Can You Overfilter A Puffer Tank?

[phlawed]

its a cascade 1000 rated at 265gph. Is this too much filtration? i will be upgrading tanks in 3-4 months so was wanting one i could just xfer straight over to larger tank.

 

[nmonks]

Two things spring to mind.

One, the ratings on filters are without (or minimal) filter media, as far as I can tell. With a realistc amount of filter wool and such, especially once it is part-clogged with dead leaves and dish wastes, you can halve the quoted filtration rate.

Second, overfiltration is not going to be a problem assuming the water current is acceptable for your fish. For example, neons and cardinals inhabit sluggish waters, and they object to being kept in tanks with a very strong water flow. Colombian shark catfish, on the other hand, live in fast flowing waters and enjoy a good water current.

So I'd balance water flow against filtration. There's no real advantage to having massive amounts of water flow in a lightly stocked tank. People say you want the filter to turnover the water 4 times per hour in freshwater tanks, up to about 10 times in marines. A 1000 litre per hour filter is realistically a 500 lph filter, so would handle a 125 litre tank adequately well.

To be honest, I believe the actual amount of filter medium is more important. I've kept fast-growing young fish in breeder tanks with minimal flow rate but lots of media and things have been fine. For example, air-powered bubble up box filters are astonishingly effective in small tanks, despite being low tech.

Cheers,

Neale