New Here

[laura_smithuk]

good evening all,

I'm new to the site and wnated to introduce myself and ask a few questions.

I have a 96 litre tank set up at moment but am getting a bigger tank next week. i will have to cycle the new tank as filter in old tank is in built.

Have seen a external filter reduced from £125 to £73, seems like a fairly good price however i have always used an internal filter so not sure of the advantages? will a external filter be noisy?

Also want to get a background and someone suggested i painted the back of the tank black..............will this work and is it a good idea?

Once tank up and running i will put some photos up.

Thanks all

 

[sjolliff]

Hello

What make filter is it?, i use the Tetratec EX1200 and once its had a few days to run in, its almost sillent.

External advantages are eassier to clean and maintain, more media options, saves space in the tank, and IMO overall better filtration

As for the background iv just got an poster which stick on the rear of the outside,
you could pain the inside black but you would need special aquarium paint so they would be no harm to the fish, IMO i would not risk anything inside the tank

If you can take some media out of your old filter Eg sponges,foam you could stick that into your next filter and it wont take that long to cycle

 

[OldMan47]

I use Rena canister filters on several of my tanks and find that I can't hear them at all from over about a foot away. I also have other canister type filters that are equally quiet but I don't like quite as well. The Tetra-tech product line looks a lot like the Marineland C series that I have. It is not as easy to clean as the Rena but is a good working filter. The canister filters are far better, for several reasons, than the internals that I have used. The internals are hard to clean without ruining the tank water clarity because they don't actually hold the dirt inside them and capture it. The canisters sit out of sight below the tank and only the hose ends are visible in the tank. The canisters can be loaded with your choice of filter media from many different manufacturers and you are not stuck with the media from only the filter maker. A canister can often go several months between cleanings with no ill effects and very little flow reduction. The way I run one, there are no replacement media ever needed in a canister filter because you have so much room to fill with your choice of media.

 

[laura_smithuk]

thanks guys, last tank i had i couldnt get the background to sit right against tank and it looked awful

 

[waterdrop]

I used a sheet of black matting from an art shop. Its got a kind of foam thickness to it and sits nicely between the top and bottom edges of the outside back of the tank. I do have to replace the tape that I use to hold it on every now and then. I don't completely love the flat finish of the black but at least its black and doesn't draw attention away from the fish and plants. I've seen people on this forum who have tricks for using some sort of "goo" smeared between a plasic background and the back glass that makes the back glass seem to disappear. Some of these seem quite good.

Agree with sjoliff that the mature media in your current internal filter will be invaluable for use in "seeding" a fishless cycle on your new external cannister or whatever you end up with. Remember to keep that in mind and bring it back up after you get your fishless cycle going.

Agree with OM47 about all the wonderful aspects of external cannister filters. The most inherent advantage of both external cannisters and HOBs over internals is that the filter box is OUT of the tank. That's a big deal. It gives you back more tank volume for your fish and its nice aesthetically. Other advantages that are not inherent but are typical are that the externals are usually a big step up in media volume (amount of media they can hold) which is perhaps the most important measure of a filter. I find external cannisters to be extremely easy for maintenance too. You just move a couple levers to shut the water off inside the hoses and pick up the filter box and carry it to your cleaning area, so simple! The large, versatile media trays are a main feature for hobbyists, you'll find that lots of fishkeepers here like to customize the media they choose to use. Anyway, I trust OM47 that the Rena filters are great and all our UK friends like the TetraTecs a lot but I'm an Eheim man, due to the extreme silence of their pumpheads, and haven't changed out of that yet! So you've got some info with which to start your research!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

To add a little to what WD said and what I said earlier, I have seen reports from a person that I have known a while now and trust that the XP-4 in the Rena line is not up to the quality standards of the smaller filters. My XP-1, XP-2 and XP-3 filters have all been great filters for me but she tried 2 different XP-4 filters and both leaked at the seals.

 

[laura_smithuk]

it is the fluval 205 external filter i have seen reduced..............seems like quite good price

 

[OldMan47]

IIRC the 205 is about the same filtering capacity as the Rena XP-1. I have seen mixed reviews on the Fluval externals so I have stayed away from them. I am sure some of them are fine but I have no experience with them. The huge new Fluval FX5 does seem to have a lot of enthusiastic supporters.

 

[mattlee]

Hi, i currently am running a rena xp3 and an eheim 2215 classic on my tank and they are both very quiet indeed. i cant hear either of them, infact the only thing i can hear is my eheim 400 air pump which seems to be slightly noisey but you get used to it i guess...... both my filters are relatively new about 2 months old and i have had no problems with either so would recommend both to you. there are people who will say things about certain brands but it really is personal choice and experience with brands. some will say eheim are brilliant but too expensive, loads say tetratec are value for money and really good filters, and some say rena are excellent etc etc but some will have bad experiences with certain brands and slate them. i guess its the same with anything you buy if it works and doesnt go wrong then its great but if it breaks then its not..... but i would deffo recomend an external filter just for easy maintenance and tank space

it is the fluval 205 external filter i have seen reduced..............seems like quite good price

check out internet prices im sure you can buy it cheaper than that, i paid, i think, about that for my rena xp3

 

[laura_smithuk]

didnt wanna spend a massive amount because i have spent most of my spare money on the tank lol

 

[mattlee]

didnt wanna spend a massive amount because i have spent most of my spare money on the tank lol

like i said check out internet ptices and it will be cheaper and most do free postage on orders over £50. my eheim cost about £60 delivered i think....

 

[laura_smithuk]

can you remember what site?

 

[Truck]

can you remember what site?

charter aquatics do Very cheap externals...the brand to look out for are:

eheim (avoid ecco and thermo ranges)
rena
Tetratec(my fave)

 

[laura_smithuk]

thanks X

 

[mattlee]

try aquatics warehouse and premier pets and aquatics these are where i got my filters from