Hi all! I have a 55 gallon established tank and I want to redo the filtration on it. There are no fish in it right now. They've all already been moved, but I kept taking care of the tank to keep the bacteria in good shape and keep the plants I have in there alive until I finish deciding on the stock and layout. But my 4th HOB filter in about 10 months just crapped out on me 
*sigh* I guess it's ok though because I decided to give aquascaping a try and I've always wanted an African Butterfly Fish. For the kind of setup I'd like, internal or canister filters would be best and DIY stuff would be the cheapest. I've got everything I need to build a couple sponge filters and fluidized filters. But I want to make sure I have enough filtration for my tank.
I haven't gotten all the plants I want yet, but it will be between moderately and heavily planted depending on what I can keep alive
. I intend to have 3 angelfish, an african butterfly fish, some shrimp, a few swordfish, some glass catfish, a micro spider crab, 3 blue gobies, and a couple dojo loaches. I think that's it.
My original plan was to use two sponge filters like the emergency filter I have in the tank right now from another tank. They each use three 4X4X2 sponges stacked on a 15" pvc pipe. I could instead/also use two fluidized filters using 2 liter soda bottles and some K1 kaldnes. If I were to use all four filters, I think that would take up a lot of space. Would 1 sponge filter and 1 fluidized filter be enough? Canister filters are expensive - the one I already have for another tank was over $100. I'm cheap and don't feel like spending more than $30 lol, but I considered just building a canister filter using stuff I already have as well as some pvc connectors I'll need. I don't want to buy another pump to build it though if I can help it, and the one I have only pumps 291 gph. So if 1 sponge filter and 1 fluidized filter isn't enough then maybe I can also add the canister filter? I will also have lots of plants though which I have heard are excellent filtration themselves and some people only use plants and sponge filters. I think that's just for smaller tanks though. Opinions? Suggestion? Advice? All will be appreciated Until fairly recently, I've really just been buying everything I need and going by what boxes tell me - so for any tank I've had, I would just take however many gallons it was, multiply it by 10, and buy a filter with the corresponding gph or two filters with half the gph I need if it's a long tank. Kinda tired of wasting cash on stuff that just craps out on me though when I can just build stuff cheap using things I already have.
*sigh* I guess it's ok though because I decided to give aquascaping a try and I've always wanted an African Butterfly Fish. For the kind of setup I'd like, internal or canister filters would be best and DIY stuff would be the cheapest. I've got everything I need to build a couple sponge filters and fluidized filters. But I want to make sure I have enough filtration for my tank.
I haven't gotten all the plants I want yet, but it will be between moderately and heavily planted depending on what I can keep alive
. I intend to have 3 angelfish, an african butterfly fish, some shrimp, a few swordfish, some glass catfish, a micro spider crab, 3 blue gobies, and a couple dojo loaches. I think that's it.My original plan was to use two sponge filters like the emergency filter I have in the tank right now from another tank. They each use three 4X4X2 sponges stacked on a 15" pvc pipe. I could instead/also use two fluidized filters using 2 liter soda bottles and some K1 kaldnes. If I were to use all four filters, I think that would take up a lot of space. Would 1 sponge filter and 1 fluidized filter be enough? Canister filters are expensive - the one I already have for another tank was over $100. I'm cheap and don't feel like spending more than $30 lol, but I considered just building a canister filter using stuff I already have as well as some pvc connectors I'll need. I don't want to buy another pump to build it though if I can help it, and the one I have only pumps 291 gph. So if 1 sponge filter and 1 fluidized filter isn't enough then maybe I can also add the canister filter? I will also have lots of plants though which I have heard are excellent filtration themselves and some people only use plants and sponge filters. I think that's just for smaller tanks though. Opinions? Suggestion? Advice? All will be appreciated
Until fairly recently, I've really just been buying everything I need and going by what boxes tell me - so for any tank I've had, I would just take however many gallons it was, multiply it by 10, and buy a filter with the corresponding gph or two filters with half the gph I need if it's a long tank. Kinda tired of wasting cash on stuff that just craps out on me though when I can just build stuff cheap using things I already have.
