Filters - Big tank

[Black Hair Algae]

I'm curious as to how many and what filter type(s) are big aquarium owners using?

I have a 150gal tank and I'm using one Eheim 2028 with Filter Floss, one Eheim 2229 Wet/Dry and one Magnum 350 with a micron cartridge.

I find that no matter what I still have enough particles floating around.

The Magnum 350 does a decent job for a week but after that it gets clogged up fast and doesn't perform well at all.

The Eheim 2229 has quite a few air bubbles coming out of the output tube and makes a racket, I have checked all seals; connections; trouble shooting guide; etc....to no avail. 

Any comments/suggestions are appreciated! Thanks in advance.

[babblefish1960]

The 2229 is cavitating on you, this is simply air trapped around the impeller. What is happening, is that when you clean the filter and hook it back up, not all the air is driven out of the cavity during recharging(re-establishing the siphon).

What you may wish to try, while the filter is operating, is to gently shift it from side to side, front to back, rocking on the base edge. This action should help move the trapped air from the edges of the canister to the center uptake to be expelled into the aquarium. It can get noisy, and it will take a few minutes, and the bubbles coming out the spray bar should startle some fish, don't worry about it.

Once you are able to move the canister about without hearing any air passing through the impeller, it should be completely primed without any trapped air, and voila, no more noise. This is something that is a common issue with canisters, and has an easy fix, you'll have to do it everytime you introduce air into what is essentially a closed system. For the record, this is referred to as "bleeding" the system.

This does not however, help at all if the noise concern is in fact a fault with the physical properties of the impeller.

[BigDaddy]

The eheims are great filters, but some other filters do a much better job when it comes to mechanical filtration.

Your Magnum 350 with the micron cartridge is a great mechanical filter.  User the sponge sleeve around the micron cartridge, and clean it well when it gunks up.  The first few days, you might have to clean it every day or every other day.  Eventually, it should polish your water nicely.

If you want to do an even better job, you can charge your Magnum with diatom powder.  This will eliminate even the smallest particles from the water column.  Be warned, your filter will clog very quickly (within hours depending on the level of particles you have), so clean it out when the output drops significantly.  However, if you want crystal clear water, filtering with diatom powder has no equal when it comes to mechanical filtration.

[darkdep]

The magnum's Micron cartridge clogs up after a week because, quite honestly, it's the best mechanical filtration you can get short of a diatom filter.  The tradeoff to superior mechanical filtration is a more frequent maintenance schedule. 

I've run tanks super-over-filtered, barely filtered, and not filtered at all.  I didn't perceive that the super-over-filtered setup did much more than "normal" filtration.  If your Magnum is clogging in a week, that's a sign; a sign that your tank has a lot of "bits" in it.  Big fish?  Messy eaters?

Add filter floss to your canisters.  This will give you much better mechanical filtration compared to standard sponges but, again, at the cost of more frequent maintenance.

[toomanyfish]

A "hydrosponge" attached to your HOB intake does a pretty fair job as a Mechanical filter.
You just have to be sure to pull it off the standpipe with a baggie around it, and you gotta clean it once a week, but it's easier than pulling the filter apart.

[BigDaddy]

A "hydrosponge" attached to your HOB intake does a pretty fair job as a Mechanical filter.
You just have to be sure to pull it off the standpipe with a baggie around it, and you gotta clean it once a week, but it's easier than pulling the filter apart.

No HOBs in this one, it is strictly canisters.

Good tip otherwise...

[darkdep]

BTW, if you haven't done the bleach procedure on the Magnum micron cartridge, I can tell you it makes a HUGE difference over just rinsing.  Mine turn pure white again and they look brand new.

[jdx]

I personally prefer wet/dry over any other type of fitlers for big tanks. I use single wet/dry filter on all my large tanks, they all have Walmart floss as pre-filter. They work extremely well for me.

For my 180G, I have a 40G sump that holds 5 Gallon open cell foam media, the pump is rated only 700GPH. It works twice better than the two 400GPH canisters I had.

I found canisters were easily clogged if the load was heavy. Wet/dry almost never clogs due to their enormous capacity. All I need is to replace the pre-filter floss once or twice a month, 2 minutes job and costs 2$.