Whould bigger be better?

Kabong

Kabong

AC Members
Oct 17, 2004
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When it come's to filters that is.
So im looking at a 35 gallon tank and im wondering (cause im a lazy Ba5tard)
If i hook a aquaclear 500 on to that. which can handle up to a 150 gallon tank. Ill have some hard core filtering going on and get out of cleaning my tank so often. Sounds good rite?

Has anyone tried this theory before?
 
A high turnover rate is always a good thing, most people here overfilter. I've never owned an AC before, but if i'm not mistaken you can adjust the flow rate.
The thing is you can't get out of tank maintanance though. Your tank most likely will still require weekly water changes (depending of fish load and what kind of fish you have).
 
Sorry to give you bad news, there's a flaw in the theory: no matter how powerful your filter, you're still going to have to do the same amount of maintenance - aerobic biological filtration creates nitrates as the end product and the only practical way to remove them is through water changes.
I am a big fan of over-filtering a tank, just keep in mind that some fish and plants won't appreciate the current created by a powerful filter.
 
Actually good filtration can help keep the gravel cleaner and reduce actual "cleanings" needed to some extent. However, it does nothing to help get rid of nitrAtes and other things that build up in the water that need to be diluted regularly. So water changes will still be necessary just the same.
 
Water changeing i can live with. If i can get away with less vacuming then ill be happy.
 
You don't want your current to be too strong for your fish, so keep that in mind. Once the debris gets to the bottom and settles into the gravel, the filter won't really pick it up anymore. When you do your water changes though, I'd still use a gravel cleaner and clean what you can during the changing and it will also stir things up so that your filter can grab it out of the water before it settles again. Be sure to keep your filter paddings cleaned regularly so they don't get clogged up, just swish them out in old tank water.

Another idea you might like to use in your next tank setup is an Under Gravel Jet (UGJ) system. It's rather simple and inexpensive to setup, but has to be done when the tank is still completely empty. Basically you use a power head to push water through a setup of pvc pipe that has "outlets" in various places across the bottom of the tank. This keeps the water moving at the bottom which doesn't allow anything to settle there, that way it can be picked up with the filters quicker and easier.

Here is an article on UGJ that explains it very well:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ug_jets.php
 
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