Filtration for 150g

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Greg31

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Sep 15, 2009
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Maryland
I wont be setting up this tank for awhile but I need advice on what filter(s) to use for my new 150g. I will probly have it lightly stocked with a jaguar cichlid and a couple other cichlids maybe.

Was thinking a fx5, but read that eheims are better quality filters. Then I asked a lfs employee and he told me that eheims are a pain in the a!$ to clean and take apart. From there I thought maybe I will try a 55g sump or so but have no experience with dyi sumps.

What does everyone think would be my best option, factoring in ease to clean, efficiency of filtration and overall value?
 
I myself do not have any experience with sumps, I also have a 150 and have 2 fx5's running on it, I also purchased a fluidized bed filter to run in the tank as well. I never had any problems with my FX5's and for me its a breeze to clean. The tank is gonna have some heavy contenders although they are all babies now. Sev's, jack Dempseys, black arowanas amongst a few to name.
 
My vote goes with the sump. There are some great plans on the DIY fourm.
 
I like the FX5 or the sump, prefer the FX5 just because I never feel like putting a sump together.... You can usually find pretty good deals on Ebay or Craigslist for the FX5's
 
I would go with a sump for bio filtration, then a canister for water movement and mechanical filtration.
 
I run an ehiem and a rena xp3. the ehiem is no harder to clean than any other cannister. after cleaning, the xp3 has to be filled with tank water to start the pump. with the ehiem I just press the top and it fills so it's actually easier to work with. I have to remove the top of the rena every 10 days or so to clean the small snails that clog the impeller. the ehiem does'nt have this problem. I have used ehiem's for many years and imo they are simply the best. they are also the most expensive. the rena is a good filter considering it's half the price. I feel better having two filters running in case one fails.
 
I have a 150 gallon tank with a breeding pair of Jags.

In regards to ehiem canisters being difficult to clean...nonsense. I have a Pro 3 I only have to clean every 6 months.

I've never used an FX, so I'll let other comment on that.
 
I used to think canisters were great, until I built a sump. I will never go back to a canister. I now have sumps on all my tanks. A sump is by far the easiest to maintenance and if designed properly, they are more efficient and if you build your own (not very difficult at all) they are far less expensive.

There is plenty of info here about making a sump. I even have a way to make a sump with stuff you can just buy at wal-mart. If you can use a drill, you can build a sump. You can even make your own filter pads really cheap by getting the material (polyester padding fabric) from a fabric store (or some wal-marts) and cutting it your self. You can even get different densities depending on how well you want to filter and how often you want to change the filter. I can cut a years worth of filter pads for my 4 tanks (2x55g, 75g, 200g) in about an hour and it only costs about $30. I use a fine polyester fabric that makes the water crystal clear and I change the filter every week to every 2 weeks depending on the tank and how messy the fish are.

Scrubber pads are pretty cheap and do a really good job. They have more surface area than bio-balls (or most other media) and are a 1/10th the cost. The bio-tower I built for my 200g tank cost about $45 to fill with scrubber pads. It would have cost $450 to fill it with bio-balls when I priced them.
 
Thanks for that post. Gave me confidence is trying out a sump.
 
If you already have the tank and it's not drilled or installed with a weir I would not consider a sump unless you want a challenge/learning experience. But a sump isn't going to do anything your aquarium actually needs that a canister filter isn't.
If you just want a simple, compact, efficient and effective filter, get an FX5. Alternatively you could spend a lot more money on a less efficient Eheim canister that does the same thing.
 
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