Emperor 280 on a 30 gal

[bigphesta]

I had a penguin 170 and it stopped working so I 'upgraded' to a Emperor 280 for my 30 gal and on the side of the tank that the filter is on, the fish are fighting to get up to the top. is there too much circulation here? where should the filter be compared to the water level? Do I want the bottom of the water return above the water surface level, at the level, or below the level. My poor little neon tetras are swimming hard just to stay still.

(yes I know you can turn down the flow a bit, but my water is a bit clowdy from the night of no filtration and I want to get things going asap)

oh, and if the Emperor is too big, the salesrep at the lfs wanted me to get the E.400 saying that I'd never worry about filtration again.... for a 30 gal tank!

 

[canarsie11]

400 is way stronger than 280.

Kepp current strong until it clears up, then just adjust filter

 

[subopposite]

I have an emperor 400 on my 20 gallon and it is awesome. the current goes down the front of the glass and shoot back up debris so it can get sucked up into the filter so there is a lot less maintenance for gravel cleaning. The 280 is not to big in my opinion, that is probably 280 gph in a 30 gallon tank which gives you less than a 10 times turnover ratio. I actually wouldn't go smaller. Is it possible the fish are swimming into the current and they want to be there? Just curious as I have the emperor 400 on my 20 gallon tank and if you see my sig. you can see the fish I have in it. I would actually think you have a pretty perfect match for filtration.
You could always put the filter to one side, so one side may have a lot of current, but the other side does not, so the fish could hang out on the calmer side if it bugged them that much. I can't imagine how a 280 would be too much for a 30 however, just because I have a 400 on my 20 and it really works good. I have yet to even get a somewhat sick fish yet with that filter on it (fingers crossed). I would imagine you would have close to the same luck with the 280 on the 30.
Lastly, there should be no reason you would want to get a smaller filter. Better a little extra than not enough anyday.

 

[freshmike]

I have an emperor 400 on my 20 gallon and it is awesome. the current goes down the front of the glass and shoot back up debris so it can get sucked up into the filter so there is a lot less maintenance for gravel cleaning. The 280 is not to big in my opinion, that is probably 280 gph in a 30 gallon tank which gives you less than a 10 times turnover ratio. I actually wouldn't go smaller. Is it possible the fish are swimming into the current and they want to be there? Just curious as I have the emperor 400 on my 20 gallon tank and if you see my sig. you can see the fish I have in it. I would actually think you have a pretty perfect match for filtration.
You could always put the filter to one side, so one side may have a lot of current, but the other side does not, so the fish could hang out on the calmer side if it bugged them that much. I can't imagine how a 280 would be too much for a 30 however, just because I have a 400 on my 20 and it really works good. I have yet to even get a somewhat sick fish yet with that filter on it (fingers crossed). I would imagine you would have close to the same luck with the 280 on the 30.
Lastly, there should be no reason you would want to get a smaller filter. Better a little extra than not enough anyday.

DANG! That filter is almost bigger than your tank! 20X filtration is insane, I have that much on my grow-out tanks....but I need it. Glad it is working good for you, I bet your fish have quite the abs.

 

[yhbae]

20x does seem alot! Most of my tanks are at 10x, although I am planning to get my mbuna tank to hit close to 20x for the same reason as you - I want them to seriously shake the water in the tank to reduce the maintenance... (There's too much rock in the tank for the filter to become effective!)