Filtering a 150-185g

StreetCypher

StreetCypher

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Apr 18, 2004
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Hi all,

I'm in the process of planning out my new tank. Its going to be between 150-185g. It will house about 10 bichirs 6-10 inches (eventually hitting 1-2feet)along with one lima shovelnose ~8 inches (eventually hitting 1.5 feet). There will be minimal sand for substrate (by minimal i mean most of the tank will be bare bottom). Floating watersprite on the surface and a couple pieces of driftwood (maybe, i don't want any tannins) and rocks.

I was lookining into a sump, wet/dry, but don't want to deal with the plumbing and all.

Another option i thought of was using a Filstar XP2, filstar XP3, AC500 for mechanical filtration. Along with a fluidized bed filter for biological filtration.
Do you guys see any cons to this setup?
 
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I have a Filtstar XP3 and 2 AC500's and a powerhead with sponge in my 150. I have a bunch of messy SA cichlids and my water parameters are pretty much perfect.
 
I hear the Aqua Clear 500s are good for big tanks.

One on each end.
 
TheAquaClear 500 is about the most powerful hang-on filter of that design out there. I would put as many along the back wall as there was room for.
 
I would put as many along the back wall as there was room for.
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Nah, its going in my bedroom. Currently i have 2 tanks in my room. When i added an AC500 the noise level increased from "almost silent" to "quiet fridge". If i had a tank full of them i wouldn't be able to sleep. :)
But, yes they are awesomely powerful filters.

I've never used a FBF before, are they noisy?
 
spartan said:
I've never used a FBF before, are they noisy?
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No, they are quiet. I actually have one here, brand new, that I got real cheap with a bunch of other stuff. But I've never used it, only had it running a short while to watch it work (which is cool). Wouldn't mind some opinions on them either as from what I have heard they take some weeks to get up to speed. Also they are said to be potentially problematic if you don't hae reliable power. In a power failure they bacteria can get starved of o2 and die, or worse the filter can go anaerobic and produce toxins. This is just some of the things I have read, so I haven't bothered with the FBF as we have unreliable power here... With the wet/dry it's easy to keep everything alive by tipping some water on the media now and then, but with the FBF it looks more difficult. So I have avoided it so far...
 
spartan said:
Does a FBF provide as much or more biofiltration than a W/D?
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Good question. Maybe someone has some good links to some figures on SSA for various media and such :) I suppose it would depend on the media in the wet/dry and various factors. The FBF I have is quite a good size and filled with a course white sandlike material, so I suppose it has a lot of surface area. It takes at least 1400litres per hour to run it. It's still limitted to the available O2 in the water though.

With the wet/dry you can have as much surface area as you like. I just wish I could find some figures on how much surface area different products are likely to have. And there are other things to look at, such as how course the matterial is and how easy to block and such. I use an open pore ceramic as a media and the tank is fine, and I lke it as it doesn't easily block, but I don't really know how much area I have or how much I really need.

You see a lot of claims - ie a similar material to what I use claims a surface area in a one inch cube to be the same as 300 bio-balls... Well, I take that with a grain of salt. I figure I have a tank that probably needs about 150-300 bio-balls, so according to their figures I need less than an inch cube of material... Hmm.

Well I used about 32 cubic inches for a start and that seemed to work on a small bioload, but it 'looked' like very little so I now run 96 cubic inches. It still works fine with a heavy bioload - but might work just as well with much much less media. I don't know - and I don't know how much bacteria I have working in the very open gravel setup I have for the local stream fish to live in... Maybe the biofilter is not big enough and I'm just lucky the open gravel structure allows enough bacteria to live there... Who knows for sure.

Sometimes you feel like you are flying blind a little :) My tanks are a continual experiment, which is risky as you have to continually watch everything to make sure the fish don't suffer because of it.

tim
 
Thanks for the info Tim,

I haven't really heard of people using a combo of FBF (from what i know are huge for biofiltration), cannister and HOB before.
Maybe i'll give it a try. I was doing research about W/D a while ago. I seems that when people think of a large tank they automatically think of a W/D as filtration (i admit to suggesting W/D for people with large tanks). But, is it really necessary? or is it routine that large tanks always have W/D. I know that the increased water volume is a good thing and you can store heaters in the sump.

A FBF, cannister and HOB may require a little more maintenance, but i can deal with that. Anyways, i still have a lot of reading to do about W/Ds.
 
You can also go for the more simple idea of having the wet/dry filter above the tank which makes the plumbing much more simple. Even under the tank setups aren't too difficult with a syphon overflow, etc...

With the FBF I imagine you would want a prefilter of some sort, but otherwise they are maintainence free - only really a problem if the power goes out I guess...

I don't think you 'need' a wet/dry, but for me it's the cheapest and easiest way to go. In my part of the world they charge up to $200 at the lfs for an AC500 :) And canisters are $200-$300... So a homemade wet/dry looked really good :)
 
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