View Full Version : Enough Filtration?
WaywardSon
10-12-2009, 12:31 AM
I have a 150 that is heavily planted and pretty heavily stocked (2 - 3 dozen each cardinals, rummies, and blood fins; 10 small redline torpedo barbs; 10 full grown split tail rasboras - 5" to 6" each; and a clean up crew of SAE's and otos).
I run 3 x 2217's and a small eheim powerhead.
After recently adding the rasboras, there is quite a bit of crap floating around in the tank. Although it can't really be seen from 4 or 5 feet away, if you get up on the tank it is very visible. I also have a bunch of crap on the anubias leaves, etc. Any suggestions on cleaning up these floating particles and better filtering the tank? Thanks!
Eheims in general have pretty wimpy flow. You could replace them all with something like an FX5 or put some finer media in them.
fishorama
10-12-2009, 10:42 AM
Try some floss or micron filter pads in the filters to get the fine particles. They'll clog faster though.
WaywardSon
10-14-2009, 8:23 PM
Thank you for the input ...
dundadundun
10-14-2009, 9:14 PM
Try some floss or micron filter pads in the filters to get the fine particles. They'll clog faster though.
:woot: yep... i'm all for custom filter blocks, pads and such. it is my belief that the more layers from coarse to fine make for a cleaner, better filtering, less clogged system. meaning if you were to go straight from a coarse pad to micron the micron would clog faster yet to not have the micron leaves things where they are.
Eheims in general have pretty wimpy flow. You could replace them all with something like an FX5 or put some finer media in them.
Wow, which Eheims are you referring to? the classic series certainly do not have whimpy flow, the smaller filters sure don't have a lot of punch but my my proII and classics have terrific flow..
We all know all filter company's over rate their filters for said gallons they can handle.
I have a 150 that is heavily planted and pretty heavily stocked (2 - 3 dozen each cardinals, rummies, and blood fins; 10 small redline torpedo barbs; 10 full grown split tail rasboras - 5" to 6" each; and a clean up crew of SAE's and otos).
I run 3 x 2217's and a small eheim powerhead.
After recently adding the rasboras, there is quite a bit of crap floating around in the tank. Although it can't really be seen from 4 or 5 feet away, if you get up on the tank it is very visible. I also have a bunch of crap on the anubias leaves, etc. Any suggestions on cleaning up these floating particles and better filtering the tank? Thanks!
How often do you do water changes? do you use a gravel vac?
Aphotic Phoenix
10-15-2009, 12:06 AM
The 2217 Eheims are only rated at 264 GPH, which means even if you were running all 3 of them empty you'd only have about 5x turnover per hour. Maybe throw a few more powerheads in there, and consider throwing prefilter a prefilter on one or two of the Eheim intakes? It's easier to pull a sponge off an intake to give it a quick squeeze & rinse than to open up the filters.