Filtration... Is there such a thing as TOO much?

red_wall

red_wall

Whoosh! feel the onomatopoeia
Jun 15, 2008
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I always thought that you should only have a few gallon rated above your actual tank gallons. I have a 46 gallon with a 70 rated filter. I thought that this was adequate.

But I went to yahoo answers, helping people out in the fish section (: ]) and someone said that for a 40 gallon with 2 angels in it, youd need almost 6x filtration levels, 240 gph! I thought that was just plain wrong. I know it varies from fish to fish, but...

What is the real (average)levels of filtration needed
 
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There is no definite answwer, it all depends on many things: How many plants in the tank, tank stock, water change schedule, type of fish, and type of filter. (Canister, HOB, Sump, etc.)
 
75 rated probably refers to rated for a 75 gallon tank, not for the gph. I have a filter rated at 350gph on my 40 gallon tank. What brand filter do you have?
 
Oh wow... I never really thought of it like that :/ I never payed attention to the details of the filter, but it says 40-70 gallon RATING. Hmm. Whoops. I guess my filter might just be a bit higher than what I thought it was.

But I have an Aqua Clear 40-70 gallon.

Geez... I feel like a dumbo.
 
There is no set average. If you look at the flow rate of different manufacturers, flowrates can vary from 4X and hour to 6X. My personal level is 6X an hour minimum for a power filter, 4X for a canister, 3X for a wet/dry.

I buy power filters based on advertised flow rate . Advertised flow is greater than actual. I buy filters to give me 6X an hour based on tank size for minimum acceptable rate. For messy, sensitive fish I go with 8-10X an hour. This is what I have set for myself as a guide and nowhere is it written in stone. Being the standard I have set that I look for, I often buy filters that are for a larger tank according to a manufacturer

I have healthy tanks and fish and rarely have any water related problems.


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In theory there no such thing as too much filtration. The only issues you may potentially have to deal with are the filter output generating too much water movement for certain fish or that blue-green algae outbreaks can reportedly be triggered by nitrates being too low (don't know what the scientific literature says on this one, but my only BGA outbreak happened after the nitrate levels dropped below 5 ppm).
 
The flow was the main thing that I was thinking about. I thought my 70 gallon rated filter(300gph, I now now) was only 70gph. So I was thinking that this guy was saying to times the flow of my output by 3 and almost a half. I was imagining a waterfall coming out of the filter. But now I know, and feel dumb hah. Sorry for the lame question guys.
 
H3D said:
That statement is just one more stupid thing that people say and others keep repeating.

Of course there is such a thing as too much filtration. Don't believe me? Hook up a Hagen Fluval FX 5 to a 10 gallon tank and tell me how it works out.
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That's not over filtration, that's too much flow. Most cases you want to over filter in the sense that go with more than what the filter is rated for, as those aren't very good guidelines. Mainly depends on stocking.
 
i always "overfilter" my tanks. i also like to "overstock" so it works out well.
as far as literally OVER filtering water i dont think there is such a thing. If you want to go hook up a sump Wet/dry on a 10g be my guest. Ive got an Emperor 280 on a 20g tank (suggested for 50g) and its worked great. so thats 14x cycle per hour haha
 
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