Filter question

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Sizzlahr

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 12, 2011
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indianapolis
On my 240 gallon I was only running 525 gph. I recently added more so a Total of 1050 gph .. I gave it 12hrs but my tank still has pieces floating in the water.. Ugh.. Hope it clears up.. Any suggestions?


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How many fish? How often and what do you feed? What filters are you running (pictures of your setup helps)? What media are you running? Pieces of what are floating in the water? What are you trying to accomplish that your current setup isn't doing?
 
Like Ecoli said you need more mechanical filtration, more gph doesn't necessarily mean better mech. Try stacking the filter with more filter pad, and or polishing pad, a 240 is a big tank, if you have a lot of stock I suggest 8x turnover so that's 1600+gph but if you have very efficiently designed filters or sumps then just more padding.


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I have two Aquatop 500 with 3 pads, ceramic rings, carbon, and bio balls in both set ups . Pics coming when I get home. The stuff floating is the poop/uneatin food. I only feed once a day and they eat all the food. Stock would be a 26" silver, 18" ornate, 9" Senegal and endlie, jack dempsey, green terror. parrot, two pikes and a few other. Will post pic/vid later


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It sounds like you have a pretty decent setup. The only thing I would change in your filtration is the bio balls. Bio Balls are excellent in wet/dry filters but they are pretty close to useless when fully submerged. The ceramic rings you are running are much more efficient bio filtration when submerged. But the bio balls aren't hurting anything, they just aren't helping much.

I have never had a tank that didn't have to be cleaned periodically with a gravel vac. I use sand for a sub straight and it has to be vacuumed more often because the poop doesn't settle into the pores between the gravel. I doubt you will ever eliminate having to vacuum but you may reduce how often you have to by engineering the water flow in your tank.

You can try to arrange the intakes and out flows of your filters to setup a circular flow patter in your tank. For example put one intake at the lower left of the tank with the spray bar at the upper left of the tank pointing horizontally to the right. Then put the other spray bar at the lower right pointing horizontally to the left with the intake in the upper right. This will help the water form a circular pattern and push the poop towards the lower left intake. A strategically placed powerhead or two will also help with getting the water to move in a circular pattern.
 
Sizzlahr said:
I have two Aquatop 500 with 3 pads, ceramic rings, carbon, and bio balls in both set ups . Pics coming when I get home. The stuff floating is the poop/uneatin food. I only feed once a day and they eat all the food. Stock would be a 26" silver, 18" ornate, 9" Senegal and endlie, jack dempsey, green terror. parrot, two pikes and a few other. Will post pic/vid later


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Click to expand...

500gph is only the pump, both those filters with media combined are maybe running 500-600gph on a good day, that is why there's so much debris. A 240 gal is huge, try Atleast 4 or more of those. Better off adding 1-2 ac110 with 2 sponges each.

_________________________________________________________________________
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?504763-Cheap-plants-less-nitrate!-POTHOS

*Go S. Vettel #1 rb8--4 MORE RACES LEFT! LET'S MAKE IT 4 BACK TO BACK WINS & 3 WDC!* :beer:
 
Oughtsix said:
It sounds like you have a pretty decent setup. The only thing I would change in your filtration is the bio balls. Bio Balls are excellent in wet/dry filters but they are pretty close to useless when fully submerged. The ceramic rings you are running are much more efficient bio filtration when submerged. But the bio balls aren't hurting anything, they just aren't helping much.

I have never had a tank that didn't have to be cleaned periodically with a gravel vac. I use sand for a sub straight and it has to be vacuumed more often because the poop doesn't settle into the pores between the gravel. I doubt you will ever eliminate having to vacuum but you may reduce how often you have to by engineering the water flow in your tank.

You can try to arrange the intakes and out flows of your filters to setup a circular flow patter in your tank. For example put one intake at the lower left of the tank with the spray bar at the upper left of the tank pointing horizontally to the right. Then put the other spray bar at the lower right pointing horizontally to the left with the intake in the upper right. This will help the water form a circular pattern and push the poop towards the lower left intake. A strategically placed powerhead or two will also help with getting the water to move in a circular pattern.
Click to expand...

Thanks. So what should I replace the bio balls with? More rings?


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F1 VET said:
500gph is only the pump, both those filters with media combined are maybe running 500-600gph on a good day, that is why there's so much debris. A 240 gal is huge, try Atleast 4 or more of those. Better off adding 1-2 ac110 with 2 sponges each.

_________________________________________________________________________
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?504763-Cheap-plants-less-nitrate!-POTHOS

*Go S. Vettel #1 rb8--4 MORE RACES LEFT! LET'S MAKE IT 4 BACK TO BACK WINS & 3 WDC!* :beer:
Click to expand...

Each filter is rated for 175 gallons supposedly .. Now the debris isn't as bad but now I have a white tint to the water. Bacteria boom? I may have cleaned too well.


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Rating is just a gimmick, my fx5 says 400gals but I use one for every 100 gallons. Also if your overstocked you need more filtration! And you should have a lot of BIO MEDIA, that houses your bb so you don't have blooms, once a month you shake your bio in tank water to clean it but not kill bb. Fill one can up with pure bio (bio max, chem stars, matrix etc) and use the other one for only mechanical and load it with filter sheets. You may see a difference but I still think you need another filter, for a 240 a sump or wetdry is ideal.



_________________________________________________________________________
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?504763-Cheap-plants-less-nitrate!-POTHOS

*Go S. Vettel #1 rb8--4 MORE RACES LEFT! LET'S MAKE IT 4 BACK TO BACK WINS & 3 WDC!* :beer:
 
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