Which Filter Is Best For 4ft Tank

[wesarl]

hey all, i've had my 4 foot tank for about 3-4 months now, and i used to have gravel substrate in it but a month ago i changed it to sand.
i'm had my eyes on changing the filter to an external canister filter for the tank.

so the question, is it ideal to change to canister with the sand as substrate
if so how many litres per hour or which type of canister filter will be good for my tank

it currently has Aqua One 104f internal filter

thank for your time everyone

 

[garyspence84]

I'm pretty much on the same boat as you. I'm looking to upgrade my external filter for 1 that's more powerful.

I recently changed from gravel to sand too and its fine with my external. It's only 800lph though. I'm looking for something around 1500lph now.

My tank is also 4foot

 

[mrvillicus]

for a tank of 4ft depending on what and how much stock you have I would strongly recommend an external. Really the minimum turnover rate is 5 times per hour, I have a 4 foot 240 litre and I use an all pond solutions 2000LPH filter, they are superb, amazing price with great output flow

 

[wesarl]

so a canister will be better you reckon for a 4ft?
just worried it might get one that is too strong so picks up everything
or too weak so wont get anything haha

 

[TRAGICTRAMP]

i have got a 3ft with a tetratec ex1200 and a powerhead and it doesnt suck up the sand, just have the inlet a couple of inches above the sand!

 

[MBOU]

External canister filters are way better than internals any day!! Personally I would recomend TetraTec, AquaManta or Fluval '06 range and aim at either the one rated for 300L but better sill the one for 400L. I have an AquaManta 1500U (aimed at 450L or 500L?) running on my 4ft tank as well as a small internal filter.

Lots of filter reviews in the hardware section of the forum.

 

[wesarl]

so canister it is... just how many litres per hour or which canister will be best or reccommended
my budget is around $100 - $200:'(

 

[garyspence84]

Go on ebay and look up all pond solutions external filters. 2000lph is the 1 for me. Can't wait to get 1.

There about £70 roughly. Don't know what that is in $$$ but is imagine its roughly the same

 

[Yanks15]

wessarl, where are you located in the world? If you are in the US, they do not sell APS here. You can order them from the UK fairly cheap but the shipping will be enough to make you get an available model here. The Marineland C-series is the same as the TetraTec models and very much like the APS. For you tank, probably the Marineland C360 model. Can be found at on-line retailers for roughly $130-$180, depending. Check out Amazon too.

 

[Mikey1]

you need to define "4 foot tank" in more detail....how many gallons or liters are we talking about?

if you dont know the answer to that, what are the dimensons?

if its under 75 gallons then a HOB filter would be more than enough, a canister filter is overkill and a waste of money on anything under 75 gallons

 

[wesarl]

@yanks15 im located in brisbane
@Mikey1 the dimension of my tank is 118cmx46cmx46cm

 

[dbanner]

Definitely go for a canister filter. Generally your looking at around 4-5x water turnover per hour to that of your tanks water volume... so if your tank is say 200 litres for example then you would need a canister that is good for around 1000lph (litres per hour) water turnover. Canister is definitely your best option. Not only because of the performance but also the amount of space you have for filter media...

I run 2 tetra ex1200's on my 5 foot tank which is 450 litres (120 gallons). Each of the filters pump 1200lph which drops to around 950lph when full of filter media. I also have an internal fluval 4 plus to give more flow... this pumps around 700lph with media. So I have a total turnover of around 2600lph on a 450 litre tank... just to give you an example.

 

[wesarl]

any reccommendation on an ehiem 2217 canister filter?

 

[Gilli]

I have a 4 ft 250L tank and have a Fluval 350 external.

 

[dbanner]

Iv not used ehiem before so i cant really comment on them... cant say iv heard bad things about them though.