35 Gallon Tank - Filter Overkill?

[joegti]

Alright, ill keep this short and sweet...

I used to have a 60 gallon tank with oscars about 4-5 years ago, had to give the tank and fish away because i moved into a smaller place...plus i was kinda tired of the upkeep that those fish were. I had a fluval 4plus (which is now up for sale on ebay) and an emperor 400...i kept the filters for when i decided to get back into the hobby.

Well the time came about 2 months ago when i decided to start up a 35 gallon tank i found at a yard sale for dirt cheap. I went out and bought a cheapo 20 gallon filter...thinking it would be enough to keep the tank filtered as i only have small community fish in it (mollies/gold barbs etc). The flow was kinda weak and im sure my fish would be better suited with a better filtration system. So i decided to break out the emperor 400, cleaned it up like new, bought new filters and ammo carb and slapped it on the back of the tank, plugged it in and it runs like it did back then. Still quiet . I did break a few pieces of the old filter and put em in my new filter.

Anyways, my question i guess is....is this filter too much for the tank as it was designed for something a bit larger than what i have? The fish are fine ie. not getting sucked into the grate. Just wanted some expert opinion on the matter.

 

[Gaz_S]

No expert but when i was wanting to purchase a external filter I asked my LFS about this as there was a price difference of £20 between 2 filters which if i remember rightly, one did 150LPH the other did 200LPH. He said if your going to buy a filter you may aswell get the biggest if there is no big difference in money as you can use it on a bigger tank if you upgrade and you cant over filter. So i would say it would be fine aslong as it isnt stressful for the fish or causing harm.

 

[Corleone]

I like to overfilter pretty heavily for community tanks. More filtration allows bigger bacteria colonies and more capacity for removing ammonia, which lets you push the stocking rules a bit more - particularly bigger shoals. You'd be amazed the difference just one or two extra fish in each of 3-4 shoals can make.

You can't really overdo it unless the fish are getting blown around the tank and can't swim near the top on their own, or if you have fish that skim just below the surface and need limited movement (African Butterfly fish are particularly bad about this in my experience - I always had trouble getting them to eat without turning the filters off for a few minutes at feeding time). If that's not the case, worst case scenario you're running a bit more electricity than is strictly required.

 

[joegti]

I like to overfilter pretty heavily for community tanks. More filtration allows bigger bacteria colonies and more capacity for removing ammonia, which lets you push the stocking rules a bit more - particularly bigger shoals. You'd be amazed the difference just one or two extra fish in each of 3-4 shoals can make.

You can't really overdo it unless the fish are getting blown around the tank and can't swim near the top on their own, or if you have fish that skim just below the surface and need limited movement (African Butterfly fish are particularly bad about this in my experience - I always had trouble getting them to eat without turning the filters off for a few minutes at feeding time). If that's not the case, worst case scenario you're running a bit more electricity than is strictly required.

Thanks. So far so good. They arent blowing around the tank and everyone seems happy. There is a lever on the filter that allows me to reduce the flow when feeding.