On my 120G tank I run a AquaClear 110 and a FX5. It's plenty of filtration IMO.
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What Additional Filter to Pair with My 2 AquaClear 110's on a 120g Tank?
- Thread starter tvanslooten
- Start date
I have a fx5 on my 135 gal filled to the gills, no pun intended, with bio and have modified the return from a duel nozzle to a single using a 90° brass elbow therefore giving awesome surface agitation on a 6ft long tank.
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I've been reading a ton of "filtration" threads in here and clearly there seems to be tons of different opinions on how much filtration is enough and how much is too overkill. While I agree that there is probably no such thing as too much, I do think at some point you're just wasting time (in maintenance) and money.
I love my 110's but it does suck that I have to keep my tank so far away from the wall to make room for these monsters, but I can live with it. And even though I have a hunch they are probably enough filtration, I feel compelled to blow some money and buy some supplemental filtration. I think pairing these with a FX5 would be like going to knife fight with a rocket launcher.
Let me ask this...how many times is the water in your tank supposed to be turned over? Isn't it something like 10 times per hour. So after you subtract the volume of the gravel and a few decorations, I probably have about 100-110 gallons of water. Then my filters should be turning about 1,000 gph, correct?
I have no idea what the flow rate is on the 110's but I'm guessing about 400 gph with full media. That tells me a "smaller" canister filter is all I would need to get me to that 1,000 gph. What am I missing?
Travis
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The ac110 is 400gph after media aprox 300gph a fx5 is rated @ 920gph after fully loaded with media and aprox 4ft rise to the tank it will pump someware around 600gph. In other words with 2 ac110 + a fx5 you would be easily filtering 1200gph with a ton of bio-media.
Tank Setup 135gal, fx5, mag350, korilla 4, 3 silver dollars, 3 Red blood parrots, 12" Green severum, 10 coreys (3 emerald & 7 swarts), 2 black spotted eels, 22" fire eel, 24" clown knife, sun catfish, and leopard plaeco
Tank Setup 135gal, fx5, mag350, korilla 4, 3 silver dollars, 3 Red blood parrots, 12" Green severum, 10 coreys (3 emerald & 7 swarts), 2 black spotted eels, 22" fire eel, 24" clown knife, sun catfish, and leopard plaeco
water turnover is over ratted. i run 3 times per hour on my tanks. the key is to maximize bio media, change plenty of water, and not to overstock and my water params couldnt be better
I would definitely add the rena XP3 or XP4 both are good. I have a rena xp3 on my 55 with the first tray loaded with ceramic prefilter, then two bonded pads, and the next two trays with biomax, 40 rena bio stars, and then filled to the line with seachem denitrate. I am very happy with this canister. Im also running a CFS500 AC110, and Emperor 400 on the same 55 gallon tank. Waaaaaay overkill, but I can clean two filters every water change with no noticeable water parameter differences. Not to mention what ever media I choose to use is dirt cheap.
I always wondered about the whole turn over issue. I think after all the input here and doing more research I'm going to just grab an XP3 and be done with it.
Travis
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If you read the filtration sticky they have different turnover rates listed for different types of filters. 3-4 times an hour is ideal for a sump, or wet/dry where bypass is near impossible. A well designed canister that doesnt allow for much bypass can get away with a relatively low turnover rate as well. HOBs have a ton of bypass, this is where you start to need 10x turnover rates, as a quarter of the water coming out didnt even touch the media.
The AC110 is rated at 500 gph i would say with media your in the 350-400 gph rang unless you have alot of additional mech in there like me.
A major concern of mine with this filter design is I do not notice a considerable flow loss in the ac110 whether it has minimal media in it, or its loaded which leads me to believe that it has a considerable amount of bypass somewhere.
I would definitely add something like a rena xp3 to it. My favorite part about having the additional biomedia is you can keep a handful of it in a media bag, and if you ever need to set up a hospital tank you can just fill the hospital tank, toss in the cycled biomedia and voila instant cycled hospital tank.
The AC110 is rated at 500 gph i would say with media your in the 350-400 gph rang unless you have alot of additional mech in there like me.
A major concern of mine with this filter design is I do not notice a considerable flow loss in the ac110 whether it has minimal media in it, or its loaded which leads me to believe that it has a considerable amount of bypass somewhere.
I would definitely add something like a rena xp3 to it. My favorite part about having the additional biomedia is you can keep a handful of it in a media bag, and if you ever need to set up a hospital tank you can just fill the hospital tank, toss in the cycled biomedia and voila instant cycled hospital tank.
I didn't even consider the bypass issue - and now that you bring it up, these power filters probably do have a lot of bypass. Now you got me all confused again...lol. I love my AC110's but it would be nice to keep my tank as close to the wall as possible. If I were to ditch the power filters all together, would I need 2 canisters then? I do have a brand new wet-dry I bought 10 years ago that's never been used - maybe I just bite the bullet and give it a whirl and see what happens. I could have a FX5 and the wet/dry...would that be sufficient? And if don't do the wet/dry - what would I need to supplement the FX5 with?
Travis
