What’s your go-to filtration setup for monster-sized tanks?

[MichaelDavis199023]

Hey everyone,

I’ve been going down the rabbit hole of filtration setups for large aquariums, canisters, sumps, trickle towers, even some DIY drum filters — and I’m curious what really works best for heavy bioload tanks.

If you’re keeping big fish (Oscars, Arowanas, Datnoids, etc.), what’s been your most reliable filtration system? Are you more into DIY sump builds or do you stick with commercial gear?

Would love to see setups, pictures, or even lessons learned — especially around maintenance and keeping water parameters stable long-term.

Thanks!
MichaelDavis199023

 

[Midwater]

One of many 'Can Of Worm' threads.

I like large sumps with a few baffles and lots of pumice. Works for me.

 

[Ansorgii]

I settled on using my own design for internal filters run by various forms of pumps (radial, stream or airlift), depending on the needs.

The core idea of my design, and why I stuck with it, is to seperate bilogical and mechanical filtration. Essentially, the water passes through a large volume of rough sponges that allow for the breakdown of partickes and biological filtration, in which snails and arthropods keep the bacterial film from overgrowing, an area for mud to settle, am are purely for the transformation of nitrites and finally a fine sponge, which catches all the excess biological film and broken down organic material.

I keep changing the fine sponge every 1-3 days, depending on the load, and can remove a lot of waste before its unnecessarily broken down without disrupting the biological filtration at all. The latter part was my issue with other filters, after every cleaning, I felt like it had to resettle, and if to much collected in the filter it started to gas out.

But like mentioned befre, this topic is a bottomless well with different ideas, concepts and everyone in the end finds their own way.

 

[pacu mom]

The only way to reduce the bioload (if you don't want to lower your stocking) is to change the water. A continuous drip system might to the trick, as water is constantly being replaced. For doing large water changes, consider Ultima II filters, such as Ultima II 4000 filters. They have good biological media, and their purging system makes water changes a snap--pumping tank water through the filter to purge it--no more slow siphon draining. One MFK member recommended having a drain close to the Ultima for easier purging.

 

[robert_gorajski]

I'm in the process of designing a new ~500 gallon aquarium and have been thinking a lot about filtration for a heavy bioload.

Right now I’m considering two routes:
1) A ready-made bead filter (Air-Aqua SuperBead Small) + a trickle filter. https://www.air-aqua.com/en/superbead-small-wit_2
2) DIY – a 3-barrel system in series + a trickle filter.

By “3-barrel system” I mean the common design you see on YouTube: three drums filled with moving-bed media such as K1/K3 from Evolution Aqua:
https://evolutionaqua.com/k1-media

I’m based in Poland, so if I go with the bead filter I’ll probably be ordering it from Germany.

Just sharing my current ideas here in case it’s useful for others planning large tanks as well – I’ll be following this thread with interest.

My fish (I apologize for using Latin names for fish; I am not sure of the correct common names).

- Cichla Kelberi - 2x
- Megalodoras uranoscopus - 2x
- Parachromis managuensis - 1x female
- Potamotrygon castexi -1x male
- Herichthys carpintis - 1x
- Osteoglossum bicirrhosum -1x

They currently live in a 250-gallon aquarium.

 

[Simonas]

I have always used sumps and do on both my 9' and 6' tank both with lots of alfagrog, sponges a fluidised K1 bed and filter wool

 

[Egon]

I have an 1100 and a 450 going to the same sump system, super easy. I have submersible pumps for the return. For mechanical filtration (poo) I put filter floss in the corner overflows. I fill the overflows with bioballs then the filter floss on top, very easy maintenance.
On top of all that, I use a trickle system that flows a couple gallons an hour into the tank then overflows in the sump to my yard. This system or a version of it has been in place for 16 years now