2 small filters or 1 larger one advice needed

[rsctang]

Hey everybody,

Well, I'm finally moving away from my UGF system.

I have a 29g aquarium right now that is doing ok. Starting to get more and more plants in there and there are some guppies, tetras, a hard working pleco a young CAE that hasn't gotten aggressive yet and a simple cory that I call Sam.

Anyways, I'm trying to decide whether to have either a single Aquaclear 200 power filter or two smaller Aquaclear 150 filters.

Anybody have any advice? I'm running a single Aquaclear 150 right now and I don't think that is sufficient. It's running full blast right now and I can see that one side of the aquarium isn't really getting any circulation (cause I can see the poo just staying there).


Keep in mind that since I just bought the Aquaclear 150 last week, I can still return it for the single Aquaclear 200.


Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
Rob

 

[kaaikop]

I have a 24 gal. with Aquaclear 300. It does a fairly good job of it.
This thing been running for years, they are very reliable, never failed.

 

[black udder]

I've had one HOB and two HOB penguin 170's working in my 46g and I changed over to a Fluval 400 plus internal. Both options worked well, but the Internal has less surface agitation for the plants.

Adding plants will reduce the amount of poo you find as the plants will use it for fertilizer.

All options have kept the water pretty clear and the tank in good shape. I think no matter which option you choose, as long as the filter is recommended for that size, and you do regular PWC you should be fine. Of course, 2 filters is twice the clean-up/maintenance

 

[fish_4_all]

The only reason I can see two being better than one is the fact that if one fails, the biosystem crashes in the filter or it clogs up then the other will be able to at least partially maintain the biology of your tank and prevent and major ammonia or nitrite spikes. This being said, I will only run one HOB filter when I finally set one up and run a sponge filter in the tank in the tank to do the same thing. Granted, the sponge filter will be driven by the HOB filter but it still would should have enough beneficial bacteria and help the substrate have enough that a HOB filter crash won't cause fatal spikes, or shouldn't.

 

[malkore]

Assuming you check your tank daily, 1 HOB should be plenty. AquaClear's aren't known to fail and are easy to clean the impeller housing, which is the primary reason they'd stop in the first place.
A few hours of no filter won't ruin the bio filter. Every inch of surface area inside an established aquarium will contain the beneficial bacteria, and the plants will consume ammonia as a primary source of nitrogen (they then fall back on nitrate for their nitrogen needs).

 

[rsctang]

Thanks for the help and suggestions everybody.
I'll be sticking with 1 x Aquaclear 200.

I've heard only good things about them.

I'll keep up with my weekly pwc too.

Cheers everyobdy!