Filtration question - is this overkill?

[Emika_B]

Aloha all.  I have a 36 (inch) L X 12 W X 24 T (45 gallon breeder I believe) that I’m going to be starting up again.  I think the last time I had it up and running was a very heavily planted Walstad-style community tank.  Very little external filtration on that one.  This time I wanted to go with goldfish and the last time I had goldfish they pretty much destroyed my non-Java Fern plants.

So, on to the new tank - goldfish if I can keep the temperature low enough.  I have a set of fans and a heater that will be hooked up to a controller.  It’s the cooler time of year, so this might skew my results a bit.  Summer here can be very hot and I don’t know if the fans will do the trick.  Goldfish may not be the way to go.

For filtration since this might be a goldfish tank, it’ll be heavily planted but with Java Fern and Anubias mostly, maybe Val or Sag for visual interest.  I have on order a Penn Plax Cascade canister filter rated for 100 gallons at a flow rate of 265 gallons per hour.  Also an AQQA fluidized moving filter media (submersed) rated for 15 - 55 gallons.  I want to get 3 fan tail or veil tail goldfish and figured these should do the trick.  Flow rate may be an issue so I also have some filter material to act as a baffle.  If someone were to get sick, I’d remove the AQQA filter and put it in the hospital tank.

If it should come to pass that I’m not able to keep the tank cool enough for goldfish, would the above amount of filtration be overkill for a community tank?  Is it actually overkill for goldfish?  After spending quite a few hours watching the Aquarium Co-Op and KTG YouTube pages, I’m a bit conflicted on going with the canister filter.  Maybe two of the AQQAs and a sponge filter?  Or one AQQA, one sponge filter and add more plants?

[Patrick M. Bodega Aquatics]

In my opinion, there is no such thing as overkill. I would stick with the setup you have and if you can change the flowrate to what fish you're keeping, you would be great. I have a 75g with a Fluval 407 canister and I am planning to eventually transfer the filter to my 35g breeder and get and fx4 to help with a higher waste load. I would be doing a community in the 35 and discus and ropefish in the 75g. I hope this helps!

[AdamTill]

If you can keep the tank below 80F goldfish will be fine. Ignore all the stuff online about them being cold water fish. They can tolerate cold water, they dont NEED it. Our ideal was 74-75F

[Emika_B]

Patrick M. Bodega - thanks for the reassurance.  I watched the ‘pimp my filter’ video on Corey’s YouTube and I get the impression that lots of sponges are the way to go.  Not sure how big the chamber on the Penn Plex is but I’ll most likely just use sponges.  And the AQQA is similar to the Ziss filter that seems to be so popular.  Add the plants and I’ll have lots of filtration and hopefully good water flow.

AdamTill - I’m glad to hear you’ve had success at 74 degrees.  I have a smaller tank (5 gallons I think) that’s a bit over 80 today.  I’m sure I’ll need the fans but it’s good to know I might not need to get all the way down to 70.

Mahalo!

[AdamTill]

Good luck! Your biggest challenge will be that they’ll eat a lot and create a lot of waste at that temp, but that’s basically par for the course with goldfish anyway. I personally would have no issues keeping them at 80. Most nowadays are coming from places where that’s sort of the norm anyway.

Ive used sponge filtration lots with goldfish, and it works well. I’d recommend servicing the filter a few times a month though, because it’ll goop up much quicker than with a tank of guppies etc. That’s why I personally wouldn’t use a canister (pain to crack open in most cases), but if you’re good with that go for it.

Edited December 29, 2020 by AdamTill

[Emika_B]

AdamTill - Thanks for the encouragement!  It's been a while since I did goldfish but they're such goofy critters I'm hoping it'll work out.  I'll monitor the water temperature while I'm cycling/seasoning the tank before adding the goldfish.  If I can't because the water's too warm, oh well, guppies are fun, too 🙂