years later. I'm now running that tank and a 90 gallon tank and in the process of building a stand for a 125 gallon tank. I may have the 55 sold but only cause I need money for materials to build my stand. But anyways, welcome to the board. These guys have been awesome helping me set up my 90 gallon tank and probably my favorite part is they basicly all think the same and have been very consistent with their advice.

To your question on aerators... I personally like powerheads with an undergravel filter. Just a preference. It circulates the water more and you can never have too much aeration. That and I don't like a bunch of hoses or things in the tank making it look too busy and haven't brought myself to drill a tank yet.

Probably the best advice I could give you is eBay. I love that site and there isn't much on there that you can't find for a steal. I got both of my canister filters on there and other various things I've needed setting up my 90 gallon tank. I may be the unofficial spokesman for eBay. I got both my 90 and 125 gallon tanks on craigslist. Paid $100 for the 125 with a black canopy.

But anyways. Keep us posted on your progress. Pics are a must. It's an addicting hobby.

brichter04 wrote:


The thought of another tube snaking down into my tank never even crossed my mind. Can you tell I'm new? haha. I definitely don't want to have to deal with drilling anything just quite yet unless there is some way to maybe hide the tube w/o drilling or building a nifty background like Noddy's. Maybe I will just leave the bubbles out for now because I'm leaning towards going with Tahitian Moon Sand for substrate now. So many choices!

In your personal opinion, for a new fish caretaker, is sand or gravel EASIER? Sand seems to be pretty straight forward with the Python holding it close an sucking up the food/poo and stirring it up every once in a while for the gas pockets. I was thinking with the black sand the waste may not be as noticeable. However, if I go black gravel, how often would I gravel vac and how much is necessary? From what some people have posted, there is quite the colony of good bacteria in there as well as hazardous waste and rotting food. Would sucking the gravel clean every week with water changes not be what I want to do?

Keep up the the good work its nice to see some one who is thinking about the fish just take your time and you will get there good luk

Immortalduck wrote:



If you have Gravel, you will need to Vac weekly... I don't mind doing it really, it takes 10 minutes and is part of my water change.

Other I know can't stand to see the poo on the sand so they vac the sand daily.. It all really comes down to personal choice!