Which Filter To Buy For 70 Gallon Tank?

[Chewey]

Hi Guys, i'm a newbie on here and a newbie to larger tanks. Just bought a 70 gallon tank for my new house which i'm setting up as freshwater tropical with a bit of basic planting nothing too OTT. I've been looking and looking for hours on what filter to buy for the new setup. Money is not on my side however I believe my budget to be about £150 for filtration and heating. I did notice someone had a Eheim Pro 3 Thermo 2180 for sale for £170, however lives far too far away I think. Would something like this be suitable or overkill and would I not be better off with buying something like a new 2075/2076 for the same money. Never had an external filter and always run my fluval 3 very happily however I've not heard good things about their external filters so am tilting towards Eheim.

If a few people could point me in the right direction, I'd be very grateful and the cheaper and more practical the better ;-)

Many thanks,

Chu

 

[reeeedfish]

Where are you located? I don't know if they sell Emporer 400s. It is a power filter that hangs over the side, you know. They filter 80 gallons and in the US hey are olny 50$, or 30 pounds.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Chewey.
I don't think you will find a Marineland in the UK Reeedfish. I would suggest that the Rena XP3 or the large Tetra-tech (1100 I think) are probably your best bet in the UK. The Tetra-tech looks like the same thing as the Marineland C series filters and I have plenty of good experiences with the Rena XP series of externals. Both will be much less dear than a comparable sized Eheim and will help you stay closer to your budget.

 

[Chewey]

Hi Guys, I'm located in Hampshire, England. I'll have a little look at your brand suggestions. Thanks you for your input. What are the downfalls about shying away from Eheim. I'd rather save and do it properly rather than save a few quid and have a long-term expense. I've found a site that seems to do good deals on Eheim filters and general fish stuff. What do people think of these guys, anyone got any good/bad experiences?

Global Aquatics

Many thanks,

Chu

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with OM47's advice re the Renas and Tetratecs. You wouldn't have wanted the "Thermo" version of an Eheim anyway as they have problems with their sensor if some salt gets in the water. Better to just go with a Hydor Inline heater if you want to get the heater out of the visible aquascape.

If you -do- end up finding some used Eheims, a couple of Pro II series would do a 70G nicely I'd think. But of course that would be a long-shot find and its much more likely you may be able to satisfy things within budget with the TT or Rena.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Liam50]

i would go for a classic. 2217.

 

[Chewey]

Ok, throwing Eheim back into the equation, these are the filters that seem to do the job on paper but which one do I buy?

1)Eheim Classic 2217
2)Rena XP3
3)Tetratec EX1200

Would just having one chamber be enough for the filtration of the tank if I went for the 2217 as there must be a reason why the majority of the filters on the market for tanks of that size offer multi filtration?

Or am I thinking far too deeply on this one lol

 

[OldMan47]

I don't think you are thinking too far about it at all. A multiple chamber or basket design lets you load each one separately and then when it is time to clean it you can remove each basket for cleaning. If you do a build using the classic Eheim approach, you fill the filter from the bottom up as if it was one large container, it really is just that. When it is time to clean the filter, you remove all of the media and clean it, then you need to again build the filter contents from the bottom up. It works well as a filter but in my opinion would be a PITA to clean. The individual baskets for media means that you can just fill each one with an appropriate media and then set it into the filter housing. Next you deal with the next basket, and so on until you are done. This makes more sense to me as a convenient filter to clean. I am concerned that a hard to clean filter will often not get the attention that it should receive.

 

[Duck1976]

Get the biggest filter you can afford - instead of the Eheim thermo, what about the 2080? or the Fluval Fx5?