How Much Filtration is enough?

[unionman125]

My LFS is trying to tell me that a canister filter and an Emperor 400 is the minimum adaquate filtration for a 75 gallon tank.



Sounds like a fairytale to me.

I think that two emperors (400's) and a powerhead should be plenty. The canister filter seems redundant and difficult to work with. (ive never had one before)

 

[Tolak]

Filtration on a tank depends on the type & amount of fish in the tank. I imagine with a 75 you plan on keeping some larger fish, not 100 neons. Larger fish mean more mess, requiring more filtration. I don't think it's overkill having the 2 filters. My 65 has an Aqua Clear 300 along with an Eheim 2026. It's stocked with 7 adult angels, 2 albino bristlenose, & 5 panda corys.

2 filters, a canister & a hob work really well together. Canisters are great at biological filtration, but a little lacking in mechanical filtration. Aqua Clear hob filters are great for mechanical filtration, but don't come close to a canister for bio filtration.

Canisters don't take much more set up time than a hob, are really quiet, and have a long span between maintainance. On the 65, I clean the hob every other week. The canister gets cleaned every 4-6 months. This is one of my more lightly stocked tanks, most all have double or triple the filtration. My other canister & hob combo tanks have the same maintainance span.

Another advantage is if one filter goes down, you don't have to scramble to get another filter, the other one will take over for a while. Filters always go down at the worst time, like the Sunday night before a holiday.

Also, if you have a sick fish you can use the one of the filters, or media from one of them, for a hospital tank. Medicating a large tank can get expensive, and it isn't a good idea to medicate well fish.

Tolak

 

[unionman125]

so, basicly its all about flexibility. New equiptment brings new options to the table. I did a little more research last night on the topic. It seems that the canister filters are far more custamizable than the hob filter. The basket system allows for three difrent filter media.

Thanks for the direction. I'm getting that 75 gallon on friday, and i think ill get a fluval with it.

 

[swampcat]

Get yourself a AQUACLEAR 110 (HOB) used to be the AC-500 pumps 500 GPH . hold tons of media . This would be all you need unless you overstock. The addition of your powerhead would give you plenty of water movement.

The AC-110 is around $40 plus shipping from www.petsmart.com.

These filters allow you to add all kinds of media. Media you can make yourself with bags , cut to fit products and tons of bio media such as ceramic cylinders now included with filter , lava rock, I even float biochem stars made for a Filstar Rena canister filter in the intake chambers. Anything that can be put in a canister will fit in an aquaclear!

My AC-500's do the job and and do it well ,at very little cost, both the original purchase and maint. is nothing. Bio media never gets replaced, sponges can be rinsed and reused for 6 months to a year and even the marineland cut to fit media can be rinsed 6 times or more. Only use carbon on ocassion. Very low $$$! Sparkling clean tanks, with perfect water parameters.
100 gallon, 55 gallon, 20 long, 20 high, and a 40 gallon plastic tub with a turtle, all have Aquaclears.

TEAMSTERS

 

[vantgE]

You can have much more then three different types of media, buy fluval filter media bags and you can seperate media with that.
I personally wouldn't recomend more then double filtration as estimated by the manufacturers on box, and a powerhead, If you need more then that I bet your tank is too overstocked anyways
A cannister and a hob make a great combination, but canisters are better if you can afford them and aquaclears are also very much better and cheaper then the emporer also allowing great versatility with filter bags like a cannister

Minimum filtration options include
Fluval 404
Ehiem Pro II 2026
Ehiem ECCO 22539
Ehiem Classic 2215
Rena XP2 (only on a lightly stocked tank if not go up a model to the XP3)
Marineland Magnum 350
Aquaclear 500 or 110
Emporer 400B
Tetratec PF500
Whisper Model Five (on a lightly stocked tank, but crappy filter anyways)

Some of these are better then others but it's basically a list of the lowest model that can singually handle it, though more then one filter is better and you should always over filter