Filter circulation rates...

[Lukara]

Hi, I was wondering, could someone tell me the recommended number of times a filter should circulate the water in the aquarium per hour?

Thanks.

[ewok]

10x an hour is good, anything more is better, anything less could leave you wanting more. (ie: 10g would require 100gph)

i'm a big fan of over filtration, in case you haven't guessed. ;)

personally i have, 800gph on my 55g but i have had as much as 1100 or 1200 on it, i have 400 on my 29g and i have 300 on my 10g. i believe in redundancy also, so on my bigger tanks i use multiple filters and i try to stay with pretty much the same kinds in case one dies. i have used things like "whisper minis" on the 10g's before and i didn't like the effect, the water stays much cleaner now. not to mention it prolongs maintenance intervals somewhat.

with some fish this wouldn't work well, but with the fish i keep it really doesn't matter, they seem to appreciate the currents.

[NJ Devils Fan]

I like to keep it at least 8x an hour, but it's a personal preference. Many people will tell you different things, like it depends how stocked your tank is etc. but I would still keep mine around 8x or better.

[Lukara]

Wow that's a lot of circulation! :eek:

Based on what you're saying, my 189L tank would require a filter that has an out put of 1900L per hour. The top Fluval filter currently only provides 1300L per hour, this means that for my 50 gallon I would need more than the Fluval 404?

What filters are you guys using in your tanks?

[Prometheus]

Originally posted by Lukara
Wow that's a lot of circulation! :eek:

Based on what you're saying, my 189L tank would require a filter that has an out put of 1900L per hour. The top Fluval filter currently only provides 1300L per hour, this means that for my 50 gallon I would need more than the Fluval 404?

What filters are you guys using in your tanks?

Most ppl use more than one filter on tanks in excess of 40 gallons...

Normally a canister and HOB combo...

I'm using a penguin 330 on my 55g. I'm going to order another 330 this week, in lieu of a canister. Since I'm keeping a fish only tank, I like the surface agitation that HOB's can provide, plus the bio wheels are my favorite ( of course you can get bio-wheel attachments for canisters nowadays).

I just like the ease of HOB's (although canisters are pretty simple nowadays).... If my tank was any larger I would definately get a canister and a HOB rather than 2 HOB's....

[ewok]

on my 55 i use a fluval 404 and an emperor 400 = 800gph posted. i also had an aquaclear 300 on it for the last couple months that i was "culturing" for the new 10g fry tank i just set up. i also have a fairly large sponge filer in that tank..... but i don't count that. at various other times i have had a tetratech 500 or other various smaller filters running on it too, just to keep them ready for use.

my 29 and 10's pretty much all had multiple filters also, until i switched them all over to "premolded" plastic hoods. i refuse to chop extra holes in the hoods, so i just went with the largest filter i could find that came close to fitting the hole that was provided. i still had to do some trimming to get them to fit tho.

i was up to 7 tanks this spring, but i downsized to 1 in preparation for a move and then had to open up 2 more for fry.

i pretty much try to stay with the same size and type filters for redundancy. so like now, when i have empty tanks, if anything goes drastically wrong, i can just put the used media in a fresh filter with very little impact to the tank if a motor dies. also, by using things like the bio-wheels on my emperor 400s, all you have to do is swap 1 or 2 wheels onto a dry filter and you have a good part of your cycle. i tried to plan for all eventualities, so hopefully now i'm pretty much bulletproof. :)

[Lukara]

Wow, if my husband had known before we got into the fish hobby what a money pit it would be... lol

Okies, I guess I'm due for some shopping then! Thanks very much for your replies.

[NJ Devils Fan]

Ewok- the fluval 404 pumps 340gph, not 400.

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/wetpetsusa/hagfilfluv40.html

[125gJoe]

For my 125 gallon, I have two Filstar xP-3's, and one Fluval 404.

[ewok]

Originally posted by NJ Devils Fan
Ewok- the fluval 404 pumps 340gph, not 400.

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/wetpetsusa/hagfilfluv40.html

just rounding it off....... and for some reason the "404" mentally suggests 400gph. :)

none of the filters i've used seem as advertised. if you follow the tank recomendations on the box you'd always be under filtered too. you get a varience as the filter starts to plug also....

lukara, it's really not that expensive past the initial investment. if you shop around, places like www.bigalsonline.com have some excellent prices.... as far as media, i reuse mine as much as possible, so i rarely spend anything on it. not to mention i was sent extra cartridges as some sort of special when i bought them. if you pay a little more up front, it will cost you less down the road and also save you on some maintenance. i'm actually working on the same bag of filter floss that i bought last year for like $7 or something, and you can even buy that cheaper as "pillow stuffing" at a craft store. my 404's have 2 baskets of biological noodles (biomax=it came with the filters)each and 2 baskets with floss in them. which basically gives you a $0 replacement cost, or maybe a few cents if you actually replace the floss. as far as the 400's, the bio wheels should basically never need replacing, the fancy cartridges can be washed with high pressure water several times each (you don't need to worry about the carbon.). and the spare media baskets can be used for whatever, i just leave them in the filter empty actually and they still collect enuf junk to require occasional cleaning. as far as filter like the aquaclear 300's, for an extra $2 or so you can buy an extra sponge. use 2 right from the beginning and just clean them as needed, cost is just the basic $2 investment for the extra sponge. save the carbon for when you need it......

i use stress-coat for water treatment, besides the initial squirt bottle which was $10, i bought a gallon of it for $26.....

my biggest expense is food and i do some breeding and sell some fry for store credit....... it brings the costs down pretty good. :)

it doesn't have to be expensive, just the initial outlay to buy good equipment costs a few $$$.......... :)

any questions feel free to ask or pm me.

[dethjam316]

on my 50g, i run an emperor 400 and a little inside the tank 50gph duetto deal, mainly for some increased circulation and the extra sponge. on my 40g, i have an aquaclear 200 and an internal eheim aquaball 2210. i'm not sure of the gph on that puppy, but it's the third largest they offer in that line, so i'd guess around 100gph maybe. on other tanks, i'm running internal filters or sponge filters at the moment. i have no problems with these filters, and i like the idea of a variety of currents in the tank. seems almost sort of more natural i guess...ha.

but my point should be that more filtration is good, but more frequent water changes are even better, really. there is no substitute for regular water changes.

[ewok]

not to be arguementative, but i don't recall anyone suggesting more filtration as a replacement for water changes. but it will keep the tank cleaner between those water changes. by prolonging the maintenance i mean there is more surface area to trap debri, giving you more time before the filter "bypasses" and "has" to be cleaned. if you keep messy fish this can be somewhat of an issue as a "too small" filter will require constant cleaning to keep it from being bypassed.

i have tried following the manufacturers recommended sizes which basically left me with a whisper mini on a 10g. IMO this and other smaller size filters do not create enuf current to keep particles in the water column long enuf to be sucked into the filter where they can be removed easily. the end result was alot of stuff on the bottom which required fairly constant vacuuming and particulates in the water column that just weren't being sucked in.....

to each their own.......

[dethjam316]

oh i wasn't saying it because someone had suggested otherwise, simply because some people might not understand that regular water changes are necessary regardless of filtration power.

[Hans]

i have an emp 400 on my 10 gallon, ive only got an oscar in it, he loves raisen bran