Gallons per hour?

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Cichlidlovers

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Feb 3, 2005
Messages
71
Location
Vancouver Island Canada
I bought an Aqua-Clean 200 hob and a whisper power filter hob for our 90 gal. Cheap stuff I guess some would say but paying close to $300 for a filter is out of the question. Anywho the Aquaclean filters 200 gals per hour..not sure of the whisper but it was the largest I could find at 30-60 gals. Will these 2 HOBs be fine? I would of course love a cannister but hubby says this should do fine.

Opinions??
 
thats cutting it close, the usual is 5-6 times the tanks capacity per hour, it may be alright if u understock the tank
 
I'd want to shoot for 5-10x turnover, so those numbers look a little low, especially with cichlids, since they tend to be kinda dirty. I'll see what others think though
 
I have single fluval 404 on my 90 gal, which is over stocked, it does 360 gallons an hour, and that is more than enough, as you can see i have everything from loaches to cichlids. 5 - 10 is over kill, but some people swear by it. The set up you have, is a little under 5x and should be fine :)
 
Oh yeah, GPH isnt every thing... what you want is a filter that actually does its job, just because it has a high turn out doesnt mean anything, you need it to clean the water. So i dont know how good of an idea two 20$ pumps is for your tank......
 
thats a good point.

My 125 gallon is somewhat hurting on the flow rate, but it filters to 50 micron and keeps all the fish healthy and the water more than crystal clear.
 
thank you very much..I already returned the filters but I found a fluval 404 for $149.can and am going to go get it right now...I have only 9 fish to put in right now so it should do. When I add more fish I could go get an Aquclear 500 if needed.

I would still like to know if pond filters would work..just out of curiosity.
There are many different types and prices..You never know
 
You also have to look at the type of filtration.
A canister filter will generally do a much better job at cleaning the water since it is forced through the media. Once inside the canister there is nowhere for the water to go but through the media. If your media is dirty and plugged you will still get water forced through it but you will have a slower discharge rate.
An hob,on the other hand, will have some water bypass the media because there are no physical constraints to force it through the media. So the water will take the path of least resistance and some will bypass the media while some will go through the media unless it is real dirty or clogged.
So when I look at filtration rates I like to suggest 4-5x turnover for canister filters and 10x for hob filters
 
Thats why with HOB filters in my 55, and a custom canister of only a bit more gph in a 125, the water quality in my 125 is many times better.

I have a 950gph pump for the 125 that is putting out about 400-500gph with the filter hooked up. My 55 had about 300-400gph with two HOB filters and the water wasn't nearly as clean.
 
Flow rate is just that how many gallons per hour it will pump unobstructed however
once you add filter material it lowers some and as it clogs it does a more effiecent job of filtering however the flow(GPH) also decreases-Anne
 
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