[tmoore]

I am currently converting a six foot 120 gallon tank into a Kitumba Frontosa Tank. 10 Kitumba Fronts, 4 Black Calvus, and 6 petricolas. I plan on using Eco-complete cichlid sand as substrate, a Rena XP4 canister filter for filtration. I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions or if there is anything else I need to add?

 

[fmueller]

That sounds like a beautiful setup to watch, since all three species have completely different shapes and swimming patterns. Petricola swimming between fronts look like little sharks!

Unfortunately for breeding the fronts it's not ideal. Even if you can prevent fry predation by stripping females, you might loose a good number of eggs before they can ever turn into fry. In my 240G I can see the calvus and petricola pick up frontosa eggs before females can get them in their mouths.

Also 10 fronts will eventually outgrow a 6' tank, but that might be a while.

Make sure to post photos when you have it set up :thumb:

 

[cobalt]

How big are your kits? IMO a 120 is too small for adult kits. Calvus and compa are cool except for the reason mentioned above.

 

[Charles]

you might want to put another xp filter in there. 1 is not enough for the size of tank and amount of fish.

 

[tmoore]

They claim that a XP4 is rated for over 260 gallons? Is that a gross over-claim?

 

[Charles]

It also depends on how much bio-media you can fit in the filter. I tend to believe that with media and usage, your filter will run 75% efficient. For example, eheim used to post pump gph and circulation gph. The old 2028 has 277 pump gph and 198 ciculation gph. And I am assuming it is running in super clean condition. With waste in the system, you are getting less than that and not to mention head pressure.

 

[prov356]

They claim that a XP4 is rated for over 260 gallons? Is that a gross over-claim?

Yes, it'll push about 240gph packed with media, that's all. No way you'd want that alone on a 260 gallon tank unless it was extremely understocked and who does that?

 

[Afishionado]

For what it's worth, I find some brands/models suffer more of a flow penalty than others when packed with media and when the media gets clogged. I really like my XP's for the value and ease of servicing, but my observation has been that an XP3 with a rated flow of 350 gph puts out less flow than an Eheim PRO II 2028 rated at 277gph when both are packed with media, and the difference is even more obvious when the media gets dirty. I'd definitely put a second filter on that tank, at least an AC110 if nothing else. (Sorry mods if this borders on being 'review' material, but I felt the example was relevant to the question...)