New to HOB...emperor 400 & penguin200 setup

[Moloch]

^ cool. I just didn't want to go into a setup that is KNOWN to not work out (depending on biowheels & tank surface) and risk my fish.

Its going to be a moderate stock...2 senegal bichirs & 2 pictus cats. Might add an african brown knife and/or some dithers, depending on how the sen's & cats react to being in the tank alone (they're used to being around convicts tiger barbs & a jd)

 

[KaiserSousay]

I just didn't want to go into a setup that is KNOWN to not work out (depending on biowheels & tank surface) and risk my fish.

In truth, many would be surprised at the amount of bacteria that is in the tank.
Thou they have a pickup truck load of bio media, due to many things, much of the bacteria that processes the waste is really in their tank.
Those that never clean, or do a poor job of cleaning their filters can very well have the bulk of their bacterial colonies in the tank, not on their clogged media.
I bought into that whole “ton of bio” being needed until I lurked on a discussion on another forum about just this subject, bacteria and where it really is.
I gave it a try. I pulled a whole tray full of substrat pro out of one of my canisters and waited for the ammonia spike or bacterial bloom.
Nothing happened.
To shorten the story, I ended up pulling ¾ of the bio media out with no ill effect.
I now have a 55g, African Mbuna, overstocked tank that runs just fine with no external bio media, other than the minimal amount that gets on the mechanical filter material between cleanings.
Not recommending anyone ditch all their bio, just that for most tanks the amounts people use is not needed.
The only reason I can see for having a bunch of external bio colonies is if you are setting up a bunch of new tanks and need seeding media.

 

[Dark Jester]

I run 2 Penguin 350's on my 55, similar to the Emperor 400's, with a little less water flow. First stage is the packaged blue floss/carbon Rite Size "C" cartriges (I sliced them open a little and removed the carbon, they're just mech filtration now). After that I bought some of the refillable media cartridges and filled those with Fluval BioMax. So 4 cartridges of that and 4 bio wheels for my bio filtration. Probably way overfiltered for a 55.

To be honest, I'm not really impressed with them though. Great for bio, but mech kindof sucks. They're crap for trapping small particles, and the blue pads clog really easily. I have to spray them off at least once per week. Once they clog, the filter is setup so that water can completely bypass the filter area and just run right back into the tank Not exactly efficient if the water never gets to contact the bio filtration.

I got a Magnum 350 a couple weeks ago for water polishing, and I love it. I'm thinking about ditching the Penguins and just getting a 2nd Magnum filled with BioMax for bio filtration. The filter isn't any good if water can bypass the media, and it can easily since it will take the path of least resistance. I'd rather have slow flow than no flow.

Also thinking about saying screw it to marineland in general and going the Eheim or Rena canister route. Dunno.