Need Advice On My New Setup

[hillmar77]

Hi,
Well it's been a few months now that my 10g has been setup and everything looks good! Now I've been focussing on my new 55 gallon setup and I'm on the filtration part of it! I have a Rena filistar xp1 that has alot of bio rings and 2 fine filtration pads( was planning on using it as my main bio filtration.) On top I've purchased a emperor 280 and a penguin 350 as my main mechanical and chemical filtration. The question I have is if I have too much filtration? And can it work Into the negative with this set up? I'm planning on a community tank with neon's , daino's and Cory's.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi hillmar, no time to discuss at the mo but quick comment that there is no such thing as too much filtration from a water/fish point of view but there can be too much flow sometimes from the point of view of individual species of fish and plants. WD

 

[hillmar77]

Thanks WD for the always good advice. I just finished setting up my 30Gallon Goldfish tank today and added 2 small Oranda goldfish's. Currently its a 30Gallon tank, with a Top Fin 60 (whisper 60) HOB which I stole from my 55 gallon since I'll be running the Penguin 350B, Emperor 280, and Rena XP1 on my 55G. Also stole the 200W cheapo heater from the 55 too and using it on my Goldfish tank. What I did was after adding the 2 small Oranda's in I stole the whole filter media from my 10G tank and threw it into the media slot in the Top Fin 60, I also stole a small amount of the gravel from my 10Gallon tank too.
Hopefully there is enough good bacteria in my Aquaclear 20 in my 10gallon tank to keep ammonia and nitrite levels in check. And I'm also hoping there is enough good bacteria in my top fin filter to start establishing in my goldfish tank. Will be monitoring it closely these next few days! Maybe I'll click some pics later

 

[hillmar77]

Just checked readings from my current 10Gallon (where I stole the whole filter)
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 20ppm
Hardness 75ppm
Chlorine 0ppm
Alkalinity 40ppm
PH 6.8
I'm still a little worried about the alkalinity and PH but its been giving me those readings for over 2 months now. I added some prime just to be in the safe side in case of some weird ammonia spikes while I'm sleeping. I wonder if having Gravel (little smooth pebbles) become a bigger bio filter then even bio rings or the filter?! I mean 20lbs of pebbles could probly support alot of good bacteria, even more so then your filter?

 

[waterdrop]

The autotrophic bacteria very much prefer the filter media because the trapped and focused flow exposed them to much, much higher amounts of the ammonia and oxygen and trace minerals that they need. Don't forget that as oraganic debris (fish waste, plant debris, missed fishfood) is trapped by the mechanical catching action of the filter and is broken down by the heterotrophic bacteria, the ammonia level -inside- the filter box will be higher by yet another notch beyond the free ammonia coming off the fish gills and generally available out in the tank.

~~waterdrop~~