Sonic'

Looking at changing my filter setup in my aquarium, for something better, and also to help try and keep the nitrate levels down, without having to change the water once a week

the tank is 30"(w) x12"(d) x15"(h)

I currently have an undergravel filter, and a Fluval 2 Internal Filter (old style non carbon one)

The tank is relatively well stocked, so Im looking to better the filtration

I have another tank a Juwel Rekord 60 (with built in biological filtration system, but no fish in as of yet) this tank is a 24" x 12" x 12"

Ive only got one fish to go in that tank, as he is a little on the large side (or rather will be when mature)

Ive read that Undergravel arent really that good, internal are ok but they mainly move the water about as opposed to good filtration, (certainly in the fluval case, as it only has one sponge)

External Filtration may be OTT, but ive been looking at the Biological ones, as in the Rekord 60 Tank, but that is currently unproven, as its only been running a week with no fish, so all levels are great

my Pond outside is all biological filtration and ive never had any problems with it

But ive also never had any problems with the 1st tank above, and kept a Blue Channel (13") catfish in there for about 13 years quite happily with no water changes !!

the fish in the tank now are Tropical, but im thinking of maybe getting a Marine Tank setup too at some point for a couple of Clown Fish so any recommendations on tank size (smallest I could get away with etc)


Any help would be appreciated

Steve

OllyK

What are you keeping - cold water, fresh tropicals, marine tropicals? Each seem to have their favourite methods. Marine tends to involve using a sump and big water flow combined with live rock. I'm pondering on a similar approach when I get round to re-setting my tank back up (if I don't go marine anyway).

Cold and fresh trops tend to employ similar methods. In general I'd keep the sand / gravel bed to a minimum so you can easily clean up the detritus (although some may advocate deep sand beds). I then use a combination filter that uses physical filtration to remove the larger particles (usually a fleece layer) followed by an active carbon, then a nitrate sponge then followed by coarse and fine sponges to encourage bacterial growth. This can be internal, Juwel for example, or external. External tend to be a little noiser due to the water running up and down pipes and a pump in the room rather than deadened in water.

I ran a Juwel set up with an uprated pump with the above filter set up with a heavily stocked tank of Chichlids which are messy eaters to say the least. Water changes were needed fortnightly to avoid clouding, but nitrate / nitrite levels were never an issue.

Sonic'

Cheers Olly

In one tank I have several Tropical Freshwater (Guppies, Plec, Clown loach, Silver Shark, and Angel Fish)

My other tank has a Paroon Shark in it (yes I know, the guy in the shop said they grow about 15 inches, but ive seen em up to 12 effin feet !!!!)

Im considering getting a marine setup, but firstly I want to increase or change the filtration in my main tank (with fish mentioned above)

I quite like the Juwel one as its all in one place compact and easy to get to, to change the filter media

Its just that Ive never used them before

Steve

ajm

For a tropical tank about that size I'd use an external canister filter. There are loads on the market, they are easy to maintain and you can choose what media to put in them. A few have built in valves so you can open them up without having to reprime, and some have self priming features etc.

I use a Fluval 204 canister on a 3 foot tank and a Rena XP3 on a five foot tank. Always at least one model higher up than specified for your water volume then you never have to worry about biological capacity in well stocked tanks.

I run a home made sump filter on my 8 foot tank, but only because there wasn't anything on the market that could keep up with the biological loads you get from a 10 strong shoal of adult piranha in 375 gallons of water!

Btw your filter will not remove nitrate. Nitrate will only be reduced by water changes, plants or by using chemical alternatives such as nitrate absorbant resins etc. which can be added to the filter media

Re Juwel filters: I, like many people, found the built in Juwel filter to be annoying to clean and not very effective and ended up pulling it out and replacing with an external filter. They make good tanks, but the filters are pretty dire imo.

tarmac terror

iTrader: (2)

I have an Eheim external filter - 2260 IIRC. That is filtering a 4 x 2 x 2 freshwater tank with 6 large adult sevrums and a handful of firemouths. This was by far the quietest of the cannister filters. Compared with Fluval and Rena. This was important to me as the tank is in my living room. The canister currently contains two sponge inserts of various porosity, ceramic media and carbon in the top tray, which I occasionaly change for a polyfilter.

Personally i would advise you to buy the largest filter your budget will allow, you can never have too much filtration. I'd tend to stick with Eheim or Fluval as service parts are easily obtained and my eheim model is real easy to clean / service - not that you need to do it that often.

Buying big should allow you to upgrade to most any freshwater tank. Personally if I was going to go the marine route I wouldn't consider anything other than a sump.

Cheers,
TT

pbee

on the marine front, my first tank was 220litres, and 60litre sump, nightmare to keep stable evaporation sudden heat changes.

filtration is not in the traditional sense, berlin method uses live reef rock, a protein skimmer, and crazy circulation imat 24x water volume an hour. no power filters !!!.

my nitrates are non existant, and it is medium stocked.

im in the process of cobining my 220 and 400, into a monster.

you smaller the marine aquarium the more advanced reefer you need to be, most people how run micro and nano reefs also have a large setup which is used to keep the nano stable and a recovory place when it goes **** up. (please not when not if)

sugest you read the conciesciest marine aquarist by bob fenner.

Tiggs

as above - run an external (eheim pro 2 are the best) on your trop tank and do water changes for nitrate (if you dont want to do regular water change..........sel your fish)

as for marine.....i have just set up a medium size tank (100gallon) and it has cost about £4k so far...........not even started to stock it properly yet. So dont bother unless you are VERY serious. You wont run a decent marine tank that small without huge work on your part.

T