Is it possible to over filter a tank?

[tdawgbass]

Hey all I am new here and thought it would be time to post. I had freshwater fish when I was a kid and thought I would like to get back into it.

I would like to get a 72 gallon bow front tank and set it up as a freshwater community tank. I am not sure what species of fish I will be keeping, but I was thinking about possibly angels or discus or possibly larger cichlids.

My question to everyone is this...

Is it possible to have too big of a filter in a tank? For my filter I am considering going with either a fluval FX5 or a Eheim 2080. The reason for my filter choice is that I like the idea of haing lots of options when it comes to media choices.

Do you think that these filters are too big for my tank? Will either one cause too much water movement?

Please let me know,

Thanks,

TDawgbass

 

[Mgamer20o0]

no i dont think there is something called to much filtration. there are many ways to lower water movement. there are many people here that have 10x turn over rate a hour.

 

[jedoubblese]

yeah the only prob that you would encounter is too much water movement for small fish but i "over"filter all my tanks and it makes things so much easier!

 

[splatt3]

overfilter a tank? there is no such thing. naaah, no way... hehe. i have a goldfish tank and i overfilter the canister filter for that tank like 10x its suppose to be at. goldfishes are messy eaters that's why i overdid the filter for them, it only takes about 5-10 mins for the water to clear up after i cloud the tank up everytime i clean the gravel (that is IF i clean the gravel- i rarely do and my goldies are doing fine). my 10g cherries/crystal red shrimp tank has a xp3 canister. put it this way, it would be much better for you to overfilter a tank rather than under cuz that way you're not going to lose your investment (fish, shrimp, plants, etc.). there are always other ways to lower the water current like the rena, the output for it has a butterfly nozzle you can adjust for your outflow. i don't know about fluval or eheim but i'm pretty sure you can overstock the media baskets for them so you can lower the water output.

 

[Atomix-MFK]

Those are both awesome filters. I prefer eheim, but the FX5 is VERY well reviewed.


The thing about cannisters is... they don't have very high GPH ratings compared to their HOB counterparts. Which in your case is a good thing. And if you find that you have more current in the tank than you like, you can experiment with splitting your plumbing up and running two opposing spraybars or a spraybar and a nozzle.

 

[tdawgbass]

Awesome... Thank you very much for the information! :thm:

Now I just have to decide if I want to pony up the $400 bucks!!! :thud:

TDawgbass

 

[legendaryfrog]

no i dont think there is something called to much filtration. there are many ways to lower water movement. there are many people here that have 10x turn over rate a hour.

10x an hour is just crazy. my 720g tank is turned over once an hour. This works because the wet/dry filter i made is a lot more efficient than a HOB or Canister. Using more bio-media makes a filter more efficient.

 

[garbon2535]

I would go with the Eheim. You will not be overfiltered. I have (2) Eheim 2026 filters on a 55 gallon. I also have (2) Eheim 2028 filters on a 150 gallon. Eheim canister's are great.

 

[garbon2535]

Oh, one other thing... I have an AC110 on my 10 gallon reef tank. It's rated for 100 gallons but many reefers use them on 10 gallon tanks. There is no such thing as "overfiltration".

 

[Marinemom]

No such thing as over filtering a tank unless the water is so turbulent it risks coming out of the tank. Both of the filters that you are considering are excellent filters but I stil perfer the eheims as far as the canisters are concerned.

Marinemom