Filter

[Carkadie]

What filters would you guys recommend for a 240gal non drilled freshwater tank with sand substrate???

[barrettsline]

Filter

1 wetdry and 2 - Eheim 2260/2262

[Carkadie]

Iv never delt with a wet dry filter before......whats the benefits?

[KhmerStyle]

Best bio filter and benifits of adding heaters, uv, ect. Also more water volume

[troy tucker]

Wet/dry will airate the water better. It has more surface for Bio. With more water polish area. Also you can put the heater and devices in the Sump to keep them from being seen. The over flow will remove the buildup of oils off the top of the water. If the overflow and return pump are big einough you don't need any other filter. But you can use a Ehiem for Chem filteration.
All in all wet/dry is the way to go...

[Carkadie]

Ok thanks!!!!

[johnnymisty]

1 wetdry and 2 - Eheim 2260/2262

+1 best way to go

[supadave]

You do not have to have a wet dry filter . There are plenty of people who have tanks that size who do not use wet dry filters . As for as oxygenating the water , this can also be achieved by properly placed power-heads . As for more bio media in the wet dry......sure it will hold a lot of media . The amount of bio media needed will depend on the amount of the bio load . For instance , you can have 10...20..30 liters of biomedia in a wet dry but....if your fish bio load only supports 2-3 liters then.....all the rest is pretty much useless overkill . So in short , no matter how much bio media you put in a filter.....you still won't have anymore bio filtration than what the fish load can support . Please don't get me wrong....wet drys are good filter....they're just not great in all areas . Personally , I would use the combination of a Eheim 2260/62 and an FX5 . I have been using this combo and it is awesome . Both of these canisters are great but in different areas . he Eheim 2260/62 is awesome at biological filtration and good a mechanical....while the FX5 is great at mechanical filtration and good at biological . Paired together and I would put this combo against any wet dry . JMO

Also , I noticed that no one mentioned the down side to wet dry that might influence your decision . Wet- Drys are typically noisier than canisters . There's ways to minimize the noise....but canisters are almost dead silent . Also , wet-dry filter are not that good at mechanical filtration . Every stand alone wet-dry system that I have seen....the water was never quite as clear as a stand-alone canister filter . My advice would be to figure out which mode of filtration is most important to you .....add in whether a little noise will be a issue.....then choose what will work best for YOU. JMO

[Carkadie]

Ok thanks......i was thinking 2 eheim 2262,s......

[supadave]

Ok thanks......i was thinking 2 eheim 2262,s......

Cool !!! Will work fine on that tank .

[Andrew_B]

I thought one of the big parts of a wet/dry was the introduction of Aerobic bacteria into the tank. Like you said with bacteria, its only going to colonize as much that is needed. With canisters, they're jam packed with the anaerobic bacteria and aerobic colonize on the unsubmerged bioballs. They both colonize as much as the bioload requires individually, but combined they equal hypothetically double what the tank requires which would handle spikes better. Now, if built a certain way.. a wet/dry can have both aeroib and anaerobic bacteria in it if you submerge some of the bioballs. I don't use wet/drys myself but I thought there was more to them than just oxygenating the water. I find it hard to believe that a 5g bucket of bioballs has more surface area than a 5g bucket of eheim media so I don't buy that as an "advantage" over canisters. My .02 regarding wetdrys, all personal preference

[crazy42bmx]

Also gotta factor in that a box alone just for the wet dry is steep on price. And thats the box alone, also need pumps and over flows and media. Your canisters come rtg right from the box !

[SunnyHouTX]

Re: Filter

I thought one of the big parts of a wet/dry was the introduction of Aerobic bacteria into the tank. Like you said with bacteria, its only going to colonize as much that is needed. With canisters, they're jam packed with the anaerobic bacteria and aerobic colonize on the unsubmerged bioballs. They both colonize as much as the bioload requires individually, but combined they equal hypothetically double what the tank requires which would handle spikes better. Now, if built a certain way.. a wet/dry can have both aeroib and anaerobic bacteria in it if you submerge some of the bioballs. I don't use wet/drys myself but I thought there was more to them than just oxygenating the water. I find it hard to believe that a 5g bucket of bioballs has more surface area than a 5g bucket of eheim media so I don't buy that as an "advantage" over canisters. My .02 regarding wetdrys, all personal preference

In my opinion, wet/dry filters host very little, if not none, anaerobic bacteria due to the high dissolved oxygen content of the water going through the bio balls.

Anaerobic bacteria is more easily hosted in a canister with a very slow flow rate where dissolved oxygen gets depleted by aerobic bacteria before water reaches the last layers of bio media where anaerobic bacteria can colonize.

[SunnyHouTX]

Re: Filter

Also gotta factor in that a box alone just for the wet dry is steep on price. And thats the box alone, also need pumps and over flows and media. Your canisters come rtg right from the box !

Not entirely true. You can buy a complete wet/dry with pump if you can wait for the right deals to come through. Still, it's probably gonna cost $250 - $300 for a complete wet/dry, about the cost a canister before adding media.

[nightster]

Re: Filter

This is just my opinion, if it were my 240g. I'd have a monster wet/dry, 2 2262s, and a wicked water polisher (2250, upgraded pump jam packed with floss pad would work nicely). Again this is just my opinion, and I like over kill...