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hey guys,i made a large jump up in filteration the other day,so now in my 55 gal,ive got a 2000l/h,external cannister filter,a attman 881 internal filter,and a 1100l/h power head taking care of movement,so my qusetion is,is this all to much?should i take out my powerhead,i only ask,because the outlet for my cannister,is quite a strong current.thanx guys

That sounds a little bit too much unless you have a tank that requires a lot of water movement. You could take out the Attaman 881. To test it out turn it off for about 5 minutes and see if it makes any difference.

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Keith

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mmmmmmmm,ok i was sort of leaning towards taking out the powerhead,i didnt really want to take away any filtration if possible,its just that im minding a small oscar for my mate,and you know how messy these guys arebut if you still rekon the attman ill give it a go.i was under the impression that you can never have to much filtration,i mean with in reason,obviously a mini reef on a 10gal,is guna be to much,but i thought that this setup i mentioned above would be ok.

Hi,
In a sense, you cannot have too much filtration on an
aquarium. By that I mean if your filter turns the water
over at say 4 times an hour, and you buy a physically
larger filter that still turns the tank over 4 times an
hour, then the new filter is fine.

Unfortunately when we change to a "larger filter" the
turnover rate is what increases and suddenly the fish are
fighting the return current constantly. In that case,
unless you provide obstructions to that increased return
flow, the fish will stress and eventually die of
exhaustion. The fish will need places to get out of the
current. Providing places for the fish to hide from the
currents also, unfortunately, provides "dead" places for
fish waste, excess foods, and dying plant material to
accumulate as well and these "sumps" can cause problems
with pollution.

It's best to stick with a normal bio-load for the tank, and
to use a filter that has your tank capacity in the middle
of its range. For instance, with a 55 gallon tank you
you should not use a filter rated for tanks from 30-55 gallons.
That filter may not be able to handle the
needs of your tank as the 55 is the top end of its
abilities.
Nor should you opt for a filter rated from
55 - 250, as the output would be too high. Instead choose
one where the capacity of the tank is somewhere in the
middle. If you have too many fish, or are pushing the
fish limit for the tank, then the 55 should shift toward
the bottom limit of the filter.

Frank


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ok cool thanx frank,they do have lots of places to hide,and from watching them swim around i think it will be ok,just taking out the attman as said above,what do you rekon frank?at the moment,i am a bit over stocked,because im waiting for a bredding pair to form.but when thats done it wiil be back to normall stock...

I've found that the best way to properly filter a tank, while not creating too much current at the same time, is to have your current be strong, but turbulent. Set up your filter outputs so there is a gentle sideways swirl throughout the tank, so each filter doesn't end up filtering one half of the tank, but they both filter the whole thing. Also, have some outputs go against each other so they cancel each other out and create some turbulence (keeps water oxygenated, but doesn't blow fish around).

One generally runs a setup like this in a reef tank, not in a freshwater tank, but if you've got messy fish, sometimes you've gotta do what you've gotta do.

yeah good idea,and as i said im a bit over stocked trying to get a pair.