Under-Filtered?

[Ifti]

How do you tell if your current filter is up to the job, or if you are underfiltered??

 

[StandbySetting]

When you have levels of ammonia that are detectable on your hobby test kit, that would be the definite indication, but another one in my opinion is the gathering of detritus on the bottom of the tank due to poor circulation, that's just me, I run a planted set up and would rather not have decaying matter sitting on the bottom of the tank producing ammonia, that may encourage algae.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree, there's a wide range of filtration amount you can get by with depending on your goals. As you gain experience over the years you begin to get more and more feel for the signs and symptoms. A nice healthy middle range for beginners is a tank that hardly ever shows any blips of ammonia or nitrite, despite substrate disturbances and a tank that doesn't seem to show a strong need for it's weekly gravel-clean-water-change when you dig the siphon cylinder down in and get to work.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Filtration to keep a healthy tank merely needs enough media volume that you never see any ammonia or nitrite in your samples.
A gravel vac is an easy way to deal with detritus on the bottom of the tank, you need to use one anyway to clean the substrate during water changes. A plant person would be better off having materials decaying on the tank bottom to become fertilizers but each of us maintains our tanks in our own unique way so I can't say having a grossly over-circulating filter that can lift fish food off the bottom is bad.