Recently acquired a used 375 for a good price. Has been setup for about a month. Think my filtration setup is lacking and need help. Its not drilled with 2 HOB overflows connected to sumps and an FX5. The guy I got the setup from has 2x 40 gallon sumps joined with a pvc pipe. I dont think I'm getting an ideal turnover rate. Gets dirty quick! I feed conservatively 3-4 times a week. Stock is 4 12-15inch Bichirs, 2 12inch Oscars, 1 15inch Giant Gourami, 24inch Arowana and a big Pleco. Any pointers? Maybe the pump isn't powerful enough? Where do I start? Thanks for any help
375 filtration help
- Thread starter KNMG
- Start date
Not a sump expert, but what is the flow rate on the pump? Also, why are you saying it is not enough? Are you having high ammonia or nitrite readings? If you are not and your mechanical is just clogging quickly it could just be to due to the type of mechanical you are using.
I agree, it could just be that the mechanical is getting dirty quickly. It doesn't mean it's not doing its job, it just means that you need to do maintenance on it more often. I have seen some people on here that change out their mechanical filtration floss/pads every day. On occasion, someone mentions doing it twice a day.
As long as your parameters are good, then your filtration is working.
You can always look at increasing the flow with an additional or larger pump. This can help with turnover rate but it won't really change anything, if you're already achieving zero ammonia and nitrites. Let us know what pump you have, what it's rated for and what the head height is and we can help make an estimate on what your real flow is.
Lastly, even though you don't have a large number of fish, you have very large, and messy fish. It is possible that they are making enough of a mess that they are putting a heavy load on your mechanical filtration. Like I mentioned before, it might just need more maintenance.
As long as your parameters are good, then your filtration is working.
You can always look at increasing the flow with an additional or larger pump. This can help with turnover rate but it won't really change anything, if you're already achieving zero ammonia and nitrites. Let us know what pump you have, what it's rated for and what the head height is and we can help make an estimate on what your real flow is.
Lastly, even though you don't have a large number of fish, you have very large, and messy fish. It is possible that they are making enough of a mess that they are putting a heavy load on your mechanical filtration. Like I mentioned before, it might just need more maintenance.
As others have asked, I think more information is needed here. Just out of curiosity, did you use existing media to cycle your tank? Have you confirmed that it's cycled? My reason for asking is that it's not uncommon for a 375Gallon tank to take much longer than 1 month to cycle.
We need the following information...
1. Flow rate. combined rate in gallons per hour of all pumps putting water into the tank.
2. ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH measurements of the water right now with all the fish in it.
3. Tank is acrylic or glass?
1. Flow rate. combined rate in gallons per hour of all pumps putting water into the tank.
2. ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH measurements of the water right now with all the fish in it.
3. Tank is acrylic or glass?
Two more key pieces of info are necessary. What pump are you using and what how much head does it have and what does dirty mean??? You get a lot of crap in the bottom of the tank? The water gets cloudy? Nitrates skyrocket?
I think the most important information we all are missing is what kind of media is in the sump? You can always add more media and your tank will be much cleaner. I used polyfil for mechanical with sponges and then trickle tower of bioballs a bucket fill then that leads me to 100 scrubbers and then another polyfil and sponge then my return pump. I keep it fairly simple and efficient which goes a long way. I never touch my sump other than rinsing sponges every 6 months and then changing polyfil every 3 days.
Also it is a new tank and you well are over stocked for a brand new tank. You have too much bioload aka poop for now. It's always best to add fish slowly so you don't crash the cycle. You might be experiencing a bacteria bloom or just added the fish too sudden where it wasn't properly cycled.
