Filter Advice For A 150 Gallon Freshwater Tank

[Black Forest Knight]

Hello all,

I recently acquired an old 150 gallon tank and am in the process of cleaning it up for use. I plan on setting it up as a planted tank with gravel substrate and will have a red tailed black shark, some clown loaches, burmese border loaches, tiger barbs, and maybe a few other varieties.

I'm a newbie on this forum, but have had several tanks before, just not one this large. What would be the best set up for filtration? I'm considering a cannister filter. Any particular brand/model advice? Should I supplement this with a hang over tank filter or two as well. It came with the parts for an under gravel filter, but I'm leaning away from this since I want a planted tank.

I'd certainly appreciate any recommendations or advice!

Thanks for your help!

 

[Curiosity101]

I'd definitely have an external on that otherwise you just wont get the water movement you need. Particularly if it's well planted.

What are the actual dimensions? And what do you plan (roughly) to stock it with? If it's well planted then the plants will take care of some of the bioload. But obviously if you're going for particularly big/messy fish then you'd want to consider that aswell when consider what filter(s) to get.

 

[Black Forest Knight]

Thanks for the reply Curiosity.

The tank is 72" x 28" x 18." I'll stock it with the fish I listed above plus a few other (not yet determined), but they'll likely not be cichlids or other ones that will grow very large. Not sure about the type of plants either.

I'm looking through the various types of Eheim canisters but am unsure as to what type would be best, whether I need two, or if I should mix one with a HOT type. I'd love to get some specific recommendations on model(s) if you have them.

Thanks again.

 

[Curiosity101]

By the sounds of it you should be fine with just a single canister. But you'll have to assess that as the fish grow. Either ways I'd start with just a single cannister. There are lots of brands to choose from. Personally I've only ever had 1 and that was an eheim. But that's just cause of paranoia about it leaking... which you risk with any external. However if you stick to brand new and good named brands ie. Tetratec, Fluval, Rena, Eheim etc then hopefully you'll be fine. Look up reviews of the specific filter you pick before buying it, just to check if there is a 'dodgy' batch out.

Overall you will want to aim for between 6-10x your tank volume per hour. So anywhere from 900 - 1500 gal per hour (or 3600 - 6000 litres per hour). I'm not sure where you're based so don't know exactly which brands/models to suggest. But if you're in the UK.
Tetratec EX 1200
Eheim Classic 2217
Eheim Pro 3 2075

Would probably be my top three. I had an Eheim pro2 so would probably opt for the pro 3 if I were to get another one. But it's also probably the most expensive in the list and it depends what features you want. For example some external filters have the option of and inline or inserted heater. I quite like the idea of that aesthetically speaking.

There is also the fluval G series (which I forgot about), but I've not read any reviews of them and they are pretty expensive. They have a little LED display and mini onboard computer which tracks flow rate, temp and something else. You also have the option to set it to give an alarm if anything falls outside of a certain range of values that you have preset. However with more tech comes more chance for things to go wrong... A thermometer and a quick nosey in the tank each day does the same thing as the filter and it's LED display...

Anyways, there really is alot of choice (way more than I mentioned) and like I said it depends where you're based.

 

[simonas]

i use a Fluval FX5 on my 150g tank and it works pretty well althouh I want to run a second as I have big predators in their

 

[mattlee]

2 x FX5's on my 60x18x24 and 2 on my 60x24x24. it maybe slightly overkill but its awesome

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum BFK.
You will want to have a filter capable of at least 600 GPH but could well use anything up to around 1500 GPH if you have energetic enough fish in the tank. If you are going heavily planted, you will want to move to the higher end of that range to reduce algae growth.