does this sound right, or is it wrong.

[fishyjoe26]

a guy was trying to help me with my aquarium it's a 225G tall. how much gph do I need?

to figure out how much filtration you need take your water volume say 240 gallons right? multiply that by 10 and come up with 2400 gallons right? now take what your filter kicks gph and subtract that from the 2400 and see what number you come up with...that number is what you need to add in gph to get to where you need to be. you will not have room on your tank to put on enough emperor 400s or smaller filters, a tank that big needs big filters that kick major ass in gph so you need to add at least 1 big canister like an fx5 to start with. didnt someone on the board have a nice priced xp3??? big nice filters cost big cash and you have to be will ing or able to spend it if you are going to have a big tank. my advice is to get rid of your stock except for a fish or two, get your water parameters in check and filters you have running, get in the practice of doing big water changes and start saving for your filter center piece (fx5 or the like) know what they kick in gph, and start adding till you hit 2400 gph, i know that your choice of media will drop the gph but dont worry so much about that for now, deal with that when you are more familiar with them and the tank. say you get an fx5....they say they kick 960 gph so subtract that from 2400...got that? dont just go buy filters , know the gph they kick and know what will fit your tank. do that water change RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!

 

[rallysman]

It depends on what kind of filter you're using. If you have HOBs then 10x is a good rule of thumb.

If you're using a wet/dry loaded with biological media you can get away with 3-5x tank volume turnover rate. I aim for 3x and have never needed more.

 

[fishyjoe26]

all I got are 2-404's and 1-304 fluval. i found a fx5 used for a really good deal.
would just the fx5 work?

 

[johnptc]

for a heavily stocked 240 you could use 3 fx5's

for lighter stocking less filters...............

i am running two fx5 on a 260gal w/ 6 or 7 medium size fish.......... its stays very clear and 1 x week 20% water change

 

[fishyjoe26]

I have a 225 heavy load/maybe over stock.

5-red hook 4-6 inches each
12- bala sharks 5-8 inches each
1 adult bala shark 12-14 inches each
8 feather fin catfish 5-7 inches each
6-8 pictus catfish 4-7 inches each
4 clown loaches 3-5 inches each
1 baby clown loach 2 inches
guessing around 25 cory catfish
and 2 tiger? plecos

with 2-404 and 1-304 fluvals. i'm trying to get my tank back in order. 6.0ph 200 nitrates.(filter cracked,and missed a water change). i'm trying to sale/rehome my fish. I would like to do a school of fish that stay small. I also got a service quote from dna(dallas north aquariums) and they said to do service evey 4 weeks/13 visits a year was going to be 120.00 every 4 weeks. is that a good deal or a rip off?

 

[fishyjoe26]

sorry,but I need to bump this I got 2 8-10 inch tinfoils,3 small silver dollars,7 pearl gouramis,1 3 spot gourami if I got rid of the pearls and tinfoils and did a small school of silver dollars would I have enough filtration with only one fx5(which I got on the tank right now)

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

For a brand new clean media filled fx5 you get roughly 600gph out of it. And your tank is 225 gallons. So that is a 2.6x turn over rate. And it will be decreasing by the day as the media gets dirty adn restricts the flow of the filter. So IMO the bare minimum would be 2 fx5's. If cash is tight and the fish are small then go for it with just the one and then start saving for the next. And then the next. Basically get it going and then work your way up to more filtration as the fish grow. Just remember the less filtration you have the more maintenance you have to do. So while you are only running one you MAY need to do 2-3 weekly water changes depending on the bio load adn water parameters.

 

[fishyjoe26]

thanks.