First Fish Tank

[lixylou]

My apologies... the tank finally arrived today and it came with an elite jetflo 100 filter. Do you think that one is sufficient for the tank? I noticed that inside the filter there is a pretty pathetic looking filter sponge and some stones in a box... Could I replace the stones with some more sponge? Or should I leave it how it is?

 

[Essjay]

I can't find much about the jetflo except that the replacement media is a sponge and zeo-carb - so the stones would be the zeo-carb. Does it look like a mixture of balck and white particles? If it does, don't use it. Get some more sponge, any make cut up so it'll fit. Carbon doesn't need to be used full time, and zeolite will mess up your cycling and has no place in a properly maintained tank.
Or get a better filter.

 

[lixylou]

ye its black and white stones. should there be gaps between the sponge and the side of the filter?

 

[waterdrop]

Unfortunately I believe the experience with this filter is pretty marginal too. The gaps though are hard to judge. Filter design is tricky and seeing spaces in a filter does not -necessrily- mean something is wrong. On the other hand, I'd be more inclined to trust the gaps if the filter were from one of the major designers, Rena, Eheim, Fluval or Tetratec or perhaps a few others. At 95L, many hobbyists would be paying more for one section of their filter media than the entire cost of this filter, so pricewise (although never a particularly good way to judge things) it might make one suspicious. Many hobbyists would run a medium-small external cannister on a 95L, although a large HOB or internal could also handle it.

Having said all this, let me try to mention the other side of things. In the hands of a good aquarist, we've seen that small filters can work ok in a tank. Good maintenance habits (basically, performing weekly gravel-clean-water-changes with solid regularity) go a very, very long way to maintaining a healthy aquarium and is really quite as important as a decent biofilter is. Only you can know your situation, so there's a judgement call in deciding whether to give this filter a go or upgrading before you start the long cycling process.

If you decide to use it I would definately work with the members to replace the media with something we know will maximize your chances. I would probably not recommend carbon and resins taking up space that could be used for biomedia.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[lixylou]

thanks waterdrop. I am going shopping tomorrow for gravel etc, so will look at some other filters.

We are hoping to have live plants in the tank so should we get a filter which is recommended for a larger tank or will one for a 100L tank be sufficient?

 

[meguro]

u want one that gives approx. 8-10x turn over so about 800-1000 Lph

 

[ajs2294]

Sorry to be a bit random but caught no one corrected this properly yet. An L176 is Parancistrus nudiventris or Peppermint pleco, and L046 is Hypancistrus zebra or Imperial Zebra/"Zebra" pleco as far as these go they are very expensive. An alternative is L199 which has vertical stripes like the mammal zebra instead of horizontal stripes but the white will turn off-white with age.

 

[OldMan47]

A filter made for 100 litre tank will be just big enough for your tank. If you are going to get into planted tanks, higher flows are a good idea. You can either get that flow by using a bigger pump on the filter, as Meguro suggested, or you can do what I do and use separate power heads to simply give the circulation you want. I find that I can place a power head wherever the flows are tending to stagnate which makes them more flexible than simply using a big filter for the flow.

 

[lixylou]

Ok now Im confused =/
for having live plants I don't need a more powerful filter? Just more circulation in my tank?
Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[arobinson1984]

Hi Lixylou,

Yes plants need more circulation, not filtration.

One way of gaining extra circulation is by using an item called a powerhead, these aid circlution around the tank and prevent stagnant areas in the tank.

One good type of powerheads are the hydor koralias, these give a good widespread flow which is good for planted tanks.


One other thing I would mention is that if you keep your existing filter, then definately remove the small black and white chippings and replace with sponge media etc. The chippings are likely to contain zeolite which removes ammonia but will hamper the cycle.


Andy

 

[lixylou]

Thanks andy... I have purchased the HYDOR KORALIA NANO 900 PUMP/POWERHEAD EVOLUTION RANGE... Hope that will be sufficient for my tank, should I look at getting a new filter also or just more filter media to replace the stones in my current one? Any advice is greatly appreciated, I really want to get this right 1st time =/