Is My Penn-plax Cascade 400 Power Filter Big Enough ?

[sbergman]

I recently bought a 150 litre (40 Gallon) tank that cam with a new Penn-Plax Cascade 400 internal power filter.
(URL: http/www.pennplax.com/Pages/Aqua.pages.....;/Aqua20F.html)

The filter is capable of filtering 110 Gph (upto 20 Gallons)

Could some please confim that this filter is big enough for a planted tropical fish tank with about 16 different small fish like assorted danio, neon tetra, guppie, and silver shark.

my understanding is that as a rough guide I should be able to filter the tank twice per hour meaning that I need to filter 80 Gph which means that this filter should do the trick, however, what does the (upto 20 gallons) mean ?

Is this refering to the volume of water it can handle at any one time ?

Also, this device has a low, med, high speed select, whould you say that the filter rating is at max speed, meaning the water turbulence will be too high and im better off getting two and setting them to low/med speed.

Regards Steve
Australia.

 

[rdd1952]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

As a general rule, you need to filter the water 5x per hour so you really need a filter rated at 200gph or more. I can't imagine why they would sell it with such a small filter. After all, it even says that it's for a 20 gallon tank (which would be processing the water 5.5 times per hour). As for the speed, generally, to get the full gph out of it, you have to run it on high. That's usually not a problem as most fish like the current. I would check with the store you got it from and see if they would let you swap it for a stronger filter.

 

[sbergman]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

As a general rule, you need to filter the water 5x per hour so you really need a filter rated at 200gph or more. I can't imagine why they would sell it with such a small filter. After all, it even says that it's for a 20 gallon tank (which would be processing the water 5.5 times per hour). As for the speed, generally, to get the full gph out of it, you have to run it on high. That's usually not a problem as most fish like the current. I would check with the store you got it from and see if they would let you swap it for a stronger filter.

Thanks for the quick response. Good to see this forum is active..

As a complete newbie, i assumed what they gave me was good enough, but I have been wondering if it is up to scratch since losing a few fish ( 2 x silver shark (to whitespot), 1 x Danio leopard (belly dropped and lost balance ??) over the last month (at different times). I was doing a bit of research now that i am more comfortable with the fish terminology and the enjoyment of this hobby.

I dont think they will swap it as it has been used now, but I will go back in pick up another one (with discount hopefully) as that will give me some redundancy in the tank just in-case one fails and will then provide enough filtration.

I have changed fish shops to one that is dedicated to aquariums and not just a local pets shop that also sells fish. Hopefully, their fish & Plant stocks are of a better quality and their advice is more reliable as well.

thanks again.

Regards Steve
Australia

 

[rdd1952]

It is a very active forum and there are a lot of very knowledgeable and helpful members. Two filters is never a bad idea. It does give you a little cushion. You will probably be fine to get another filter like what you have.