Water movement

[ianjoe]

Hi all, and with my first offical post....

Well actually I have two questions.

1. Is there any standard or ideal condition for water movement in a planted aquarium?

2. The reason I ask is I am torn between 2 canister filters. They're around the same cost. But one moves 250 GPH and the other moves 127 GPH. (i left out brand names to protect the question at hand.....water movment).

I should also mention that upon getting a new filter ill be going with a DIY inline Co2 diffuser.

29g tank ( up for 1 month )
55w pc light (currently)
whiper 30 hob filter (currently)
DIY Co2

 

[125gJoe]

Originally posted by ianjoe
.....1. Is there any standard or ideal condition for water movement in a planted aquarium?

......2. The reason I ask is I am torn between 2 canister filters. They're around the same cost. But one moves 250 GPH and the other moves 127 GPH.......

First -- Welcome to Aquaria Central!

1. There's no 'standard' for water movement. There should be some flow throughout the tank so there are no 'dead spots'. Circulation is good, but not too much. Someone here should mention the 'gallons per hour' filtration you need, and/or water turnover per day -- I forgot at the moment..

2. I'm betting the lower GPH filter name starts with an "E"...

 

[nvision]

stuff i read usually suggests 3-5 times the volume of tank's water per hour. if your tank is long, an extra powerhead would be useful to support auxiliary water movement. hth.

 

[NJ Devils Fan]

I would aim for a turnover rate of about 8x-12x. Go with the bigger one. More filtration which is better if you are going to be moderately-heavely planting.