Filter set ups for a 6ft tank?

Hi all, Im setting up a 6ft and wonder if those sponge filters are any good?

What would everyone recommend in value for money plus maintenance friendly?

There is a small underwater pump/sponge filter in there at present plus I added a hang on filter. There are only 4 rainbow fish in there for the moment.

Plans are for trying to breed both the rainbow fish and the pepp bristlenose.

Any opinions would be gratefully received. Thanks

6 foot tank NEEDS at least a canister filter. Sponge filters are amazing but they only filter about 50 ltrs of water per hour. You want all the water in the tank to be filtered at least 4 times every hour. for breeding things, especially peppermints, you want that to be more like 6 times an hour.

What is your budget?

If you are a bit tight for cash then the ProAqua range is quite good for the money. but if you have a bit of ezxtra cash then you can go past the fluval range. they are one of the big name brand filters that do higher flow rates. they do cost a fair bit more though.

I also like the idea of two cansiters. thats what i have on my four foot tank. Getting two smaller canister filters means you have back up incase on goes belly up.

Thanks Doug
yes the pro aqua is more to my budget. Did a search and found a 2000l per hour. Is that enough?

Also it has a 9w UV in there. I am wondering if I should get that?
Reason is I have the tank outside under the verandah. It gets filtered light on 1/5th of tank for an hour or two a day. I am noticing its starting to get algae on the end panel.
Am looking fast for some Ottos lol.


It will have around 10 young pepps, 3 older ones and around 10 rainbows when fully stocked and running good in a few weeks.

i have the proaqua 2200l/h unit with the UV on my grow out tank and it works well

great, thanks Doug, thats the one I was looking at getting.
Going to order right now.

but wait..... what sort of heater would I have in there?
Is a 300w going to be big enough
I really want to run a bit of solar - pvc back poly pipe- but have no way of regulating the temp. Its going to drop in temp soon and cause increase in power in keeping tank warm.

Talking to a guy I got some plants off today and he has a fantastic plant tank set up. He runs a heater that cost around $100 and says it only comes on for around 10min then off again for a few hours. might email him and get t he type again as I got info overload on the plants.

happyfish wrote:

great, thanks Doug, thats the one I was looking at getting.
Going to order right now.

but wait..... what sort of heater would I have in there?
Is a 300w going to be big enough
I really want to run a bit of solar - pvc back poly pipe- but have no way of regulating the temp. Its going to drop in temp soon and cause increase in power in keeping tank warm.

Talking to a guy I got some plants off today and he has a fantastic plant tank set up. He runs a heater that cost around $100 and says it only comes on for around 10min then off again for a few hours. might email him and get t he type again as I got info overload on the plants.

:face:

100$ for a heater you crazy man.. I would go for two heaters personally myself, even over here they would be less than £25 each...

100$ for a heater you crazy man.. I would go for two heaters personally myself, even over here they would be less than £25 each...


mmm, I thought so too, but thinking about long term if its only on for 10min every few hours then it might actually be more econmical power wise long term. Especially in winter time.

Am going to have to sit down and work out figures and amounts 'to be or not to be'
saved first.
No way buying it without doing figures!!!

The $100 heater would have been a titanium 1000watt heater. They are awesome heaters but they are very expensive. You wouldnt have to worry about a back up with one of them. they are bullet proof!

Personally though i would go with two 300watt heaters for redundancy. I have one set to 24degrees and one set to 28 where i like the tank to sit. that way if the primary one goes then the temp will drop enough that i notice but not enough to kill the fish. 2 300watt heater will prob run you about $70-80

Just a thought on this, but I would think that you may get some issues with only using one big heater, especially in a 6ft tank one with a heater that might only need to come on "for 10 minutes every few hours" due to the temperature variation in the tank.
Near the heater the water would end up being a lot hotter when its on than at the furthest part of the tank away.

Obviously there is always going to be a slight difference between where the heater is and the remotest part but by using two heaters this would be minimised.

What do others think..??

Cheers

Jon

thats why we use the filters and powerheads to move the water around

Doug wrote:

thats why we use the filters and powerheads to move the water around

Understand that, I have them in my tank I was just trying to add to the benefits of two heaters being better than one.

My point was that its like being in the bath, you can be in swirling the water about to mix it up, however laws of physics will mean that the end that the hot water comes in is going to be hotter than the end where it doesn't.

The same thing happens in a tank, althought not to such a degree I know, but by having two heaters you reduce the disparity between the temperature differences when the heater/heaters is/are actually on, which in a 6ft tank could be several degrees.

Cheers

Jon

Ive ordered a Pro Aqua 2000L/h canister filter. Yippee.
Would this be enough on its own for the 6ft?
Thinking of maybe adding a sponge filter? But to be honest I really have no idea on the sponge filters and how/what they should be doing!!! Ive seen some advertised to do 700L/h.

Also got a second 1500L/h one that would go in the little 3ft tank. Was thinking if I have babies in there bigger filter would be better?. Both filters plus postage were just under $200 total. Thought that was good price.

Shame, their heaters were out of stock!!

I like and use sponge filters (HydroV and HydroIV). They help with oxygen exchange at the surface,and baby bristlenose are always swarming all over the sponge feeding on biofilm that these filters are good at collecting.
I also use powerheads (aquaclear 802) attached to aquaclear quick filters to help move water from one end of the tank to the end where filter intake is.
Creates a nice counter clockwise current which my fishes (mostly plecos)enjoy.