[tjurhs]

Hi guys,

I'm wondering if I have too much filtration?

I have a 20gal rated filter that I don't really like, and I bought a 30gal rated filter that I really do like. While putting together the 30gal filter I thought to myself, why get rid of the 20gal filter? why not just save it for those times the water gets murky/cloudy?

so is there any problem with have a combined filtration system of 50gal for a 10gal tank?

Todd

 

[roadmaster]

While I personally don't think you can have too much filtration,,you can easily have too much current or flow which some fishes don't appreciate and which can make keeping plant's rooted difficult.

 

[dragam21]

In my opinion you can never have to much filtration, the only thing that you can have is too much flow for the size of the tank.

 

[brandon429]

all it becomes is a cleaning requirement its not harmful. based on bioload, each tank needs X amnt of active surface area for oxidation to occur, and the practice has always been to vastly exceed that amnt in both marine and fresh w tanks. keep nine canister filters if you like and can deal w the current.

 

[AnthonyW8822]

Tbh most 20g filters are more suited to a 10g anyway. I always try to take my tank size, multiply it by 9, and thats how many gallons per hour my filter needs to pump

 

[PlantedTankLover]

The filters I have combined on my 46 gallon is rated for a 239 gallon tank. I always over filter my tanks and keep in mind the manufactures like to over exaggerate what their filter can do. To keep to flow down a little I use spray bars.

 

[Method]

Bacteria in filters convert ammonia to nitrate, and convert other organics to their oxidized forms. That's biological filtration. Filters also clean particulate matter out of the water column. That's mechanical filtration. I don't see how you could have 'too much' of either of these processes.

You CAN have too much current. Fish can only swim so fast!

 

[LuckyCharm]

I don't think you can have too much filtration. The thing is the amount of bacterial you have will be mainly depends on the amount of food source for them.

 

[AnotherHobby]

I run a filter for a 70 gallon tank on my 17 gallon tank. It works great.

 

[tjurhs]

ok, so I don't have fish, just snails, and depending on where they are in the tank sometimes the snails do tilter back n forth a bit. Hopefully they're not too stressed by it.

I did set the two filters 90deg to each other, and I mounted what looks like a "diving" board on the exit port (it's an HOB) of the water to break-up it's flow.

One question I have is if the parts of the filter that is not the mechanical/particulate component could be using up (taking away from the plants) my ferts that I dose?

 

[brandon429]

not to any degree you can measure or our test kits would indicate, go ahead and start it up its sounding ready to go.