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Is there such a thing as too much filtration?


Monkeypoint
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I have an Eheim canister filter (Pro 4+ 250) and I recently swapped my 15-year-old Whisper HOB for a Fluval C3. The Eheim is supposed to be good for up to 65 gallons and the Fluval C3 up to 50. My tank is 55 gallons but I figured that between the canister and the C3, there would be sufficient filtration. Last night I spent close to 2.5 hours scraping about a decade and a half of mineral deposit off the Whisper thinking maybe I'd sell it on the local listserve. But after cleaning it up, it looks almost as good as new. Which has me wondering if I could use it to maybe hold more bio media - something like Seachem Matrix,  instead of getting rid of it. There's still room for another filter.

I'm also very gradually sprucing up the tank. I'm removing some of the old gravel and putting down Eco Complete. I love the black gravel. I'm doing it slowly, over weeks, one small section at a time. I'm going to scrape the mineral deposit off the back of the tank (it's a really tight squeeze back there but I think with a blade on an extension, I can get to it). After that, I'm going to add a black background.

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I wouldn't rely on the GPH and that the 250 is up to 65g that they claim because they usually run it without media during testing. I'm using the eheim pro 4 600 on my 40 breeder (flow reduced by 30%) and on my 20 long (flow reduced by 50%). If I'm running the 250 on my 40 I feel like it wouldn't provide me enough flow for my tank. I didn't even consider the 250 for my 20 long and was gonna purchase the 350 but found a good deal on the 600. 

I'd run the 250 with an additional HOB to help move the water. I think 2 HOB's might be too much.

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It's hard to have too much filtration, but it's easy to have too much flow depending on the fish you're keeping. The more filters you have the more homes you have for beneficial bacteria and unless you clean them all at once, the less likelihood there is you'll accidentally clean away much of your beneficial bacteria. If you have just one filter in an otherwise bare tank, the risk of killing much of your bacterial colony when you clean the filter is pretty high. If you have three smaller filters and only clean one a week, it's nearly impossible to kill off your bacterial colonies. Even if you destroy the colonies in the filter you're cleaning, the colonies in the other filters will still be alive and ready to keep the tank functioning. More small filters beats one larger filter in my book.

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On 2/11/2023 at 3:50 PM, Lennie said:

Lucky you got this video today ;D

Okay, okay, okay - I think I'm starting to get it! It's the idea of balancing flow with bacteria, while considering bio load. It's making a lot more sense to me now. So, this may be a dumb question: when I clean my canister filter, I swap out the fine filter with a new one. Everything else - the sponge filters and the bio media, I rinse out with tank water. So, is this still killing my bacteria colony?

Thanks again y'all - this is really helping!

On 2/12/2023 at 9:12 AM, JJenna said:

You could use the Matrix in your HOB as a substrate for plant cuttings, such as pothos, tradescantia, and spider plants. Plants help suck up nitrates.

I stuck a pothos cutting in my 15 gallon about a month ago. It's already sprouted a bunch of roots - one of which is grabbing onto a piece of cholla wood on the bottom!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/12/2023 at 1:20 PM, Monkeypoint said:

So, this may be a dumb question: when I clean my canister filter, I swap out the fine filter with a new one. Everything else - the sponge filters and the bio media, I rinse out with tank water. So, is this still killing my bacteria colony?

Your bacterial population would be taking a bit of a hit with the loss of those living on the fine filter, but between those living on the sponges, the bio media, the substrate, the plants, any hardscape, and so on, it should be fine, and the new fine filter material would be populated. Let me ask you this: have you ever noticed any problems with ammonia or nitrite spikes following this procedure?

If you want to be cautious, you could fast the tank or feed lightly for a day or two. If you want to be scientific, you could do before-and-after testing at multiple time points, but I don't think either would be necessary.

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On 2/11/2023 at 3:36 PM, Monkeypoint said:

I have an Eheim canister filter (Pro 4+ 250) and I recently swapped my 15-year-old Whisper HOB for a Fluval C3. The Eheim is supposed to be good for up to 65 gallons and the Fluval C3 up to 50. My tank is 55 gallons but I figured that between the canister and the C3, there would be sufficient filtration. Last night I spent close to 2.5 hours scraping about a decade and a half of mineral deposit off the Whisper thinking maybe I'd sell it on the local listserve. But after cleaning it up, it looks almost as good as new. Which has me wondering if I could use it to maybe hold more bio media - something like Seachem Matrix,  instead of getting rid of it. There's still room for another filter.

I'm also very gradually sprucing up the tank. I'm removing some of the old gravel and putting down Eco Complete. I love the black gravel. I'm doing it slowly, over weeks, one small section at a time. I'm going to scrape the mineral deposit off the back of the tank (it's a really tight squeeze back there but I think with a blade on an extension, I can get to it). After that, I'm going to add a black background.

That sounds like a good idea, I visualized what you said & from that 
I think it will do a great deal of filtration for a 55 gal, I just got me (2)
hang on backs rated for 100 gal tanks & mine is a 75 gal & I have a 
canister filter that's rated for a 75 gal so I'm fixing to change mine up.

Change the gravel, the filtration, the fish, all new setup, I don't see a
thing wrong with changing things up to make it do better it gives 
us something to do & enjoy what we make from it & be happy.

On 2/11/2023 at 3:50 PM, Lennie said:

Lucky you got this video today ;D

 

On 2/11/2023 at 3:50 PM, Lennie said:

Lucky you got this video today ;D

I just watched this the other day & another he done about
asking the right questions, in between them 2 made me 
thinking about my 75 gal & why I'm working on redoing it.

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