Would like advice from the masters about filteration.

[Skinned]

Hello Monsterfishkeepers!

I am relatively new to fishkeeping (a little under one year) and am still learning.

I've been struck with an obsession for fish every since I started...I just kept moving the goal posts to bigger tanks, then accepting cichlids, then stepping over the flowerhorn line....

I'm hooked now.

I have a few questions though. Right now my main tank is a 150 gallon SA community tank with a bunch of little guys growing out. The biggest fish in there is probably a 6' flowerhorn that looks a lot like a trimac, there is a 5' green texas, 2 smaller jack dempseys, a fader flowerhorn that has gone through a rather dramatic transformation, a couple blood parrots, a few convicts, and some dither fish (tinfoil barbs and giant danios). Right now I have a Marineland Emperor 400, two Penguin 250s, and a TopFin rated for 75 gallon that I have homemade filters in made out of sponge and charcoal (nonactive). The tank is planted with quite a lot of java fern, anubis, has water lettuce floating (they chew up the roots but it is cheap ) and have a bunch of large pieces of driftwood, rock caves, and many territories to hid and displace aggression. I even have floating pieces of wood the fish like to get into the nooks and crannies of.

I recently put a baby oscar in, to see how he would do, and he is sulking around like normal. Nobody seems too interested in him. I read that Oscar are very susceptible to Hole in the Head disease and I would like to avoid that. I read that many suspect that activated carbon has to do with these bigger fish getting the disease....is nonactivated carbon suspect as well? And are the charcoal in the HoB factory filters activated or unactivated carbon?

Also, I have an AquaClear 70 that I plan on using with a filter type sponge in the short term, and early next year I'll have enough money for the proper eheim canister filter, which I plan to just add without removing the 4 HOBs and sponge...because you can't overfilter, right?

Please let me know about the charcoal thing.

Also, for my emperor i have refillable media cartridges and had added them...they had activated charcoal in them. I removed them. What would you recommend stuffing in a filter cartridge? Are the biological filter media effective in the HoB?

 

[boldtogether]

Hello Monsterfishkeepers!

I am relatively new to fishkeeping (a little under one year) and am still learning.

I've been struck with an obsession for fish every since I started...I just kept moving the goal posts to bigger tanks, then accepting cichlids, then stepping over the flowerhorn line....

I'm hooked now.

I have a few questions though. Right now my main tank is a 150 gallon SA community tank with a bunch of little guys growing out. The biggest fish in there is probably a 6' flowerhorn that looks a lot like a trimac, there is a 5' green texas, 2 smaller jack dempseys, a fader flowerhorn that has gone through a rather dramatic transformation, a couple blood parrots, a few convicts, and some dither fish (tinfoil barbs and giant danios). Right now I have a Marineland Emperor 400, two Penguin 250s, and a TopFin rated for 75 gallon that I have homemade filters in made out of sponge and charcoal (nonactive). The tank is planted with quite a lot of java fern, anubis, has water lettuce floating (they chew up the roots but it is cheap ) and have a bunch of large pieces of driftwood, rock caves, and many territories to hid and displace aggression. I even have floating pieces of wood the fish like to get into the nooks and crannies of.

I recently put a baby oscar in, to see how he would do, and he is sulking around like normal. Nobody seems too interested in him. I read that Oscar are very susceptible to Hole in the Head disease and I would like to avoid that. I read that many suspect that activated carbon has to do with these bigger fish getting the disease....is nonactivated carbon suspect as well? And are the charcoal in the HoB factory filters activated or unactivated carbon?

Also, I have an AquaClear 70 that I plan on using with a filter type sponge in the short term, and early next year I'll have enough money for the proper eheim canister filter, which I plan to just add without removing the 4 HOBs and sponge...because you can't overfilter, right?

Please let me know about the charcoal thing.

Also, for my emperor i have refillable media cartridges and had added them...they had activated charcoal in them. I removed them. What would you recommend stuffing in a filter cartridge? Are the biological filter media effective in the HoB?

Wow...welcome....you have a lot going on.
Some of the fish choices would have me concerned and I'm sure others will chime in.
Your filtration seams legit and no, you cant
have to much filtration...you can however, improve on the efficiency of that filtration...for example: Carbon really only has one purpose and that is chemical removal. It gets exhausted and becomes useless, even detrimental. Use carbon to remove medication, but if water clearity is the reason for its use, try a UV sterilizer and better polishing or prefilter methods.
I used the refilable cartridges on my Emperors and filled two of them with Eheim Pro. It was a little tricky getting the media into the cartridges and they don't hold a huge amount, but two Emperors and four cartridges, it really was surprising hiw well it worked. Later, I actully put Eheim Pro down inside the filter in the space behind the refillable cartridges. So it went, regular floss filter, refilable cartridges and then media last....you can fill it almost to the very top without it pushing the media out into the tank.
I also had sponge prefilters on the intakes....helped huge with water clarity.
It is a learning game and you will soon find that you have some fish that will be big issues with your current setup/stock.
The AC70 can hold bio-media as well...just fyi. I stuff bio-media everywhere there is space.

 

[boldtogether]

I can post some pics of what I used/made for my Emperor 400s...if you are interested.

 

[Skinned]

I can post some pics of what I used/made for my Emperor 400s...if you are interested.

I would really like that.

I know the stocking seems unorthodox, but it was gradual. I've kept the over the top aggressive species out (jaguar, red devil). The only fish I expect to get over-the-top aggressive are the flowerhorns, and if they don't work out then I'll throw them in another tank until I can sell them, as long as no hard comes to the fish.

I have a 55 spare tank with about 15 gallons divided off filled with baby yellow labs, ob peacocks, and jeweled cichlid. My blood parrots are trying to spawn but it hasn't worked luckily. The flowerhorn and green texas have been trying to fertilize the female parrots eggs for two goes now, but the male parrot is holding them at bay. When it first started it scared me because the flowerhorn turned black and I thought "uh oh, he's turning bad" but after a few days there are literally no marks or nips on either fish and there isn't even lip locking.

Also, I'm not married to any of these fish I know a man with a LFS that will take any bad citizens I need to give him. There are already two fish I have that are going there.

As far as I can tell, these SA and CA cichlids aren't nearly as restive or mean as African cichlids. I have an Mbuna/OB peacock tank that gets rowdy. The 55 is basically for the fish that are getting beat on in the African tank. I have a 20 gallon hospital that is empty now. I also have a 75 gallon community tank with a couple severem, one angelfish that I watched not grow at a LFS for weeks before I bought him and he is thriving, and a bunch of nice friendly rainbowfish. This is my low stress tank. Sometimes the Africans and Central Americans stress me out...the South Americans are a treat though

I'm just now starting to figure out what I really like. I'm trying to address my fish situation without getting another 6 foot fish tank this year Just a matter of making a decision and executing.

I really like the husbandry though.

 

[smitty03281964]

About the charcoal causing Hole-n-Head. For me I doubt it because I know someone that had 1 Oscar that started developing it a couple years later and he never used charcoal and neither do I. But he did not maintain pristine water. Wich I suspect is the real cause of Hole-n-head. Also get a Eheim 2262 or 2260 and you will tank me later.

 

[boldtogether]

I would really like that.

I know the stocking seems unorthodox, but it was gradual. I've kept the over the top aggressive species out (jaguar, red devil). The only fish I expect to get over-the-top aggressive are the flowerhorns, and if they don't work out then I'll throw them in another tank until I can sell them, as long as no hard comes to the fish.

I have a 55 spare tank with about 15 gallons divided off filled with baby yellow labs, ob peacocks, and jeweled cichlid. My blood parrots are trying to spawn but it hasn't worked luckily. The flowerhorn and green texas have been trying to fertilize the female parrots eggs for two goes now, but the male parrot is holding them at bay. When it first started it scared me because the flowerhorn turned black and I thought "uh oh, he's turning bad" but after a few days there are literally no marks or nips on either fish and there isn't even lip locking.

Also, I'm not married to any of these fish I know a man with a LFS that will take any bad citizens I need to give him. There are already two fish I have that are going there.

As far as I can tell, these SA and CA cichlids aren't nearly as restive or mean as African cichlids. I have an Mbuna/OB peacock tank that gets rowdy. The 55 is basically for the fish that are getting beat on in the African tank. I have a 20 gallon hospital that is empty now. I also have a 75 gallon community tank with a couple severem, one angelfish that I watched not grow at a LFS for weeks before I bought him and he is thriving, and a bunch of nice friendly rainbowfish. This is my low stress tank. Sometimes the Africans and Central Americans stress me out...the South Americans are a treat though

I'm just now starting to figure out what I really like. I'm trying to address my fish situation without getting another 6 foot fish tank this year Just a matter of making a decision and executing.

I really like the husbandry though.

I used this on many different HoB filters and it is easy to make. Basically 2"or 3" ABS....because it is black and buoyant, holes drilled....a center piece of pvc with lots of holes, capped on the end and filter floss wrapped around and slid into the outside tube. Attach the other end to the filter down tube, on an Emperor 400 I believe the down tube is square.....I heated the end in some boiling water and re-shaped mine to fit the round center tube...but that's on you...I modify...just me, im a tinkerer...so there you go. It could be even modified further to house all kinds of media if you capped the outside tube too..I had one that was 3" with a 1/2" center tube and I filled it with Eheim Pro...
But this all goes into the tank and isn't exactly pretty..you get the point though...think "outside" of the filter...lol

 

[soul_assassin]

I used this on many different HoB filters and it is easy to make. Basically 2"or 3" ABS....because it is black and buoyant, holes drilled....a center piece of pvc with lots of holes, capped on the end and filter floss wrapped around and slid into the outside tube. Attach the other end to the filter down tube, on an Emperor 400 I believe the down tube is square.....I heated the end in some boiling water and re-shaped mine to fit the round center tube...but that's on you...I modify...just me, im a tinkerer...so there you go. It could be even modified further to house all kinds of media if you capped the outside tube too..I had one that was 3" with a 1/2" center tube and I filled it with Eheim Pro...
But this all goes into the tank and isn't exactly pretty..you get the point though...think "outside" of the filter...lol

View attachment 1155301

I like the way you think outside the filter box but pretty ugly in the tank, lol

 

[dogofwar]

Activated carbon doesn't "cause" Hole in the Head or Lateral Line Erosion....poor water quality (build up of nitrogenous waste, including excess nitrate) can certainly contribute to it. As can other factors, in my experience, like water lacking tannins.

More important, in my experience, than adding MORE filters is keeping mechanical filtration clean and, of course, doing adequate partial water changes.

Rinse your mechanical media more often and do more water changes and see what happens!

Matt

 

[boldtogether]

I like the way you think outside the filter box but pretty ugly in the tank, lol

Nothing uglier than a bunch of dead fish either. The look of a HoB is somewhat of an aquired taste as well but to each his own right? Adding filtration in the form of prefilters greatly reduces mechanical filter maintenance. I agree with dogofwar, keeping the mechanical clean will seriously improve overall water quality.

 

[knobhill]

For a 150g tank with the bioload you plan on having, it might be time to start thinking about a canister or sump filter. The fx5 is great ime, the ehiems are excellent as well. You can put plenty of pond matrix bio media in those. You are also saving on electricity by running just one pump as opposed to 4. I love uv's as well. You can plumb them (and heaters) inline with a canister filter so your tank looks more natural. But, if you are sticking with the hob filters, you could use one of those internal led uv filters, I have had good success with them and they don't break the bank. best of luck and welcome!