i have always heard that it's a good idea to have the maximum capacity of your filter greater than the number of gallons your tank holds (overfiltration). but the other day while speaking with a sales person at my lfs i was advised to under filter my tank due to the fact that i plan on doing a planted tank. any thoughts? i have a 120g (4x2x2) and was recomended the eheim 2026 model.
planted tank filtration
- Thread starter Bobtastic6
- Start date
My only thought is that the fish waste would act as a fertilizer for the plants. I have a 315G planted tank and I am running a 100G sump that moves about 2000gph along with an FX5. My filtration does not pick up waste off the bottom of the tank. Every month or so I have use a powerhead to blow the waste off the bottom. Plants seem to be doing fine.
I have a marineland c220 on a ten gallon tank, which I thought would be overkill. Like ross, I get a pretty big build up of fish waste in my tank from my one betta and 3 otto's. My output is pointed at a tank wall so maybe it's not exactly a flow problem. If it's a planted tank you probably aren't going to need too much filtration to manage the typical filtration problems like nitrates, ammonia, ect. However if your worried about mechanical filtration I would still get higher flow. Fish poo does build up in my tank, and I have like a 20x turnover rate in my tank. Plants still appreciate flow, but one thing about having high flow that annoys me is it's hard to control which way your plants will end up
Honestly I'm not super educated on canister filters, but from what I've heard fx5's are pretty sweet. I'm not sure what they're rated for or the gph, but it is a 120 gallon tank, that's pretty big. I wouldn't worry to much about overfiltration. The waste products your plants are going to feed off of will still fertalize your plants whether they're in the display tank or in the filter. Whether the gph is too high is really only up to personal preference.
It is a common practice to underfilter low bioload heavily planted tanks. Plants eat nitrates. I tend to have high bioload planted tanks, so I find the mechanical filtration of bigger filters is welcome.
An fx5 on a 120 is perfect. I run my 125 with an fx5 and two sponge filters, I think it could still use some extra filtration.
An fx5 on a 120 is perfect. I run my 125 with an fx5 and two sponge filters, I think it could still use some extra filtration.