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Large Tank Filtration

hedylogus

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5 Year Member
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48
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PGH, PA
so my fishroom is comprised mostly of the 20 gal variety (give or take 10 gallons). as luck would have it though, i recently acquired a much larger tank (4' x 2' x 2'). while i'm pretty excited about the possibilities, i'm undecided about the filtration. my gut says stick with sponges, but i'm curious what other large tank owners are using (and why). pros/cons/etc.

(i'll probably stock with apistos of some sort, but i also have some S. casuarius that would likely enjoy more room......still undecided.)
 

Mike Wise

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Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
It really depends on what you want it for and the species you plan to keep in it. If it is a community tank, then sponge filters will not make it look 'pretty'. If for breeding, then sponge filters are fine for apistos and other species from still or slowly flowing waters. For S. casuarius, I'd suggest something with a stronger, directional flow; some sort of canister/power box filter.
 

dw1305

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Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
For a canister filter I would buy the biggest 2nd hand Eheim I could afford, and use it with a sponge pre-filter.
If you really want to maintain high quality water, a "wet and dry" trickle filter is the gold standard, and a planted wet and dry trickle filter even better than that. Because you have a lot of height, you could have emersed/ and or emergents in the tank, and an over-tank trickle filter is a lot easier to manage than a sump.

Have a look a these tanks: <http://www.ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=16361&p=202760>
082.jpg


cheers Darrel
 

hedylogus

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5 Year Member
Messages
48
Location
PGH, PA
For S. casuarius, I'd suggest something with a stronger, directional flow; some sort of canister/power box filter.

funny, i was thinking/wondering the same thing. i assume you have kept casuarius........i'm aware of their natural habitat, but i'm curious if you noticed any detrimental effect on their behavior/health/reproduction due to low flow environments.

For a canister filter I would buy the biggest 2nd hand Eheim I could afford, and use it with a sponge pre-filter.

i've always had a soft spot for canister filters (although i've never owned one)......multi-stage, varying filtration types always seemed to make sense to me. unfortunately, as much as i hate making decisions based on money, it's hard to ignore the price difference between a eheim 2078 and a hydro sponge pro 5.....although a 2nd hand model should be much cheaper


very nice......especially the java fern on ensuing pages (quite the opposite of mine!) i wonder if he was spiking with co2
 

Mike Wise

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5 Year Member
Messages
11,202
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
I've reproduced S. casuarius on several occasions. I used a sponge filter + a small HOB power box filter for extra water flow on a 20L. They seemed to like the flow. Just make sure you have lots of large rocks so they can get out of high flow areas.
 

Apistomaster

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
703
Location
Clarkston, WA
I use an Ehiem Classic 2217 and a DIY wet/dry filter driven by a MagDrive 9.5(950 gph) on my 75 gal and 125 gal tanks. Each tank has at least 1000+ gph flow through rates.
One of the pros going for wet/dry filters is they are resilient to power outages. They retain a high enough humidity to not be set back by power outages lasting a day. Canister filter go anaerobic within an hour or two.
The combination of the two ensures that there is a good flow through the tanks.
My 125 gal is a very heavily planted South American tank stocked with mostly Tetras, some of my small fancy plecos and about 10 Dicrossus filamentosus. I have 6 wild Nhamunda Blue Discus and 8 Hypancistrus contradens plecos in my 75 gal. There are two breeding pairs of the Blue Discus in it.
Over the years I have often kept Apistogramma spp in the Discus tank.
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
One of the pros going for wet/dry filters is they are resilient to power outages. They retain a high enough humidity to not be set back by power outages lasting a day.
Larry has made a really good point, that is one of the great advantages of wet/dry trickle filters, and for me is a big bonus over canister filters or "fluidised bed filters".

I often have this filtration argument on other forums, where people spend huge amounts of money on mechanical and chemical filtration, but don't factor in stability and resilience when things go wrong.

cheers Darrel
 

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