Wholly filtration batman!

[shift]

Can we say overkill?! Haha. 2 filters for 30$. Hopefully the aq70 won't be too overkill for the shrimp/fry on a 10g. I discovered a nifty trick of cutting out the little stopper above the motor cover to reduce the flow and gain n extra 1/4" of lowering adjustment!

[l8nite]

For what it's worth, I was running 3x canister filters on my 110G (WAY over-filtered), and my plants were not responding terribly well. When I cut it down to 2 & removed about 70% of the media, my plants started taking off. I don't know if it was the bacteria competing with the plants, or if it was the excess flow that was doing it though.

[shift]

Good to know. i'm mainly doing this for cycling purposes but I will be using the AQ70 on one of the 10g tanks.. hopefully it wont be to overkill.

[tomfromstlouis]

Not sure I can see how anything but flow would be a problem. As for bacteria, they will establish themselves at the proper level and simply maintain it. You could have too LITTLE media for bacteria, but you cannot have too MUCH, unless by that you mean more than they need to colonize.

In other words, I am not sure "overfiltration" means anything. The correct amount will always have a little spare capacity. You can have too much flow, depending on inhabitants.

Some plants like flow, some don't, so that could explain l8nite's situation.

[shift]

I am thinking of using the aq70 on the bare bottom breeding tank.. since it will be packed full of bacteria in a few weeks. Hopefully it will be benefical enough for the breeding/fry tank..

Would some foam or something over the waterfall be enough to diffuse the outflow?

[msawdey]

Originally Posted by l8nite

For what it's worth, I was running 3x canister filters on my 110G (WAY over-filtered), and my plants were not responding terribly well. When I cut it down to 2 & removed about 70% of the media, my plants started taking off. I don't know if it was the bacteria competing with the plants, or if it was the excess flow that was doing it though.

I second what tom said
I dont know about others on the forum, but this doesn't make sense to me. The amount of bacteria in filters is probably only about 1/4 of all the bacteria in a tank. Bacteria also flourishes in the gravel or sand of a tank. It may have been an issue of too much flow more than anything else

[funkman262]

Originally Posted by msawdey

The amount of bacteria in filters is probably only about 1/4 of all the bacteria in a tank. Bacteria also flourishes in the gravel or sand of a tank.

I find this hard to believe. While there definitely is bacteria all throughout the tank, the bacteria are going to grow in greater numbers in the most ideal location available. If using biomedia in a filter, the nutrients are being sent directly to the bacteria at a constant flow. In the substrate, the nutrients reaching the bacteria will be considerably lower since we tend to not point our filter outlets or powerheads directly at the substrate. Also, since there is lower flow at the substrate, there is likely a concentration gradient directly above the substrate and certainly within the depth of the substrate.

[Bolsen27]

Originally Posted by shift

I am thinking of using the aq70 on the bare bottom breeding tank.. since it will be packed full of bacteria in a few weeks. Hopefully it will be benefical enough for the breeding/fry tank..

Would some foam or something over the waterfall be enough to diffuse the outflow?

Make a DIY diffuser. http://xhobbies.weebly.com/diy-filte...rdiffuser.html

I made and used a lot of them when I was using HOB filters. They work great!

[msawdey]

Originally Posted by funkman262

I find this hard to believe. While there definitely is bacteria all throughout the tank, the bacteria are going to grow in greater numbers in the most ideal location available. If using biomedia in a filter, the nutrients are being sent directly to the bacteria at a constant flow. In the substrate, the nutrients reaching the bacteria will be considerably lower since we tend to not point our filter outlets or powerheads directly at the substrate. Also, since there is lower flow at the substrate, there is likely a concentration gradient directly above the substrate and certainly within the depth of the substrate.

what you say is completely correct, but think about surface area and the substrate concentration of bacteria. Yes are are anaerobic spots in all tanks, but the surface area provided for bacteria to grow in the gravel or sand bottom is at least 10 times what you find in the correct canister filter per tank size.

Most people vastly under filter their tanks also. But this debate is rather irrelevant in comparison to the initial post. Point is, you can never have too much filtration, but you can have too much water flow

[shift]

Bolsen27 - thanks for the diffuser idea

the AQ70 is a very large filter, and i loaded it with a sponge and a ton of bio rings. so it should hold tons of bacteria. Yes bacteria will gro on any surface, how ever in a bare bottom spawning tank there isnt many places for it to grow, so i'm going to rely on the oversize filter as the source of BB

[HD Blazingwolf]

With sufficient plant mass, most of the bacteria is in the gravel around the roots where plants send oxygen.
There is also a significant portion of bacteria in the filter, if there is the right amount of flow.. toomuch flow through the filter and itll go somewhere calmer. Too little and it will be replaced with less hospitable bacteria like anaerobic.

[shift]

A nice chunk of course foam over the output waterfall seemed to lower it to a nice subtle stream

[shift]