How much filtering for invert tank?

I have a 5 gallon invert only tank (FINALLY got the guppies out!) with about 20 RCS and a whole pile of ramshorns and pond snails. It'll be my home for baby bridgsii's if my three purples get busy! Half my RCS are berried right now, so I'm expecting a population explosion now that the guppies aren't around.

It's planted, with one big anubia and a bunch of piles of java moss floating randomly around, unanchored. There's probably a dozen stems of anacharis and some floating hornwort, so really it's pretty heavily planted for a 5 gallon.

How much filtering do I need? I previously kept guppy fry in it, so I had a sponge filter and a small corner filter. However, I'm short on air output right now, and I'd really like to recover that corner filter for an overcrowded guppy grow-out tank. Is one medium sponge filter enough for an invert tank like this?

Lupin said:

Yes, Jeff, but once she has the brigs, her 5g will be handling more bioload than before. Brigs can excrete more wastes than you can imagine hence as Rachel once told me, they're the plecos in the invert world.

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Well, that's good to know. I've noticed those briggs are poop machines! Since I only have RCS and itty bitty snails in there now, I think I'll pull the corner filter, and then suck it up and order another double output air pump. I've found that if I split each output they're great pressure for two or even three filters apiece. I can plan ahead and set that up when it's time, and it'll let me double up filters in a few guppy fry tanks that I want to be extra careful with.

Since more than half my tanks are guppy fry or pregnant female guppies, I do at least twice weekly water changes. Sometimes I do every other day, since feeding fry is such a messy business. However, I believe in extra filtering if possible, because then I CAN slack on water changes occasionally without laying awake at night feeling guilty.

I'll do some test on the 5 gallon with just a sponge over the next couple weeks, and if I get any spikes, I'll just reprioritize that extra air pump. I'm so tempted to put another sponge in there, just 'cause they like to eat off of it.