125 litre tank with Eheim 2215 and spong filter.

Hi all you Bristlenose fans i need some advice on the following:-

I have a 125 litre tank i am putting sand in the bottem about 2 - 3cm as i wish to put some Java fern in the tank also 3 - 4 bits of bog wood and mopani wood in the tank also terracotta breeding caves about 3.

Now with a air stone ( Large ) and a spong filter connected to an Elite 802 Air pump with 2 outlets (one connected to the air stone and one side connected to the spong filter) and says it will do aquariums up to 75.7 litres thats the pump not the spong filter, as the spong filter says it will do 200 litres, and a External canister filter a Eheim classic 350 2215, which says it will do up to a 350 litre tank which will filter 620 litres an hour, will this be enough to house four adult bristlenose's in as well as young ones? both in filtration and air?

Sorry if this sounds a bit strange, but any advice will be greatly recieved as i really want a good tank for breeding and growing.

Cheers all.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

As manufactuers rate their filters by the maximum produced by the pump under ideal conditions without media and things like hoses, The Eheim classic 350 2215 although quoted as 620 l.p.h will probably be nearer 400 when in actual use. Personally I would be tempted to use the Eheim classic 600 2217 which although quoted as as 1000 l.p.h would be much nearer the 620 mark when in use.

Hopefully others will give thier views to help you decide

plenty of filtration. perfect mix, the eheim will take care of mechanical and biological and the sponge filter will add to the biological. i have found that sponge filters do about 50-100 litres per hour.

either way it is a good setup

I think your choice is just fine and will work nicely.

Wish you all the very best with your new tank.

When done, please post some pictures.

Sounds like a good set up Lee, as above, photos would speak louder than words.

Hi All

Well i've hit a major problem with the Eheim filter as the head which houses the pump is well broken and am now trying to get a replacement or my money refunded it may take a while as brought from ebay.

Well as not to be stopped getting the tank done i have gone out and brought a FLUVAL 305 which says it will do tanks up to 300 litres but will filters 1000 litres an hour so i am hoping with all the above in my first post minus the Eheim and now including the Fluval i may get the maximum filtration and water current i need for the BN'S i have also brought a hugh bit of MOPANI wood to go in the tank with a smaller piece of mopani and small piece of bogwood, hopefully with some breeding tubes and sand added they should be happy!!

What do you all think on my fluval choice and now tank sett up, i will when i can get the time and tank is settled put some pitures up.

cheers

Fluval have a great reputation and the 305 usually gets great reviews

Mopani looks amazing and very decorative, I have it in all my tanks, but it's good you have also added some bogwood

The Fluval will do perfectly until replacement is installed.
My only heart-ache was the loudness of the filter. That was the reason for parting with the filter.

I use Fluval 205 and an Fluval u3 in a 190 lt tank and I don't get any problems I've used fluvel for about 10 years now and I would say they are 1 of the best I have ever use
Kind reguards phil

I am using Aquaclear 70 (1135 lph) on both my 3 ft tanks (125, 140L) I would highly recommend them if you have any more problems... though they are a bit small once many fry are produced. They are virtually silent.

The 125L is a fluval wide 29g tank which I bought as a deluxe kit and it came with the C3 filter which was noisy and somewhat complicated. So I quickly swapped it out... am very satisfied with the heater which came with it tho.

Best thing about Aquaclear clip ons is their simplicity and ease of maintenance

When I bought my 4ft x 18" x 24" tank it came with 305 filter, never had a problem with it and never heard it in the cupboard under the tank. Only reason I swapped it out after about 6 years of using it is because I wanted to get a bigger filter for that tank and move the 305 down to my smaller grow out tank as that only had a small internal filter. Its not even in a cupboard with the grow out tank and it is still very quiet. Only time it is ever "noisy is when I have done a "filter clean" and I haven't got it primed properly. A couple of extra pumps on the primer and a quick shake to dislodge any air bubbles does the trick and it run smooth and quiet again.

Only thing I would suggest is putting a sponge over the intake to the filter a I often found live babies (mollies, guppies and Bns) in the filter when it was cleaned. This was the only way I coould stop them getting sucked up into it.



Jon

Hey, I thought I would share my past experience. One of my last setups was a 200l 4ft tank with a fluval 305 and a sponge filter which worked perfectly until my adult bristlenose produced 500-550 fry in winter at which point the bio load was at a dreadful inballence and despite 10% daily WC's I lost 90% of the fry.

So in short. As long as you don't reach such a bio load it should be fine.

Regarding the use of sand: I have a layer of sand that is roughly 1.5cm in my 400l tank which works well bar the fact that it needs weekly siphoning to remove and disturb the bottom layer to avoide dead-spots.

Love to see some pics

Hi alll

Many thanks for all your responses i am currently running this tank with a sponge filter and the 305 fluval as this does more liters per hour than the EHEIM and i am happy with that the company who sent me the EHEIM filter that was smashed to bits inside the box when i opened it ( came new from ebay) gave me a replacement so i now have it still boxed but kept as a back up or if the good lady says i can have another tank it will go in there.

All the very best

Lee