Tons of Questions

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1commander

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 22, 2007
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Georgia
I have taken care of small aquariums in the past but have recently acquired a large aquarium of 110gallons. I am new to aquariums of this size (previously, 20 gallon was my limit), so I am looking for some advice. I plan to house an American Eel (2ft) and 2 medium sized bullhead catfish, about 8 inches each. (The eel and catfish do not attack one another, and live well together. I am "inheriting" these fish.)

I eventually plan to get 2 carp 8 inches+ (bigger than the catfish, of course), and some sterlets after doing research to find if they are legal in my area.

So, that said, I am looking for any advice you can give me at all. I am incredibly new to this, so I will start with some very basic questions I have had while browsing this forum for hours on end these past few days.

1) What does HOB mean?
2) What does FOB mean?
3) What is a powerhead?
4) Can someone lay out for me what the differences are between biological, mechanical, and chemical filtration are, and the importance of each? Should I have a filter designed for each of these?
5) I have read about sponge filters being great for biological filtration and hospital tanks. However, the prices seem extremely cheap over at aquarium guys and think something was missing. What else do I need besides the sponge (some sort of pump maybe?) to get a sponge filter working? Since I have a few small tanks left over, I am thinking of setting up a hospital tank based around a sponge filter.
6) What roughly falls under the term bio-load? I figured ammonia.. and?
7) For this size tank, is a canister or powerfilter more appropriate? I have read about a few of them at aquariumguys.com, and the best they offer are rated at 90-100 gallons. Considering that most people here tend to have more filtration per gallon than the filtration supposedly supports, how many of each should I be thinking about getting?
8) Aquariumguys.com basically called the diatom filter the best filter, but warned it was dangerous to the lungs and they recommended that it only be used to clear the tank up then switiching to another filter. Would a diatom filter running full time be the best option available, lung problems aside?
9) What is an FX5?
10) What is a fbf?
11) What types of filters are the lowest maintenance? Highest maintenance?
12) What does HOT stand for? (Related to filters.)
13) What is a w/d filter?
14) What is an xp3?


I want to keep my tank properly filtered and so forth, obviously, and I am looking for filter recommendations of all kinds, with a special eye to the fish that I hope to be coming into the aquarium sometime in the future. I have heard a lot about the emperor 400 and aquaclear 110 being good choices for this type of tank, but I could be wrong here. One topic said two would be good for a 125 gallon tank, and another guy used two for a 50 gallon tank, so I am not sure. I have seen several conversations debating the merits of each, so I will probably just get one of each to begin with, plus anything else recommended here for additional filtration. Or something else entirely, if I am on the wrong path here.

I have seen Fluval5 mentioned as well. Are Fluvals and Eheims in the same category, and if so, which one would be better for what I am planning above?

Thanks for all the help and advice you can provide on these issues!
 
Wow I though you said you only had a ton of questions.

1) HOB= hang on back refers to type of filter
3) powerhead + a waterpump made to sit on top of an undergravel filter lift tube to make the filter more efficent.
9) fx5 = large capacity filter made by fluval
12) hot = hang on tank, refers to filters
13) w/d = wet/dry filter
14) xp3 = canister filter made by Rena

I took all the easy ones, will drop back in for some complex ones later.
 
Thanks bderick. I was confused with all of these acronyms flying about. I was a little clear about what a powerhead was from your description. I take it that powerheads and waterpumps are used for undergravel filters? Are powerheads or waterpumps used for anything else?
 
pumps and power heads are also used for water circulation i assume you are talking about setting up fw? fresh water
 
Yes, I am setting up a freshwater tank.

I have a new question - what is LFS? I see it mentioned several times on the site, but can't figure out what it stands for.
 
Yes...powerheads are also used to power sponge filters and for simple water movement without filtration.

Filter capacity depends a great deal on two factors...Your stocking level and the accaptable amound of maintaince...(You divided the amount of work to e done by the number of filters...In the example you sited earlier...1 E400 (Emporer bio-wheel filter with a 400 GPH capacity) is plenty of filtration for a 55 gallon aquarium. Doubling that however increases the time interval between servacing and allows a higher Bio-load...althongh on a 55 gallon tank two E400's provide much more bio-capacity than in safe to keep in a 55 gallon tank.

The Aqua Clear line of filters has been around forever and is a very simplistic and inefficiant design but they run well and seem to run forever...they also don't require you to buy special pads or cartrages and run quietly for a HOB (hang on back ) filter.

Canister filters are generally self contained external filters that use hoses to transport water to and from the Aquarium. They are the most efficiant design of all mechanical filters but can be deficiant in biological filtration.

Time for a quick break to talk about the TYPES of filtration...

In a nutshell...mechanical filtration removes what you SEE in the water.
Chemical filtration removes what you TASTE in the water
and Biological filtration removes biological poisens from the water.

Of the three...bio is the most importiant to fishkeeping...followed by mechanical and then chemical... although some degree of all three is needed in all systems.

Bio-load refurs to the number of live organisums your aquarium..and concequently your filter system is forced to deal with.

END OF PART ONE
 
BB...or benificial bacteria is present in all aquariums and is what converts the dangerious ammonia..first to nitrites and then the far less dangerious nitrates. This is called the nitragen cycle. The process takes a while to get started and this is known as cycling your tank.

A wet/dry sump is basicly a box of water undernieth your aquarium partially filled with bio-material and equiped with a sponge for mechanical filtration and a pump to return the water to the tank. This is an over simplification of course but it's enough to give you the idea.

There are a LOT of popular equipment used in the hobby and it would take far too long to list them all along with thier strengths and weaknesses but they all have them.

As a general rule of thumb...take the stated capacity of any of the filters.
(IE. "good for up to 60 gallon aquariums.") and cut it in half. Yes the filter could probubly just manage a 60 gallon tank as advertized but at a very high maintance level and with very little margin for error.

Turn over rates are also nothing more than a apporximate gauge and are ALWAYS lower than stated but it's still a useful guide. In general try for number thats at least 4 times the aquarium capacity and less than 10 times.
(some of us with monster fish go over this mark but you have to be careful and know what your doing...besides in most cases anything over 8x is a waste of equipment and power.)

In my opinion as well as others on this forum it's always better to rely on a combination of differant but complimentary filters rather than one large one.

Still others will connect several aquariums to a single large filtration system (usually a large sump). There is NO carved in stone perfect filtration system....water change schedule....of methoud...it's a question of what works best FOR YOU.... The best filtration in the world is useless if you don't maintain it. and the worst filter on earth can produce great results with almost constant attention.

I hope I was able to clear up a few of your questions for......Oh...by the way...WELCOME TO MFK.
 
LFS....local fish store....Mom and pop type rather than the large chain stores.
 
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