Filter And Heater Recommendations

[sufcdan]

After purchasing a new 60litre tank i now have the choice of which filter and heater to go for.

Im looking for an ALL external setup so would either like a good external filter with inline heater or a filter that has a heater built in.

Im looking for recommendations, for my tank size. Need to know like product names etc

All advice will be greatly appreciated

 

[OldMan47]

I know that Rena makes a hang on the back filter that has a space in it for one of their heaters. If you are looking for a canister type filter, many of them are very nice to use and most of the inline heaters can be used with any brand of canister.

 

[waterdrop]

Hydor inline heaters work well.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[sufcdan]

Im leaning to going with an ehiem 2222 external filter:

Eheim 2222

And a hydor inline heater but dont know which one to go with my tank size?

Are these suitable for my 60litre?

Thanks

 

[waterdrop]

Hard for me to say something bad about that combo since its exactly what I'm running.. 2222 + hydor200

But I'm running it on a 108L, putting the turnover a little over 5x and taking the force a little better than a 60L would. You've also made me realize I don't really know whether you can or whether its ok to suppress the force. Its not like one of those huge filters with special flow controls - if you can slow it down I guess it would be done with the levers that control the input/output valves at the pump head. I just rotate them all the way to "on", so I don't know, have never researched whether it would hurt the pump head to lower the flow via one of these valves (it could go either way, lol, the hardware guys could be laughing at me and saying "thats what those levers are for" or "no, you'll burn out the motor!")

So my main concern, as I guess you are asking already, is whether this equipment is too big and I don't really know the answer, don't know whether pointing the spray bar holes at the back wall would tame it enough - you don't want smaller fish being swept around the tank constantly! In all other respects, though, I can say that that equipment is awesome - dead quiet and heater stays right on the degree.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

As a general priciple, you should be able to throttle the flow down to about half of full flow using only the return to the tank. Do not throttle the valve that brings in water from the tank as that can cause cavitation and damage the impeller. How well a particular filter tolerates being throttled is something you should be looking at your owner's manual to find out. How to judge when you have about half flow is also diffcult without some kind of measuring device.