Filtration for a 265

[malawi haps]

Hi all after lurking for quite a while I am posting this question I will be aquiring a 265 gallon soon that will be an african cichlid tank .My question stems from the needs of the filtration . I will have a sump system under the tank that is capible of 300 gallons. It will have 2 independent pumps (one per side) for the two overflows . I also have 2 ac110 hob never opened . Should I keep them also or trade them in for somthing else?? or mabye keep 1 for polishing purposes ??:confused: What do you think:)

[FishRfine]

get an eheim pro 3 or a rean filstar xp4 and watch your tank become fishy heaven. i use a rena filstar xp3 and xp4 on a 275, and its never even almost dirty anymore. the water has been perfect since i added the xp4 (no surprise there, seeing as before, it was inadequate)

[repair]

When you say sump do you mean wet/dry?

A wet dry is a lot better then a canister filter.

[JustLooking]

:iagree:

I have just a w/d sump on my tank,no other filtration,water perams are perfect,& water is cristal.

If the w/d is setup right you shouldnt need anything else.

[malawi haps]

Yes I was referring to a wet/dry sump system . So I should go with the sump and ditch the ac's and get somthing cool with the credit. Thanks for the imput :headbang2

[super_red_dragon]

that si one big tank. my biggest is a tetra/barb/realted community 50 gal tank

[I Love Pie]

Wet/dry!

[KingKong123]

sump man

[rallysman]

I run a wet/dry on my heavily stocked 265 and it works perfectly. you can use the AC110s for mechanical filtration if you want to, but I've had awesome luck with just the wet/dry on mine.

wet/dry > canister IMO

[JonF]

I would keep the AC110's along with your wet/dry and set them up for mechanical filtration. I run mine with two sponges seperated by a piece of filter floss in between the sponges. I would also add a pre-filter sponge to the inlet tubes to keep large gunk out of the filter media.

[JonF]

These are the prefilters I use on all of my AC's.... 50's and 110's. I now only need to rince out my filter media every few water changes (about once a month).

Plus... you may be using sand if it's an African Cichlid tank... these also keep sand out of the impellors.

- Jonathan

[Wolf3101]

It sounds to me like you have plenty of filtration on the tank. The question is always how effeciant the mechanical part of the filter is and with a sump you can always add micron bags for water polishing. Hang on to the AC110's however for emergancy use.

[malawi haps]

Thanks for everyones input but unfortunately the tank i thought was a 265 ended up beinr a 300 gallon Wohht Whoot:WHOA: I is currently sitting in my garage and I am going to do a construstion journal for it .The only down side is due to the construction of the tank the ac110's will not be able to hob:confused: S i am going to have to go with somthing else also the sump was a home made 20 gallon high and now I need to figure out what is the best way to make a sump/wet dry for this tank????

[JonF]

You'll need more than a 20 gallon sump for that. If you don't want to go the sump route... and HOB's won't work... a couple large Canisters will do just fine. Tthere are many that will work for your needs... like the FX5 or rena XP3/XP4, several eheim's like the 2217, 2260 etc. etc.. If it was my tank... I would probably just go with two RENA XP3's or two Eheim 2217's.

Congrats on the 300!

- Jonathan

[malawi haps]

Thanks john I will be going the sump route for the fact that the tank has 2 overflows and the person at least had a good pump a blueline model 70 so now I need to figure out what size sump I will need .My lfs has a few foe 300 gallons but they were used for salt I can pick one up for cheap and mabye clean it out real good .Would that work???

[malawi haps]

here's a link on the pump specs I think that it will be sufficent for this size tank
http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=18058