More filtration = less care?

[josephjeon]

I have a 125 gallon 6' tank running on an FX5. I have 3 arowanas that are a bit over 1' each, 3 3'' peacock bass, and 1 5'' albino gibby in the tank. (yeah flame me about my arowanas all you want, i will be moving them to a larger tank in about 3 months).

Anyways, I was considering putting up another filter for my tank because 6 potentially LARGE fish do poop a lot... I water change about 40% every week but my water still manages to get dirty really fast. would I have to water change less if i added another filter? or would that not make a big difference and i'd still change every week?

 

[JK47]

Your water changes are to remove disolved organics like nitrate. Adding another filter may help with the excess mechanical but won't equate to less water changes. Your water changes might just currently be removing toxic ammonia and not just the nitrates, phosphates etc.. the biproduct of of the biological filtration cycle. Adding another filter can't hurt anyway if your stepping up to a larger tank. You'll need it. IMO an FX5 is only good up to 125 gallons for tanks on the heavily stocked side.

 

[kdrun76]

Nitrates are acidic and use up the buffers in the water. Reducing your water changes will cause your nitrates to go up and up and up. Elevated nitrates shut down white blood cell production and will cause a pH crash in your tank.

There isn't a filter in the world that can reduce the need for water changes. You still need to get the nitrates and DOC's out and replace the minerals and buffers that have been used up.

 

[Trav5150]

What media do you have in your filter? Are you only running the sponges and pads or do you have bio media in it also?

 

[DaveB]

If anything, added filtration will remove more nitrate-producing waste from view, but not from the water, tricking you into thinking conditions are better than they are.

Now... if the added filtration makes it very easy for you to remove and rinse the mechanical filters (foam) to remove the poop more often... then yes, it's a good thing and helps with maintenance. But it just shifts the type of work, it doesn't really save you any on the whole.

 

[Jc1119]

As stated above, you could add 100 filters to your tank, but it wont lessen the need for periodic water changes......other than tricky dentrators, the easiest and most effective way to lower nitrates in your system is through water changes....

However, i am an advocate of running multiple filters on my systems. I like a certain amount of redundancy and multiple filters have several advantages
1)insurance....ive had filters fail, get clogged and get unplugged..having another as a backup never hurts
2) cleaning them is typically easier and you can go longer between cleanings because of the reduced workload on each one. i run 3 filters on my largest setup and alternate months that each get cleaned
3)larger, more spread out bio can adapt to a change in the system more quickly....uneaten food, dead fish and the like can produce massive ammounts of ammonia in your system and two or three filters can handle the situation better than one IMO
4)added mech.....theres just more of it with two or more filters
5) you always have a fully matured filter ready to go on any new or future tanks

Downsides to running multiple filters are two 1) added noise 2) power consumption which are both negligible.....

 

[kdrun76]

As stated above, you could add 100 filters to your tank, but it wont lessen the need for periodic water changes......other than tricky dentrators, the easiest and most effective way to lower nitrates in your system is through water changes....

However, i am an advocate of running multiple filters on my systems. I like a certain amount of redundancy and multiple filters have several advantages
1)insurance....ive had filters fail, get clogged and get unplugged..having another as a backup never hurts
2) cleaning them is typically easier and you can go longer between cleanings because of the reduced workload on each one. i run 3 filters on my largest setup and alternate months that each get cleaned
3)larger, more spread out bio can adapt to a change in the system more quickly....uneaten food, dead fish and the like can produce massive ammounts of ammonia in your system and two or three filters can handle the situation better than one IMO
4)added mech.....theres just more of it with two or more filters
5) you always have a fully matured filter ready to go on any new or future tanks

Downsides to running multiple filters are two 1) added noise 2) power consumption which are both negligible.....

Fabulous post!!!


+1

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

+2

 

[bigbadfish711]

As stated above, you could add 100 filters to your tank, but it wont lessen the need for periodic water changes......other than tricky dentrators, the easiest and most effective way to lower nitrates in your system is through water changes....

However, i am an advocate of running multiple filters on my systems. I like a certain amount of redundancy and multiple filters have several advantages
1)insurance....ive had filters fail, get clogged and get unplugged..having another as a backup never hurts
2) cleaning them is typically easier and you can go longer between cleanings because of the reduced workload on each one. i run 3 filters on my largest setup and alternate months that each get cleaned
3)larger, more spread out bio can adapt to a change in the system more quickly....uneaten food, dead fish and the like can produce massive ammounts of ammonia in your system and two or three filters can handle the situation better than one IMO
4)added mech.....theres just more of it with two or more filters
5) you always have a fully matured filter ready to go on any new or future tanks

Downsides to running multiple filters are two 1) added noise 2) power consumption which are both negligible.....

+3