Large fish tank filtration?

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T

TerrorMan#2

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 23, 2009
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NC
Hi all,

I have just aquired a 100 gallon fish tank, this will be my first large tank and I was wondering what would be a good filter. I plan to purchase a canister filter. I was thinking the JBJ EFU 35... is it any good?


Thanks in advance!:)
 
with a canister you need to try and aim for around 5-7 turn over rate or more. So if that filter alone pushes 500-700 gallons per hour, then it is good. If not just get a fx5 filter or a couple of others that equal up to 500+gph. It should say on the box what its gph is.
 
Run one fx5 or one Xp3 or Eheim ProII with a power jet or HOB filter. That should be sufficient if you don't overstock.
 
I was thinking about getting one with a UV starilizer... Are these any good or just a waste of money?
 
If set up properly UV lights make a big difference in water clarity and also irradicate any parasites that get into your system... a great form of filtration in my experience...

That being said, all of the filters I've seen with a 'built in UV light' use too small of a UV at too high of a flow rate to be fully effective. I suggest 1W per 10 gallons of tank volume... and push water past it at 10 gph (actual flow rate) per 1W of UV... in other words... use a 10W UV light @ 100 gph (actual flow) on a 100 gal tank...

As for bio filtration... In many years of fish keeping I have never had a tank lack enough surface area to house sufficient bacteria to handle a realisticly stocked tank. Therefore I've never used any fancy bio media nor bio filters and my tanks do just fine. I do understand that bacteria may have a faster 'doubling time' with certain types of filtration (wet dry for example) but this only matters when you are increasing the bio load. Bio media in a cansiter does not increase 'doubling time' as there is no increased oxygen in the water. If you wish to post disagreement with this concept please do so with examples based on personal experience :D

Then you have mechanical filtration to consider... Which is basically served through two approaches. First, have enough water movement to move the waste into the filter intakes... Second, have the right media to remove the particles the filter picks up. Aqua Clear HOBs are the best "bang for the buck" as far as creating water movement but they have their downsides (media bypass and the sound of water falling into the tank). Canisters are better designed to not allow media bypass and can be set up to finction silently, but are quite a bit more costly.

Don't overlook the benefit of using a powerhead to move waste/debris either. The Hydor Koralia work wonderful for this. I like to use them to prevent waste from collecting in/under decor. Then then filters pick up the waste/debris or I siphon it out during regular water changes.
 
Finalfire9;3181172; said:
Your filtration depends on your stock go for around a watt per oz of fish your stocking and youll never have issues
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A watt per ounce of fish? I think you have three mantras of the hobby mixed up here.



As for a UV, if you get a UV, they're great. Don't run it all the time, and if you do run a UV make sure you have a quarantine tank. Yes, this sounds contrary to intuition however another poster on here put it well when he said running a UV sterilizer 24/7 is like putting your fish in a bubble. Now you add another fish or plant, and it's like walking into a clean room with a cold. Sure it won't kill the fish with the cold, but all the rest of the fish have weak, lazy immune systems.

So, if you want to get UV, get a standalone one that you can control when it's running and when it isn't. Besides, the UV on canister filters is of dubious design as either the flow rate is too fast for the UV or the flow rate is far lower than advertised.
 
A quarantine tank is always a good idea… and a quarantine tank is meant to protect your fish from something the new fish may bring along… A UV light will reduce the importance of the need for a quarantine tank as the UV light will immediately start helping a new sick fish become healthier…

Based on personal experience, I do not believe the theory that using a UV light in any way reduces the immune system of a fish, although I understand the base idea this theory is built off of. In practical personal experience, I have raised a number of Blue Dempseys in tanks with UV lights… Blue Dempseys are known to be prone to parasitic infection when young. As adults, I keep them in tanks without UV lights. If this ‘raised in a bubble’ theory were accurate, the Blue Dempseys immune system would not strengthen but would instead get weaker. I’ve raised at least 5 Blue Dempseys in UV’ed tanks and later kept them in non UV’ed tanks as adults…

A fish’s defense against parasitic infection has a lot more to do with white blood cell count, not an immunity against a specific virus (such as your example with a common cold in humans)…

Running a UV light 12 hours on / 12 hours off is fine and should lengthen the life of the bulb. Do keep in mind that the action of igniting the bulb puts far more wear and tear on the bulb than extended use, so avoid turning it on more than once a day.
 
nc,

A fish’s defense against parasitic infection has a lot more to do with white blood cell count, not an immunity against a specific virus (such as your example with a common cold in humans)…
Click to expand...

If you never get infections, (bacterial, parasitic, or viral) your white count is always low. Introduce a stronger fish that has heximata or Ich but has subdued the parasites responsible and now you've introduced ich into your tank.

Seeing as the turnover for a UV is typically far lower that even 1x tank volume per hour you've now potentially infected all of your fish. Problem is, that parasite that was latent in the healthy fish is monsterous to your UV kept fish as their body has not learned how to fight off weaker infections. I've seen it more than once where a fish was introduced to a healthy but relatively sterile tank and suddenly every other fish has died from something be it ich, HITH, columnaris, etc in an unreasonably short time period.

Think of it this way, you're not weakening the immune system of your stock. Your stock just never develop a strong enough immune system.
 
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