When Is It Too Much?

[springmom]

We're setting up a new 55-gallon freshwater aquarium, after a few years out of the hobby. New tank, new filters. We have a Fluval canister filter and an undergravel filter. We have a powerhead on each side of the tank, Marineland Penguin 660 (175 gallons per hour) and a Penguin 1140 (300 gallons per hour). The 1140 seems to put out an AWFULLY strong flow; lots of bubbles stuck to everything, and tiny bubbles filling the tank. We have a few danios in there as part of the cycling, and they seem to be a bit overwhelmed by the strong currents.

So we turned off the 1140 and thought we'd see what happens. The danios look happier, but that doesn't necessarily mean a lot, I suppose. We'll leave the 1140 off at least overnight and see how things go.

But here is the question: how much aeration/filtration is too much? Do we have too much undergravel filtration going on there?

THanks.

Jan

 

[onemisterchristian]

I'd ditch the undergravel as they are a bit outdated and It seems you have plenty of filtration anyways. What model of fluval is it? You're not overfiltering by any means. Most freshwater tanks the tank should be turned over about 5 times per hour. However, many saltwater tanks are 10 times their volume. So overfiltration is really not a concern. As for the bubbles...try filling up the tank more.

 

[springmom]

I'd ditch the undergravel as they are a bit outdated and It seems you have plenty of filtration anyways. What model of fluval is it? You're not overfiltering by any means. Most freshwater tanks the tank should be turned over about 5 times per hour. However, many saltwater tanks are 10 times their volume. So overfiltration is really not a concern. As for the bubbles...try filling up the tank more.

Outdated? Aw, c'mon...now I feel OLD....

The Fluval is a 204, which is actually for a 40 gallon tank. We chose it plus the undergravel filters because that gives a strong biological filtration; and of course I can add other filtration media to replace some of the biological filtration in the fluval (for example, I put in peat this weekend to try and drop the phenomenal hardness and high pH of our Texas limestone well water)

The tank is pretty close to full, but I"ll top it off today and see if it helps (it's within an inch of the top now).

Thanks!

Jan