How much is too much

[micaiah12]

How much current is too much current. I just put a new filter in and it's making my floor plants sway in current. I have a 46 gallon tank.

 

[Sbrumley]

In freshwater 2-3 times your tank capacity per hour saltwater 3-4 times your tank capacity per hour is recommended. So if you have a 40 gallon tank you want a minimum of 80 gph or max around 120 gph.

 

[shellieca]

How are your fish handling it? My plants sway some too but my fish don't appear stressed by it & the layout of the tank gives them calm spots to relax if they need to.

 

[micaiah12]

Yeah, I have some calm spots also. I have a bunch of really active fish. Including tetras and danios. My filter is turned down halfway. And the substrate plants are swayin just a little bit. The fish seem fine.

 

[Rivercats]

You want enough for plants to sway and have gentle water current throughout the tank. If your fish are doing fine with the current you have and the plants aren't getting blasted then your probably fine.

 

[shellieca]

What Rivercats said!!

 

[CorallineAlgae]

It's not easy to get to much flow. What filter are you using?

 

[Rivercats]

Even with 3 canister filters I still have to use two nano powerheads so I don't have any dead spots. OP you don't want any non-moving dead spots in the tank. These allow for detris buildup on plants and also no nutrients/ferts/CO2-liquid carbon isn't carried to plants for their use.

 

[Vienolac]

So just for my own curiosity, I have a filter on my 20 gallon that is 250gal p/hour. Is this too much? My water gets pretty nicely agitated... But my plants dont seem affected by it....

Aq advisor tells me I'm at like 210% filtration.

* sorry to OP. just seemed easier than opening a new thread....

 

[Rivercats]

So just for my own curiosity, I have a filter on my 20 gallon that is 250gal p/hour. Is this too much? My water gets pretty nicely agitated... But my plants dont seem affected by it....

Aq advisor tells me I'm at like 210% filtration.

* sorry to OP. just seemed easier than opening a new thread....

IMO if the plants and fish are doing fine with it then it's fine. I'm one of the one's that like alot of filtration on my tanks.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

IMO if the plants and fish are doing fine with it then it's fine. I'm one of the one's that like alot of filtration on my tanks.

Same here. I think that Aqua Advisor resource is for bare minimum filtration. Even manufactures will say a filter can be for, say, a 20-50 gallon tank but it's usually way better to use the low number. Under filtering is much more of a concern than over filtering.

 

[bud29]

In freshwater 2-3 times your tank capacity per hour saltwater 3-4 times your tank capacity per hour is recommended. So if you have a 40 gallon tank you want a minimum of 80 gph or max around 120 gph.

Actually, for FW with canister filters, 5-6 x hour turnover rate is recommended, and 8 or so for HOB's. I have nearly 11 x hour turnover rate on my 29 gallon, with HOB filters.

 

[micaiah12]

I have an ehim classic 350 on a 46 gallon tank. Medium planted. It's for up to 90 gallon tanks. With 160 gallon per hour flow I believe.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

I have an ehim classic 350 on a 46 gallon tank. Medium planted. It's for up to 90 gallon tanks. With 160 gallon per hour flow I believe.

That's definitely not to much filtration. That's an excellent filter but I prefer higher flow in my tanks. I wouldn't bother turning down the filter. You could change the angle of the spraybar if you'd like. I actually have the return on my filter split. One goes to a normal return nozzle and the other to a spraybar. It reduces the flow a little but it keeps the tank from having dead spots. Probably overkill in your case.

Another option to increase filter flow but reduce current in your tank would be to slightly enlarge the holes in the spraybar. you'd be able to crank up your Eheim but the water would shoot out more gently.

 

[Rivercats]

I don't use spray bars at all. I let the full outflow go out close to the surface and bounce off the tank wall/s so it moves as much water as possible. And the only tank I had to add a couple small power heads to was the 220g and that is partically due to the amount of thick plantings in it.

 

[Hholly]

That's definitely not to much filtration. That's an excellent filter but I prefer higher flow in my tanks. I wouldn't bother turning down the filter. You could change the angle of the spraybar if you'd like. I actually have the return on my filter split. One goes to a normal return nozzle and the other to a spraybar. It reduces the flow a little but it keeps the tank from having dead spots. Probably overkill in your case.

Another option to increase filter flow but reduce current in your tank would be to slightly enlarge the holes in the spraybar. you'd be able to crank up your Eheim but the water would shoot out more gently.

Where did you get the splitter part to do that?

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Where did you get the splitter part to do that?

I ordered it from Drs. Foster and Smith but some hardware stores sell them in the lawn and garden area.

My canister filter (like most) came with both types of returns so I just put a "T" and used both. I also have an inline heater and inline CO2 reactor and I installed one on each return.

 

[aqua_chem]

I have used between 5x and 20x tank volume/hour on planted tanks before. Plants appreciate a certain level of circulation, and if you just ramp it up out of nowhere they won't be sturdy enough to handle it. I usually avoided having the direct output of a filter of powerhead pointed directly at a plant, but rather rely on the diffuse bulk flow bringing it back.

As a rule of thumb, your fish will let you know if you have too much current by huddling together in low flow areas. This probably won't happen under 10x tank volume/hr water movement.