the case for overfiltration

brich999

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 3, 2010
4,312
11
38
New Hampshire
I see so many threads wondering why water is cloudy or hazy or whatever and often times its because people try to follow manufacturer's slightly optimistic guidelines. Well I want to see and hear from people who go overboard. I want to hear how far you go to maintain pristine water. And lets see pics

I have 2 eheim 2217 "rated" for up to 159g aquarium each and a surface skimmer on my 57g but the water is always so crispy

20140804_211354.jpg20140804_211335.jpg

20140804_211354.jpg

20140804_211335.jpg
 

ragin_cajun

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Sep 8, 2013
2,757
996
1,600
53
South Louisiana
I have a 125 Gallon almost a year now. I originally set it up with 2 Eheim 2217s. At first, I thought I was overfiltered and the LFS had ripped me off. But as I added more fish, and some plants, the water always had stuff floating around in it, wouldn't really get clear. So I tried purigen, then I tried filter floss, chemipure, upped the water changes, no joy. So, I got on here and people said "I don't know, but put a Eheim 2262 on there and see if that helps". So, I did, and that sure fixed it. My tank has all kinds of stuff in it, TOO MANY fish, but the water's clear. After a water change, looks like the fish are floating in the air. All I have in it is poret foam, ehfi-mech, and pond matrix. I don't even run an airstone anymore.

Yea, get a WAY bigger canister filter than you think you'll need. 2262 on a 125 sounds like too much.....but the tank's clear and there's no problems with it. That's important cause this tank is in the middle of the house where everybody sees it who comes inside. I can't have people coming over and seeing an algae bloom or some amateurish stuff like that....:)
 

brich999

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 3, 2010
4,312
11
38
New Hampshire
Sounds great ragin lets see some pics next time you do a wc. Cmon for every person underfiltering there has to be someone going above and beyond. Ive seen way too many dirty tank threads lately, lets get some more overfiltered tanks here and show what clean water looks like
 

shookONES

Casper... the not so friendly ghost
MFK Member
Jul 12, 2005
4,961
1,763
179
35
Totowa, NJ
Eheim 2250 + 2217 + 13w UV on 75g. To say my water is crystal clear would be a gross understatement.
 

rodger

Polypterus
MFK Member
Apr 29, 2008
3,343
283
92
Kansas City
100 gal sump with 100 liters of K1 and 100 micron socks. An Eheim 2262 with Matrix and 4 liters of Purigen, on a 240. The K1 will process the waste of apx 50 lbs of fish. I have maybe 10 lbs tops.
 

dogofwar

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Jan 3, 2006
5,076
944
174
49
Maryland
www.capitalcichlids.org
Over-filtration is really just a waste of money, electricity and time (to regularly clean all of those filters).

Sometimes less is more... an air-driven sponge and box filter + a dump filter running on a 350gph pump is all that I've got running a 150g full of (happy, healthy) Central Americans.

Most of my 30gs have a box and a sponge.

All get regular water changes...and filter cleanings.

Matt
 

brich999

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 3, 2010
4,312
11
38
New Hampshire
Dont get me wrong ive had tanks filtered by just sponges before and the water always tested good but with big filters you can go quite some time between cleaning and it keeps the particles down which sponges never did for me. And at 20w each the 2217 dont use too much power compared to other things.

Kinda disappointed I dont see any pics of fish flying through boxes of pristine crystal clear water yet.
 

spiff44

Bronze Tier VIP
MFK Member
Dec 20, 2007
924
68
561
Midwest
Over-filtration is really just a waste of money, electricity and time (to regularly clean all of those filters).


Matt
I disagree. I think having an overhead buffer of extra filtration is a wise thing to absorb all sorts of fish keeping mistakes... anything from over feeding, adding too many fish at once... pretty much anything that might normally stress the tank under normal circumstances. With in reason of course though. Don't get me wrong... much appreciation here for a well balanced and efficient system... I would rather have things stacked in mine and my fishes favor though for the eventual mistake. A perfectly balanced system only has one way to go...

And in some cases, the pumps and plumbing might be the priority over the filter... if you need the extra pumps just to keep up on adequate turn over, might as well throw a filter in line too whether its really needed or not. This was my issue... one pump and canister on paper should have covered the tanks filtering needs... but then it would have had about 1x turnover. So, we add 3 more pumps... each gets a filter...one got a canister, and the other 2 on UV's dumping into a sump of 2 gallons of Purigen. I used to think i was over filtered.. not any more judging how much crap comes out in a week.
 

convict360

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Dec 9, 2013
4,499
1,874
164
Scotland
My 57 gallon has two Fluval U4's, as well as a wet/dry overhead trickle filter. No pics just now, but the overall gallons per hour is like 850 lol.

That's probably nothing compared to other posters, but is still overkill in my tank lol

Sent from my Nexus 5 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 

HarleyK

Canister Man
Staff member
Global Moderator
MFK Member
Aug 17, 2005
6,915
1,601
1,453
USA
. 2262 on a 125 sounds like too much.....but the tank's clear and there's no problems with it.
:)
Proportionally, we have almost identical filtration. I have two 2262 on a 220 gal.

Overfiltration is increased flow in the worst case, and a life saver (literally) if all bad stars of fishkeeping align for your tank and you need this extra capacity.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store