A buddy of mine has a 55 gallon tank with one of those penguin (I think thats what its called) filters hanging on the back. I was looking at it today, it has a tiny little cartridge filter with about a half ounce of carbon in it and a filter pad that looks like it wouldn't catch anything. Also has a little bio wheel but after all the reading I have been doing on bio filters, don't see how it has enough surface area to do anything. Anyway, the tank is crystal clear, I asked him how often he changes water, he said 50% every 6 weeks.He's got 2 large pacu about 8 inches and 2 oscars about 8 inches also. Just wondering how this is possible with a filter that in my opinion doesn't do anything. Here I am stressing out about setting up my sump and putting enough media in it etc. I am starting to think that maybe it isn't as critical or difficult as I thought.
penguin filters??
- Thread starter lucas2
- Start date
first of all you need to tell him 50% every sox weeks is not enough. he should be doing imo oabout 25-35% a week maybe more depending ion the dimensions.
Well I'd say filtration is still important. What caught my eye is that um...those "large" 8 inch pacu are going to get a little bigger, so they should be relocated if possible.
The true telling of the water would be the parameters not that it looks clear. The filter does sound to small for the bioload but without testing water parameters, hard to say. I will guarentee though for that bio load the water changing needs to be 35-50% weekly to keep the nitrates at acceptable levels.
I myself have 4 tanks running with bio wheel filters and the only time I ever had a problem was with a penguin 350 on a 65g that had three 7" piranha in it. If uneaten shrimp or smelt was left overnight then the ammonia and nitrites levels would become unacceptable the next day.
I myself have 4 tanks running with bio wheel filters and the only time I ever had a problem was with a penguin 350 on a 65g that had three 7" piranha in it. If uneaten shrimp or smelt was left overnight then the ammonia and nitrites levels would become unacceptable the next day.