Alternative Filtration?

[Miss Wiggle]

it's my birthday coming up, got a bit of money coming and not sure how to spend it, was thinking for the fish i'd really like to be able to increase the filtration on my trigon 350 (corner tank, 92 us gallons, 1 oscar, 1 common plec, 1 syno) now i can easily enough find myself a nice big cannister filter but i was just wondering what other options are available?

i've currently got 2 medium-large external cannisters and 2 small internals that are used for polishing the water and to be instant mature filters for hospital tank situations

if i was to hook up a sump (or something like it), what different things could i house in it, are there any more natural filtration systems available such as the use of chaeto in SW tanks for reducing nitrates, is there anything similar I can do in FW?

the design of the cabinet is a problem, it's a lot of weight to hold and i'm not willing to tamper with the structural elements of the stand as i think it's too much of a risk. it's divided into two halves with a more open section at the back. i could put a larger sump type tank at the back but it would be hard to access for maintenance, or i could possibly put 2 smaller tanks in each half for separate sumps.

not really sure how anything effective could work around the tank design but i'm just interested in exploring alternative options to increase the filtration, budgets around 200 squid but as always less is more!

 

[geo7x]

are you looking to add filtration ontop of the filters you already have or take the existing filters out and replace them all with one large one?

 

[cane76]

your filtration sounds fine go get some nice new shoes and perfume instead

 

[martyn21uk]

your filtration sounds fine go get some nice new shoes and perfume instead

 

[geo7x]

your filtration sounds fine go get some nice new shoes and perfume instead

i have to agree though, going by the description given (can you tell us what canisters you have wiggle?) the filtration sounds fine to me.

 

[The-Wolf]

in theory there is nothing that would prevent a DSB in a sump working on a tropical freshwater tank
like they do it a tropical saltwater one.

having a sump has the advantage of being able to hide your heater in it and having a surface area for the bacteria to
colonise. it also adds to the overall volume of your water, thus you can slightly increase the inches of fish for the tank.
IE more smaller fish. more is good.

 

[jayjay]

I'm looking to try and experiment with hydroponics, I just want to mess around with it really but maybe you could try something to do with it?

Aren't you considering getting rid of the Oscar? If you do then there wouldn't really be a need for more filtration would there?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

are you looking to add filtration ontop of the filters you already have or take the existing filters out and replace them all with one large one?

either or! depends what ideas people can come up with

your filtration sounds fine go get some nice new shoes and perfume instead

not had any new shoes in a good long while!

your filtration sounds fine go get some nice new shoes and perfume instead

i have to agree though, going by the description given (can you tell us what canisters you have wiggle?) the filtration sounds fine to me.

fluval 404 and a rena xp2 (apparently.... i'll take Ian's word for it) both reasonable sized cannisters but i do think it could be better with such poop machines in the tank.

in theory there is nothing that would prevent a DSB in a sump working on a tropical freshwater tank
like they do it a tropical saltwater one.

having a sump has the advantage of being able to hide your heater in it and having a surface area for the bacteria to
colonise. it also adds to the overall volume of your water, thus you can slightly increase the inches of fish for the tank.
IE more smaller fish. more is good.

hmmmm, so to do a DSB in a freshwater tank would you just need to use normal sand like you'd use for substrate? do you need to add anything to it? got any helpful links.... i'll browse google, just wondering if you knew of any helpful sites

I'm looking to try and experiment with hydroponics, I just want to mess around with it really but maybe you could try something to do with it?

Aren't you considering getting rid of the Oscar? If you do then there wouldn't really be a need for more filtration would there?

hydroponics...... really

i don't understand what you'd be planning on doing, can you explain some more, thanks

yeah i'm considering it, but it's highly unlikely i can find him a good home, and if he does go then it's not gonna hurt to have a good filtration system on the tank, we'd be changing it over to a low maintenance planted community tank, excellent filtration and low maintenance go nicely together!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i was also thinking about wet/dry filtration

i may be wrong but doesn't the nitrifying bacteria perform better when well oxygenated, therefore things like trickle systems can be very effective.

i've got one on my 10gal and never had any problems but the tanks always been lightly stocked so wouldn't expect problems.

can they work on this size tank? how much media and what sort of flow rate do you need?

 

[andywg]

You are right on the wet/dry in that the higher amounts of oxygen (I have read up to 1,000 times more oxygen is available in a wet/dry compared to a submerged media system) allow a denser stocking of bacteria on the media.

They will work on larger or smaller scales. As to how much media, that is hard to really know. It is often said a sump should have 10% bio-media capacity of the display tank. I would say you can halve that on a wet dry.

My 6x2x2 has a trickle tower that is 13x13x9h. So that is 5.5 gallons of bio balls filtering 150 gallons of tank. However, mine is supplemented by a couple of 14 gallon sump tanks full up with alfagrog.

Once I finish setting up my reef tank I will convert one of the sump tanks to a deep sand bed just as an experiment. My worry on FW DSB is that of just how essential a role the microfauna play in a SW DSB. We don't tend to import any microfauna in FW. But the bacteria should grow there.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

You are right on the wet/dry in that the higher amounts of oxygen (I have read up to 1,000 times more oxygen is available in a wet/dry compared to a submerged media system) allow a denser stocking of bacteria on the media.

They will work on larger or smaller scales. As to how much media, that is hard to really know. It is often said a sump should have 10% bio-media capacity of the display tank. I would say you can halve that on a wet dry.

My 6x2x2 has a trickle tower that is 13x13x9h. So that is 5.5 gallons of bio balls filtering 150 gallons of tank. However, mine is supplemented by a couple of 14 gallon sump tanks full up with alfagrog.

Once I finish setting up my reef tank I will convert one of the sump tanks to a deep sand bed just as an experiment. My worry on FW DSB is that of just how essential a role the microfauna play in a SW DSB. We don't tend to import any microfauna in FW. But the bacteria should grow there.

hmmmm ok so my tanks 92gals, if i'd then want a trickle tower that's 5% of that so about a 5 gallon tank, plenty of room for that in there and some more.

do you think replacing one of the current external cannisters with a 5/10 gallon trickle tower would give more effective filtration?

 

[jayjay]

I don't even know if the hydroponics will make much difference to be honest. But I have a little algae issue in my 25g so I'm going to try it out. I'll use lucky bamboo with just the roots in the water, rest of the plant above it of course. I may also use a fern of some description in some kind of contraption at the surface.

If it was a choice between hydroponics and a trickle tower, the trickle tower wins easily in my opinion.

 

[andywg]

do you think replacing one of the current external cannisters with a 5/10 gallon trickle tower would give more effective filtration?

That is the trickle tower element that should be 5 gallons ish (it will ususally sit proud of the sump). The sump can be a bit larger (good to hide shizzle like heaters and stuff in).

As to more effective, it's probably much of a muchness. You can generally stock a wet/dry heavier, but don't expect any real plant growth due to the CO2 being driven out.

You will have to quite often rinse out the filter floss above the drip tray. Within a week mine is just a brown stodge in most places.

I use wet drys because I already had sumps (don't forget the expenxe of setting up a sump) and one is on an overstocked tank of larger fish, while the other is in a rack system filtering three tanks.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hmmm i'll have a little think, and i'll have a measure of the cupboard see how big a sump i could fit in there.

thanks for the help