Filter/Tank Size

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rockman20

Registered Member
Feb 23, 2005
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Hello everyone. I can't say that I am really a newbie since I have had a 55 gallon freshwater tank for about 7 years now with a variety of fish. I have bala sharks, angel fish, tiger barbs, silver dollars, and some other smaller fish, a chinese algae sucker, and another sucker I haven't seen since I put him in there. He likes to hide under the rocks.

Anyhoot, my girlfriend wants to get a 10 gallon tank for her son. She has a filter and heater that were designed for a 30 gallon tank. Would this be okay to use in a 10 gallon setup? The only thing I guess I am concerned about is that it may filter too much and not allow enough of the natural impurities stay in the tank. Just curious if anyone has experience on this.

Thanks!
 
I think you would be fine. I had a penguin 170 on a ten gallon for a while, without any problems. The only thing to worry about would be too much current.
 
rockman20 said:
...not allow enough of the natural impurities stay in the tank...QUOTE]

Just a quick question--what 'natural impurities' are you concerned about the filter removing? Biological filtration removes nitrogen wastes (ammonia and nitrites), water changes or plants will remove nitrates. Mechanical filtration traps solid wastes to allow them to be manually removed. Chemical filtration can remove a variety of wastes and 'impurities'. None of these are inherent to any specific size of filter, but rather to the type of filtration media used in a filter. Chemical filtration is the only one that will alter water chemistry, and very few remove natural components of the water that would be desirable in a setup. I'm not sure what 'natural impurities' you have that you're concerned about being removed.
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Just worried about the wanted bacteria not being able to establish itself in the tank.

I have an Emporer filter at my parent's house (I don't recall the model, but it is the large, dual filter with the pre-assembled filter media, the filter media that you can add your carbon to, and the dual bio-wheels) in my 55 gallon and the amount of water that thing moves is pretty amazing. But I often times wonder, is it possible to actually have too much filtration in a tank?
 
The bacteria will establish in just about any media that is not specifically hostile (ie, no anti-bacterial properties). I know people who have used plastic GI Joe men in wet dry setups with great success.

Overfiltration: no, if by filtration you mean removal of wastes. You can not have water that is 'too clean'. You can have water that is too pure, but since filters don't impact the purity (ie, don't remove dissolved minerals and trace elements), this isn't a concern.
 
Well from what I heard at my lfs, you want a filter that turns over all your water in the tank 3-5 times per hour so I would take 5 and multiply it by number of gallons and that will give you the gph for what a filter can filter(gallons per hour) but a filter that size should be fine as long as it does not generate too much current.
 
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