So here's my situation. I'm getting ready to pull the plug on a new 240 gallon tank and I need your opinions on filtration. I currently have a 90 gallon seaclear system II ( which I hate btw ) that has a built in wet dry which basically has a Hagen 801 turned sideways. In addition I'm running two XP3's and a magnum 350(carbon filled for part time use). I figure my actual tank capacity is closer to 70 gallons so with all filters running im right at about 10 x turnover, figuring about 180 gph for each filter. The tank is very stable at the current filtration level even though I'm a sucker for cichlids and plecos.
I'm a firm believer in redundancy so I like having multiple filters on my tanks. I also believe in very large , but thinner biofilters because they can stabilize any unforseen problems in the system much faster than smaller denser biofilters can. One filter has an issue, no problem because there are several others that can pull the load.
Both of the XP3's will go on the new tank since they've been running for several years and the magnum will still be a part of the system for part time
duty, but where should I go from there? One side of me says go with a built in overflow and sump( somewhere around 65 gallons) and pump. The other side says skip the overflow and get either 2 2262's or 2 Fx5's. I really like having multiple filters, but something about the sump system is intriguing. I had a sump in my 180 saltwater system years ago and it worked great but it wasn't quite as flexible as a multi canister system could be. Granted a sump and pump properly set up could have more grunt as far as water flow goes, it seems like a muti- canister system would have the edge in mechanical filtration, which would be a bonus with cichlids and plecs.
I'm a firm believer in redundancy so I like having multiple filters on my tanks. I also believe in very large , but thinner biofilters because they can stabilize any unforseen problems in the system much faster than smaller denser biofilters can. One filter has an issue, no problem because there are several others that can pull the load.
Both of the XP3's will go on the new tank since they've been running for several years and the magnum will still be a part of the system for part time
duty, but where should I go from there? One side of me says go with a built in overflow and sump( somewhere around 65 gallons) and pump. The other side says skip the overflow and get either 2 2262's or 2 Fx5's. I really like having multiple filters, but something about the sump system is intriguing. I had a sump in my 180 saltwater system years ago and it worked great but it wasn't quite as flexible as a multi canister system could be. Granted a sump and pump properly set up could have more grunt as far as water flow goes, it seems like a muti- canister system would have the edge in mechanical filtration, which would be a bonus with cichlids and plecs.
