filter suggestions

[eklikewhoa]

Re: filter suggestions

the wet/dry is a giant bio-filter and at the same time it aerates the water, also pushes gph!
the added canisters is for mechanical filtration along with added bio-filtration.

with a saltwater tank i would go with a sump and put algae/mangoves etc to help soak up nitrates, basically a refugium.

also with saltwater make sure the filters you buy can handle it due to the corrosion etc.

[JClarkKent2006]

Re: filter suggestions

>>also with saltwater make sure the filters you buy can handle it due to the corrosion etc.

Example?

>>the wet/dry is a giant bio-filter and at the same time it aerates the water, also pushes gph!
the added canisters is for mechanical filtration along with added bio-filtration.


So wet dry is ONLY bio filtration, it isn't mechanical at all?

Cannisters are ONLY mechanical is what your telling me? I've heard cannisters are bio, mechanical AND chemical in the case of emperor 400 ( active carbon ).


the wet dry and cannisters are IF you don't do a sump or are they even in the case of a sump, what do you do if not?

Are biowheels such as emperor 400 useless or why are they so bad and why is wet dry so good? honest questions, lol....


with your planned setup, how many fish inches per gallon do you plan to keep and how often do you plan to change 20% or whatever percent of the water how often when you have your wet dry and two cannister's going.....


What do you think a setup, 125 gallon tank, underwater filtration for the entire thing based on number of gallons, plus sponge filters based on the number of gallons, plus a top of the line eheim canister filter, plus a wet dry 400 gallon ( even though we are only using 125 gallon ).... what do you think about that setup? and add a sump in addition to all that and then what do you think? how many fish inches per gallon could you keep then, no oscars or groupers, smaller 1" & 2-3 inch fish and maybe a few angelfish females so not aggressive but everything is rather small and narrow, nothing big and wide that has alot of mass... and how often a 20% or so percent water change is necessary in that case?


If you honestly answer these questions, I'd really be appreciated, nothing sarcastic please, lol, I'm being serious so if you come back and say you'll have to change the water EVERY DAY, I'm gonna crack up laughing.... wondering if you are joking or are we talking about holy water fishes.....

[h0nkzz]

Re: filter suggestions

so is the emperor 400 THAT bad? lol, I heard it was pretty good, but that was the guy at petco...... he seemed geniune even tho I saw the same thing online at 40% of the price....
~

i would go with the aquaclear 110 rather than the emperor 400 ... i own both filter n liked the AC110 better ...

btw petsmart stores will match the petsmart online prices if you bring a printout showing the product description n price on it ... i bought my filter at 50% off the store price doing that ... but i dont know about Petco ... should check b4 u buy anything

[eklikewhoa]

Re: filter suggestions

JClarkKent2006>>also with saltwater make sure the filters you buy can handle it due to the corrosion etc.

Example?
they look through the description or research the particular filter you are looking for and you should be able to find out according to manu.

>>the wet/dry is a giant bio-filter and at the same time it aerates the water, also pushes gph!
the added canisters is for mechanical filtration along with added bio-filtration.


So wet dry is ONLY bio filtration, it isn't mechanical at all?
it is both but more efficient at bio and its main purpose, you could also put bagged chemical media in the sump/wet-dry too to have all three, research through manufactors and reviews of particular filtration units online/google will futher explain into detail

Cannisters are ONLY mechanical is what your telling me? I've heard cannisters are bio, mechanical AND chemical in the case of emperor 400 ( active carbon ).
canisters are also whatever you want them to be according to what you put in them, them emp is also whatever you put in them but on a much smaller scale compared to how much media you can put in a canister.

the wet dry and cannisters are IF you don't do a sump or are they even in the case of a sump, what do you do if not?
huh? i like having more than one filter on my tanks so that i can stagger their maintenance schedule so the bio load isnt shocked in the process and if one fails i still have the tank filtered.

Are biowheels such as emperor 400 useless or why are they so bad and why is wet dry so good? honest questions, lol....
bio capacity is much larger than the tiny pad you put in the emp. think about where bacteria can hang onto in the filters.......3" square in the emp and a handfull of media compared to gallons and gallons of bio-balls in a wet-dry with at least 2"sq. for each ball. also you can hide your heaters, protein skimmers, nitrate filters, chemical bags, spare sponges(for emergency tanks) and whatever else in the wet-dry/ sump.


with your planned setup, how many fish inches per gallon do you plan to keep and how often do you plan to change 20% or whatever percent of the water how often when you have your wet dry and two cannister's going.....
the said tank has 39 tropheus ilangi's that are 3" ea., water change on all of my tanks every sunday with 40-50% for every tank.


What do you think a setup, 125 gallon tank, underwater filtration for the entire thing based on number of gallons, plus sponge filters based on the number of gallons, plus a top of the line eheim canister filter, plus a wet dry 400 gallon ( even though we are only using 125 gallon ).... what do you think about that setup? and add a sump in addition to all that and then what do you think? how many fish inches per gallon could you keep then, no oscars or groupers, smaller 1" & 2-3 inch fish and maybe a few angelfish females so not aggressive but everything is rather small and narrow, nothing big and wide that has alot of mass... and how often a 20% or so percent water change is necessary in that case?
i would forget the sponges in the tank or what ever else you plan on putting in there, they are just ugly and take away from the tank. whatever you need to keep bio going just leave it in the sump/wet-dry. i have the 39 3" fish in my tank that poops like crazy and after a week my nitrates dont go over 10ppm. i overfilter because i have cichlids or fish that prefer the higher current. if you plan to just keep angels i would think just the wet/dry and a small canister would work.


If you honestly answer these questions, I'd really be appreciated, nothing sarcastic please, lol, I'm being serious so if you come back and say you'll have to change the water EVERY DAY, I'm gonna crack up laughing.... wondering if you are joking or are we talking about holy water fishes.....
we are talking about keeping fish happy and no one likes living in their crap so i change water every week and if it needed it i would do twice a week but through water parameter testing i am good doing it every week and could get away with bi-weekly but i prefer not to. my fish are healthier, look nicer, breed readily and just full of life.

[JClarkKent2006]

Re: filter suggestions

oh ok that was helpful thanks...
.

the said tank has 39 tropheus ilangi's that are 3" ea., water change on all of my tanks every sunday with 40-50% for every tank.


that's your reponse and I think we were talking about the 125 gallon tank correct, so 117 inches of fish for 125 gallon tank, almost 1" inch fish for one gallon, I like it.... glad to know you can get away with that many fishes and water changes every week....


QUICK question aBOUT your water changes my brother.... lol, 40-50% EVERY sunday you change? I dunno about that but if it works for you it works, you know..... so your changing 60 gallons of water EVERY week, 240 gallons of water a month, just curious how much that cost you, not on the water part, I'm sure that's something small like maybe what, $20-30 extra on your water bill, but my question is about the SALT part of that, each water change you have to add enough salt for 60 gallons that you just dumped right? or are you talking about your freshwater tank since I found out yesterday this is a mainly freshwater forum.... enough SEA salt for 240 gallons of water costs like $60-75 dollars at petco, hopefully cheaper at other places..... I've read replacing more than 25% of the water in the tank at one time is VERY dangerous to the fish and causes way unneeded stress since you are changing HALF of the fishes water content so fastly, you know?


so with your setup you got 39 3" fishes and your wet dry and canisters and etc..... you have a sump with that tank, I think it's the 125 we are talking about still...... how big is the sump? Or is the wet dry really a sump in disguse?

lol, thanks again for your continued discussion with me helping me plan my route very nicely and avoid a FEW mistakes that can be avoided.... Weekly maintience I can do that when we are talking about 1" fish per gallon, I will be very happy doing that......just curious, what level of nitrates/nitrites/nh3 does it have to get to before it is harmful to fish,  I know it's harmful at all levels and you need to keep it low, just curious what is the point that fish will start dying at..... you aim to keep it below 10 ppm... do they start dying at 11ppm or 20 ppm or 50 ppm or 100 ppm and how long after a water change would it take to get to a toxic level to start loosing one fish?

Of course this is ALL for MY informational purposes, I like to know for near certainty just so I know, you know ? lol...

[Ellen]

Re: filter suggestions

The 1" per gallon "rule" is for freshwater. ek was right in saying that saltwater fish need more room. Think about the stocking level in a pond vs the stocking level in an ocean.

Tropheus are freshwater.

I change 75-80% twice a week on my tanks. There are huge differences between changing fresh water and changing saltwater.

Ellen

(I hope this doesn't get the thread locked.... seems I get singled out with that...)

[Mzungu]

Re: filter suggestions

Ellen is right. The 1" per gallon rule is pushing it even in freshwater, depending on the actual size of the fish (a 4" fish is a lot "bigger" than 4 1" fish in terms of mass/waste/etc.). The water changes we're all talking about work for fresh water, but just keep in mind that saltwater requires MUCH more maintenance, because stability is sooo important in saltwater (as it is in fresh...but I won't get into details.  :wink: ) Like Ellen also said, I don't want this thread to get into the specifics too much, as it is a freshwater based site, but I also don't want us ignoring your questions.  :) You care enough to ask, and I believe that whether it's salt or fresh, the welfare of the fish supersedes the distinction between water types. However, in order to get a better understanding of the specifics, I think a saltwater site would be invaluable. Have you visited marshreef?

[mrairportjunke]

Re: filter suggestions

I just bought a 120 gallon tank.  is the rena xp4 enough filter for it.  i am gonna have cichlids????

[eklikewhoa]

Re: filter suggestions

I would have gone 2 xp3's for more circulation throughout the tank, is it a 6ft?

[mrairportjunke]

Re: filter suggestions

no its a 5ft.  i was tryin to keep my start cost and my up keep cost down but wanna make sure i have enough filter for the tank.  i do have a power head too that i could use.  what you think???

[mrairportjunke]

Re: filter suggestions

what if i would Y off the intake and the output to move the water around in more locations.  I could do that no problem.  Put a y in and double the intake locations and double the output locations?  would that be good or what??

[eklikewhoa]

Re: filter suggestions

Cichlids need a lot of filtration and since the xp4 is about twice the cost of a xp3 I would have gone with the two xp3's.

I personally think that only a xp4 is inadequate for that size tank, others would probably beg to differ. I would at least add another canister to that tank to get more circulation and filtration.

I have a 125g and have over 20x turnover rate in it with 39 tropheus cichlids powered by a xp3, eheim pro 2229, 300g rated wet/dry and a powerhead in the sump to circulate it.

[mrairportjunke]

Re: filter suggestions

how fast is the water moving in the tank.  isnt it too much for the fish???

[eklikewhoa]

Re: filter suggestions

It seems normal, no fish being blown around at all.

my zebra pleco tank is running around 400gph and that's a 20g but then again they like the current

[Ramius]

Re: filter suggestions

really... to the OP, dont worry too much about your filter.. if there was a "the best" filter out there, then that would be the only one you could buy because you would be wasting your time with anything else.

Dont get too caught up in the madness of having the water just perfect. Just give yourself a budget, and buy whatever filter system you can afford within that budget.

I would pick a system based off of these things.

1) How much flow does your fish need?

Some fish like a lot of current, some like none at all, with all kinds in between. The more flow the fish you want require, the higher GPH rating you will want from your filtering system.

2) Wattage, By the time you add in the cost of heaters/lights/filters and whatever else associated with tanks, your talking about a lot of hidden expenses, get some electrical information about your filters and find the most efficiant setup for your money.

3) Cost of media replacement.  (self explanatory)


Also, dont worry so much about having the best of the best of the best, when you talk like that, you sound like my brother who has OCD, he has to be re-assured with the same answer more than 20 times (he has an exact number that he HAS to hear something before he will believe it).

Look, I have a 135 gallon tank, and right now, with a whole buttload of fish in there, I am running a whisper 40 filter. I wash the media every 3 days but if you research, that filter is WAAAAAAAAAAAAY under what I "should" have in the tank.

Granted, I'm only doing it because my backup filter crapped out and luckily I believe like Ek in so far as, multiple smaller filters are better than one large one, so I'm not totally without filtration. Anyways, until I pick up another one, the water parameters are fine, the fish are fine. the water doesn't have that polished look like it used to but nothings getting sick or dying and my test results have been fine.

Bottom line is, dont sweat it too much, whatever decision you make will ultimately be a good one, and, like cars, it's just a matter of picking one you dont mind being seen with.