Filtration(too much)???

[Brenus]

Can you over filter an aquarium?? A couple of people have told me you can over filter an aquarium why they did not explain.Obviously small fish could get sucked up an inlet pipe but i see no reason why else this is bad.I have a 400litre tank and 900litres of filtration however i have two filthy oscars a large plec and 3 silver dollars. Puzzled
Cheers all
Brent

 

[canarsie11]

I have read you could never have too much filteration. I have to emperor 400's on 75 gallon, and so far working well, I will see how fish like it soon!

 

[modernhamlet]

As far as I know, there is no such thing as too much filtration.

However, it's possible to have too much water flow caused by a large filtration unit on a small tank. 300 gallons/hr on a 10 gallon tank is going to create a lot of current both at the intake and outlet. Some fish can't tolerate that.

Other than that... lots of filtration is good!

 

[thecichlidaddict]

There really isn't such thing as too much, but there is such thing as too much water movement, as mentioned, and there is also such a thing as a waste of money. An aquarium only needs as much filtration as it needs, and at a certain point nothing beneficial is really being accomplished anymore.

 

[mrV]

Read this, it will give you an answer "Can you filter too much?" Like other wrote already, you can't filter it too much, put you can have lots of filtration but almost no biological effects.

 

[Brenus]

Sweet
Cheers all,get the point about wasting money as well,I decided to over filter the tank because i have oscars and i might add further fish at a later date.
Thanks Brent

 

[pendragon]

I have a 400litre tank and 900litres of filtration.

I'm assuming what this means is you have a 400-litre tank, and a filter rated for a tank up to 900-litres? This isn't necessarily a problem, but my understanding has been that rather than looking at the "For tanks between X and Y litres" recommendations on the filter box (because manufacturers can be very "subjective" with their ratings in this regard), you should choose a filter determined by it's flow rate. The general rule of thumb I've been led to follow is that filtration flow volume per hour needs to be at least five times the volume of the tank. Thus, if your tank is 400-litres, you need a filter (or combination of filters) that will process 2000 litres per hour. In this instance, using two filters each with a flow rate of 1000 lph is equivalent to one filter at 2000 lph. Even bearing this in mind, the filter you have is probably still more than sufficient, but that's what I've learned is the "proper" way to guage how much filtration is adequate.

And as everyone else has said, there is no such thing as too much filtration, per se - but mind your water movement. Excessively large filters can generate heavy currents in small tanks that all fish will not appreciate.

pendragon!