Hello guys, I am currently cycling a 20 gallon, which has a sponge filter and a whisper 5-15. I want to get a more powerful filter to replace the whisper that is cheap but also good quality. Any ideas? Thanks.
Filters depend upon the needs of the fish respecting water movement. A 20g basic (24 inches/30 cm length) will usually house small fish from quiet water, so a single or dual sponge filter is more than sufficient. If you had fish that prefer strong currents, that is when you would look into different filters, or some sort of water movement apparatus.
Aquaclear 30 is good for 20g. I keep mine all the way on low so that way my low-flow fish dont have to battle a high flow area... But it can be kept at the high-mid setting as well for a 20g
I have two 20 gallon tanks and they do best when I had the highest gph canister I could use. One has theP enn-Plax Cascade 500 (love it), the other has this Fluval C3 Power Filter. I found the canisters resulted in cleaner tanks than the Fluval C or Aquaclears that I had used.