Change of filter

[aquamanis]

Hi, my tank is about 3 months old now and I,ve got quite a few plants in there. The problem I,m having be it a small one is I have a lot of floating plant matter in the water. The internal canister filter (sponge insert) is not holding all the particles and the fish will pick at the particles off the filter and release them back into the water. What is a good filter to use with a planted tank. Something with a skimmer to take the particles out of the water would be good but I don,t want any fish to get caught anywhere. Any reccomendations?

 

[guppymonkey]

I am assuming you are talking about a simple sponge filter when you talk about your current filter. They are only good for small tanks that you don't mind looking ugly. I suggest getting a hang on the back filter, power filter.

 

[gadazobe]

How big is the tank? I find that external filters are better than internal - also they don't take up room in the tank. On my 180 litre tank I have one internal with a turnover of 400/lh and one external at 600/lh The media in both is sponge and floss and the water is crystal clear. It's a heavily planted tank with a lot bottom feeders that like to overturn the substrate. The internal came with the tank (juwel) and the external is an aqua-pro which is very similar to a fluval.

 

[aquamanis]

Thanks Gadazobe, my tanks 170lt or 35gal. The internal now is a 600lt/hr but I think its too big for this tank, it gives quite a strong current around the whole tank. The water is nice and clear but the darn bristlenoses keep chewing on the cabomba and the like and the little bits are floating around everywhere. Does the aquapro take the larger bits of debris out of the water? Also does an external filter provide enough current in the tank? I,ve also read that external filters will cause more CO2 to escape (I,m using CO2 supplementation).

 

[gadazobe]

IMO your internal filter isn't too strong for your tank- I don't think that it's possible to have too much filtration Cabomba is one plant that I don't like in my tanks for the simple reason that all the tankmates chew on it and it disintegrates leaving bits here, there and everywhere. The external filter does suck up much bigger particles than the internal and I find a lot of plant bits and pieces stuck to the inflow pipe. I tend to clear it every day or so to stop the tank mates from rescattering it. I have the outflow of it as a sprinkler - it runs across the top of the tank and the flow provides enough water agitation so I don't need to run any airstones. I don't think that you lose any co2 just through external filters - the co2 is lost by surface agitation, whether it's from an internal with a strong outflow or an external.

 

[njparton]

Go for an external filter and stuff some filter gloss in there.

I had this problem with just plain UGF - the addition of a Fluval 104 worked wonders.

Final stage of filtration is through 3 cms of fliter gloss (filter wool you may call it...).

 

[aquamanis]

Thanks guys