Filtration advice

[Rolltide1980]

Ok so I have a 75 gallon tank that I've had up and running for about a month with African Cichlids. I have an Emperor 400 and a BioWheel Penguin 200 filter that go over the back of the tank. Common sense tells me that's plenty of filtration but to me, the water looks ever so slightly cloudy most of the times. It could just be my OCD kicking in, or maybe I'm just not used to the white crushed coral in combination with bright white LED lighting. Everyone else says the water looks clear but me personally, I think it's cloudy.
I've been thinking about adding a cannister filter, even though I don't think it's probably mandatory, but I've always been told there's no such thing as too much filtration. My question is this; is it really worth the extra $150-200 to add a cannister filter or is there better ways to spend the money? I'm all for buying the filter if it's justifiable but I really don't wanna waste money.

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[CCXGT]

Ok so I have a 75 gallon tank that I've had up and running for about a month with African Cichlids. I have an Emperor 400 and a BioWheel Penguin 200 filter that go over the back of the tank. Common sense tells me that's plenty of filtration but to me, the water looks ever so slightly cloudy most of the times. It could just be my OCD kicking in, or maybe I'm just not used to the white crushed coral in combination with bright white LED lighting. Everyone else says the water looks clear but me personally, I think it's cloudy.
I've been thinking about adding a cannister filter, even though I don't think it's probably mandatory, but I've always been told there's no such thing as too much filtration. My question is this; is it really worth the extra $150-200 to add a cannister filter or is there better ways to spend the money? I'm all for buying the filter if it's justifiable but I really don't wanna waste money.

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Well in an African tank it's advisable to aim for over 5x filtration capacity.

So if you have a 100G tank you'd want to filter for at least a 500G tank.

Also, on a personal note, I don't much like HoB's.
I just feel as if they don't have as much suction power as an equivalent canister.
But then I guess that's why they cost so much less.

If you were looking to add a canister to your setup, I'd just say that I don't think you should go cheap on it.
You want to do it right from the get go and so I'd recommend either a Fluval or Eheim (yes they're expensive but they DO work).

I currently run a 306 and FX6 on my 60G Mbuna tank. This is near 8x cycled and is WAY over the top, but if it means a cleaner tank then I'm all for it.




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[BBradbury]

Tank Filtration

Hello Roll...

I keep larger tanks and don't overdo the filter system. I change a lot of tank water and use a poly fiber padding from Acurel and the tank water is nice and clear. I use a couple of Hagen HOBs, just AC50s is plenty.

If you change a lot of tank water and do it often, the filters are just moving water that's already clean. For my tanks, the filters are mainly for mixing oxygen into the tank water. They really don't do much else.

Save your money. The water change is the real filtration.

B

 

[Rolltide1980]

Gotcha, makes good sense. Basically buying another filter would help with not having to do as many water changes and improve current in the water but it's not something that if I don't buy, my fish won't survive. I guess i can see both sides of that, it wouldn't hurt to have but it's not essential. I'll definitely keep that in mind. Thanks everyone

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[Rivercats]

I use canister filters on almost all tanks over 20g. I prefer canisters because there is a lot of room for media of various sorts and plenty of room for bio-media which you don't rinse unless it become very dirty, which you then just want to pour tank water over so as not to kill the BB. I've used Fluval canisters since the 80's and have a Fluval 406 currently on my 55g. I have 4 on my 220g. IMO canisters are worth the price. I clean them every 4 weeks.

 

[Rolltide1980]

When you say you clean the filters, you mean you just throw away the cartridges right? I'm not exactly familiar with cannister but like with my Emperor 400, I just change the filter cartridges about once every 6 weeks but don't touch the biowheels. Or when you said you clean them every 4 weeks, we're you referring to your tanks or your filters?

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[CCXGT]

When you say you clean the filters, you mean you just throw away the cartridges right? I'm not exactly familiar with cannister but like with my Emperor 400, I just change the filter cartridges about once every 6 weeks but don't touch the biowheels. Or when you said you clean them every 4 weeks, we're you referring to your tanks or your filters?

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To clean a canister all you need to do is rinse the media and sponges in the water already in the canister, and replace any chemical media you may need to.

Bi-monthly cleaning is definitely sufficient.


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[Rolltide1980]

Sounds simple enough, so I could just run a cannister in conjunction with my existing HOB's, right?

 

[CCXGT]

Sounds simple enough, so I could just run a cannister in conjunction with my existing HOB's, right?

Yeah, you could even place some loose media from your HoB's into the canister to kick start it's cycle.


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[PNWaquarist]

Unless it's not in the budget, I'd go with a canister for large-ish (40 gallon or more) tanks as well.

 

[Rivercats]

Gotcha, makes good sense. Basically buying another filter would help with not having to do as many water changes and improve current in the water but it's not something that if I don't buy, my fish won't survive. I guess i can see both sides of that, it wouldn't hurt to have but it's not essential. I'll definitely keep that in mind. Thanks everyone

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Even with multiple filters that over filter a tank you still need to do weekly wc's. Water changes remove excess toxins and nutrients from the water that filtration doesn't.

 

[dalto]

Even with multiple filters that over filter a tank you still need to do weekly wc's. Water changes remove excess toxins and nutrients from the water that filtration doesn't.

+1

Added filtration doesn't reduce the need for water changes.

 

[CCXGT]

+1

Added filtration doesn't reduce the need for water changes.

No, but there's no such thing as too much filtration.


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[dalto]

No, but there's no such thing as too much filtration.

When you have so much flow that the water and fish aren't capable of staying inside the aquarium you know you have gone too far.

 

[CCXGT]

When you have so much flow that the water and fish aren't capable of staying inside the aquarium you know you have gone too far.

Flow and filtration aren't always associated though.


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[gilpi]

Ok so I have a 75 gallon tank that I've had up and running for about a month with African Cichlids. I have an Emperor 400 and a BioWheel Penguin 200 filter that go over the back of the tank. Common sense tells me that's plenty of filtration but to me, the water looks ever so slightly cloudy most of the times. It could just be my OCD kicking in, or maybe I'm just not used to the white crushed coral in combination with bright white LED lighting. Everyone else says the water looks clear but me personally, I think it's cloudy.
I've been thinking about adding a cannister filter, even though I don't think it's probably mandatory, but I've always been told there's no such thing as too much filtration. My question is this; is it really worth the extra $150-200 to add a cannister filter or is there better ways to spend the money? I'm all for buying the filter if it's justifiable but I really don't wanna waste money.

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Running for a month, was the tank cycled? Just thought I'd ask.
I'm also a proponent of water changes, however I do need biological filtration since I just don't have the time to do very frequent water changes.


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