How much filtration needed for a 450gallon?

[turtlesrock]

i would say to just keep the fx5's, but add a DIY sump with a pump of about 2000gph!

 

[Crazyfish88]

I would vote for selling the 2 fx5's and build yourself a sump.

You can build a sump large enough to handle 450g very well for about 200-250 dollars if you diy. And then you can have a little left over from the sale to spend on other tank needs.

What ever way you choose I would not even dare to call the filtration system complete until you have enough flow to turn the tank over a minimum of 6 times or in your case 2700 gph of filtration. If it were me I would shoot for 10x turn over but to each his own. The higher you go the cleaner the tank will be.

I would love to build a sump if I knew what I was doing which I don't know nothing about plumbing and I don't really have the free time to DIY and build one. I work a full time job and sometimes I work overtime of 100+ hrs every 2 weeks...On top of that I start at 6am somedays so I'm too tired after work. I work in a warehouse and lift heavy (15-30 kg) all day for a huge Airline franchaise food company that supplies airline foods and some franchaise restaurants. So I cherish my free time whenever I get my day offs and just relax and watch my fish

 

[mos90]

i was going to buy/build a sump for my new 300 gal setup but im in the same boat with work as u. and also dont know a lot about the plumbing aspect. so i decided to use 2 fx5's. i could also add 1 or 2 emperor 400's i have laying around. couldnt hurt.

from what ive heard, not sure how accurate this is, that sumps for freshwater arent as effective for biological filtering as a canister .but can have much higher turnover rates. but may not be true.

 

[turtlesrock]

i was going to buy/build a sump for my new 300 gal setup but im in the same boat with work as u. and also dont know a lot about the plumbing aspect. so i decided to use 2 fx5's. i could also add 1 or 2 emperor 400's i have laying around. couldnt hurt.

from what ive heard, not sure how accurate this is, that sumps for freshwater arent as effective for biological filtering as a canister .but can have much higher turnover rates. but may not be true.

sumps are best thing you can get for bio! they are huge which means you can fit a lot of media. and it has direct interaction with oxygen, BIO bacterica grows 5x faster if it has a lot of exigent!

 

[Iffrat]

CHEAP!!!! how are they cheap! when i go to the store looking for a filter i get "petco brand filters" (which are the cheapest ones) and they actually work better than other filters. heres there pirce of each of the brands filters (each filter rated for 30 gallons)

PETCO brand Aquaclear
$21.37 $39.99

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the petco wins!!!! by about 19 dollars!!! i would these filters because; they are cheap, they pump faster then other brands, filer very well (thanks to it 4 stage filtration)

no disrespect but when your dealing with large tanks quality trumps cost all the way .. the fish are going to cost more then the filters and would you like to loose $1,000 worth of fish to save $500 on filters??

hang on back
i have one in my aro tank and the glass tops fit snug with the filter causing no gaps..
trust me 2 ac110s and 2 fx5s are the way to go

I like this idea .. and would say it would work just fine!!

hang on back
i have one in my aro tank and the glass tops fit snug with the filter causing no gaps..
trust me 2 ac110s and 2 fx5s are the way to go

I run 100% bio rings in my Fx5's ... the sponge is big enough to clean the water with out to much of a problem .. and the rings give the max amount of bio that i can get out of the filter .. and if i was ever going to "polish" the water i would pick up a rena 3 and fill it with filter pads to clean crap out of the water .. but that has not been a problem .. the Fx5's stock filter pads with rings works great for me!!

I would vote for selling the 2 fx5's and build yourself a sump.

You can build a sump large enough to handle 450g very well for about 200-250 dollars if you diy. And then you can have a little left over from the sale to spend on other tank needs.

What ever way you choose I would not even dare to call the filtration system complete until you have enough flow to turn the tank over a minimum of 6 times or in your case 2700 gph of filtration. If it were me I would shoot for 10x turn over but to each his own. The higher you go the cleaner the tank will be.

I like the idea of DIY sumps and they work well .. but often its much much more work then you would think .. and all the good ones i have seen set up DIY are to large to fit under the tank ..

i would say if you have the means to do it .. go for it .. but it might be much more simple to spend the extra money and have a nice clean simple set up ... it cost much more .. but its so much less work in the long run .. IMO ... but i am planing on doing a hybrid diy sump with Fx5 in the future to get the best of both worlds .. and if the power goes out or anything was to happen .. the Fx5 will kick back on and keep things going until i can get the sump back up and going ..

 

[turtlesrock]

no disrespect but when your dealing with large tanks quality trumps cost all the way .. the fish are going to cost more then the filters and would you like to loose $1,000 worth of fish to save $500 on filters??

i didn't say not to get them i said that they are EXPENSIVE. i have expensive fish in my 100 gallon and i do not have expensive top brand filters, i have 2 cheapo HOB's and a DIY sump. all HOB's work the same the ONLY thing that makes them better than others is the media!!! i dont use the media that come with them i always mod the media so it works better. i went to the LFS and looked at the AC's and it had A LOT less gph than the cheapest ones!

my cheapo filters work much better than my "top brand" ones!