Questions about filtration

[Rich]

I am just getting back into fishkeeping after a 30 year break. I have always been interested in SA dwarf cichlids and plan to start with a 29 gallon planted tank with a single pair of blue rams and some dithers. I have been reading everything I can find regarding dwarfs in general and rams in particular but still have some questions.

Regarding filtration, I was thinking of using a canister such as the Marineland C220 for my 29 gallon tank. I have been reading on this forum however that a lot of you just use sponge filters. I see the advantages of sponge filters but wonder if they can keep the water "crystal clear". What do you use to drive your sponge filters, just an airstone or a powerhead of some kind?

Can you put a sponge filter on the end of the intake tube for a canister filter? Would that accomplish anything?

I had also thought about using both a canister and a biowheel on the same tank, alternating the cleaning to insure that the bacterial cycle is not interrupted. Would that be overkill? Can you have too much filtration?

Thanks!

 

[RAF]

Well... I use sponge air driven filters in all my breeding tanks. But I use canisters when the tank is a bit more crowded. Sponge filters are very easy to mantain, a good source of infusoria, and eliminate the risk of fry suckyn by an external filter.

Of course, If you put a sponge filter on the intake of a cannister it will serve as a pre-filter, keeping you canister cleaner and supllying your fry with infusoria.

 

[Rich]

Thanks Ricardo. With rams do I need to keep the water movement fairly low? In other words, in a 29/30 gallon tank should I use a C-160 or a C-220 size canister filter?

 

[Zack Wilson]

Personally, I use sponge filters driven by an air in most of my tanks. I do have a few with powerfilters, but I prefer not to use these when breeding fish. The exception here would be with my D. maculatus that are in a 40 long. Canisters to have the advantage of being generally less intrusive in an aquascape. I use a Rena XP3 in there, but I do cut the flow down when the fry are free-swimming.

My tanks with sponges are very clear and I find they do an excellent job for particular removal. Once the sponges are a bit "aged", they will start to trap smaller particles and will keep things looking surprisingly good.

For the rams and in that sized tank, you could go with the 220, but a sponge pre-filter would be very advisable. Ram fry are among the dimmest and loosest schoolers I've seen and would probably head straight for the filter intake. Another factor I've found in rearing ram fry is that they seem to do better with moderate water flow, rather than high. Ram fry start out smaller and tend to be very active in the water column. If they can expend less energy swimming against current, that's more energy they can put into growing. As an FYI, I generally don't keep my rams as warm as many (mine are at about 78F), and this also seems to help improve the size of the free-swimmers so that many times they can take bbs from the start. They may not grow as fast, but they'll live longer too.