Is a Bio-Wheel Marineland 150 too much for my 20 gal?

[wood]

I recently picked up a Marineland 150 from Petsmart for my 20 gal tank.
When deciding between the 100 and 150 series, I took special note of the "up to 30 gal" phrase which was used for the 150.
This gave me the impression that I could use this on my 20 gal tank without any issues. (My bottom feeders dont seem to be giving it their all anymore, and I've noticed more dirt lately...which led me to think I could put the extra power to use)

Now that I have it hooked up to my tank and running, I am starting to think it might be too much. It's at least 5x more powerful than the pair of topfins I had on it, and creates a much larger current (and more noise) than before.

I know that overfiltration can be a serious problem, but is it going to happen with my current set up?

 

[xauz]

I have a 20 gallon tank and have a penguin 200 in there and have no problems

 

[Mocular]

you will be fine running that much. it really isnt that much over filtration i run a penguin 350 rated for a 70 gallon in a 29 gal and ive never had a problem. im wondering though if you see a dirt build up if your not doing enough tank cleanings. you may want to step it up a notch but your extra filtration is fine.

 

[rrkss]

I ran a penguin 200 on my 10 gallon tank. The water was very clear but the fish had some current to deal with.

 

[Roan Art]

Too much current depends on the fish you have in there. The 150 should be fine, however, as someone already pointed out, it sounds like you need to do more cleaning and water changes instead of upping the filteration.

Roan

 

[jason2894]

when chosing a filter or filters for my tanks i try to have enough filtration to cycle the total gallons of water atleast 8 times per hour. for example i have 2 aqua clear 110's filtering my 56 gallon tank and each of the filters cycles about 500 gallons per hour. and yes u may wanna step up ur gravel vacuuming schedule. i vac my gravel once a week i do 1/ of each tank weekly.

 

[rrkss]

My 10 gallon had river fish so they loved the current. My barb tank is high current to simulate the river environment and the barbs love it.

 

[Walker Anderson]

I have a 150 on a 30 gal. and am looking into getting another fillter because it doesnt seem to cut it. If the noise you are talking about is the water shooting off the bio wheel down the little slide thing in front of it, fill the tank to the lip of the outlet, then it will be silent.

 

[wood]

My 10 gallon had river fish so they loved the current. My barb tank is high current to simulate the river environment and the barbs love it.

funny you say that because the only inhabitants of my tank that seem to love the new 150 filter are my rosey barbs.
the rest of the fish (mostly an assortment of tetras) have not begun to adjust to the whirlpool just inches above them :duh:

 

[Rebgen]

I have been using a Penguin 150B on my 20 gal. long tank for close to a year now and it's been silent. I do make sure I fill the tank comletely up to the brim and the flow from the bio-wheel comes out right at the water level with no splashing....just a few gentle ripples is all. The current has been just fine for the new born fry that are usually in the tank.

I agree with the previous posts regarding more gravel cleaning and water changes. I've always had good reults with 20-30% PWC with gravel vac once a week on all my tanks....two are planted and one is a fry tank.

Good luck.