Habitat - Indoor :: Is there to much filteration?

[blueK5]

75 gall 3 x's occupied i female res 8-9" shell length, to feeder sthat got to big for her to eat. Anyway got two hots rated at 150gal/hr ea and an es2200 canister rated at 150 or so gal/hr .tank is filled to the top and has only 3 ceremic figures and no gravel. Is there such thing as to much filteration? Thanks for reading!

[jay2487]

unless your watching your turtle be tortured by high currents I'd say no. If you could cut the flow down on the canister it might lengthen its operating life but unless you see your turtle get caught in the current and slammed around the tank then you can't have too much filtration.

[SINI5T3R]

I read somewhere that too much filtration can filter out the stuff that turtles/fish need in water and if you take all that out it can kill them? No?

[TurtleKeeper48]

I suppose there is such a thing as too much filtration, but I don't think you are there. You said you have 3 filters, each rated for 150 gallons per hour on a tank with 75 gallons of water. 450gph/75gallons = that’s 6 times per hour that your water is filtered.

The usual recommendation for turtles is at least 5 times filtration, so you are a little ahead of that and that's very good.

I'm running one 340 gph filter on 40 gallons which gives me 8.5 times filtration and me and my turtles think it is not too much.

I say - until you turtles are getting pushed along the floor when they try to sleep, you don't have too much.

[jay2487]

Sinister, I think you are referring to carbon removing nitrates no? I have heard that passing your water through carbon to many times is not good as it removes the things that the BB and plants feed on. I couldn't imagine it being possible to overfilter without having such a current that you would visibly be able to see that your turtle was uncomfortable and having troubles swimming.

[SINI5T3R]

Sinister, I think you are referring to carbon removing nitrates no? I have heard that passing your water through carbon to many times is not good as it removes the things that the BB and plants feed on. I couldn't imagine it being possible to overfilter without having such a current that you would visibly be able to see that your turtle was uncomfortable and having troubles swimming.

Yeah it could be that. I forgot what it was tho, but that sounds right. I myself have a filtration that has 2 sides (double filter's on 1 filter) and it has a little nosel that lets me control how much water goes in and out, i usually have it all the way open that way it gets everything but I even notice sometimes that my turtles get pushed in the water lol

[TurtleKeeper48]

I read somewhere that too much filtration can filter out the stuff that turtles/fish need in water and if you take all that out it can kill them? No?

Assuming that the filter that is doing all of this filtering is providing biological media for biological filtration, I can't see how there could be a problem. The good bacteria are colonized inside the filter on the bio media – circulating the water through the bio media more times per hour should not render the process less effective. Look at this way – my Fluval 405 runs at 340 GPH. Regardless of how many gallons of water your tank holds, the water inside the filter is flowing at the same rate and is very much designed to provide biological filtration. I have heard somebody, possibly on this forum, suggest that “too much” filtration might interfere with the ability to properly provide biological filtration. I say, IMO and IME – that’s complete hogwash.

[TurtleKeeper48]

Sinister, I think you are referring to carbon removing nitrates no?

Activated carbon does not remove Nitrates.

Carbon removes oders and "online people" love to say it's a waste because you could have put more bio media, or mechanical media in place of the carbon and a well cycled tank shouldn't develope an odor anyway - and carbon wears out - so people say it's expensive, and not necacary. All that it does is remove odors, it does not effect how your tank cycles.

[Kemul]

I'd like to offer some thoughts.

Activated carbon absorbs harmful chemicals in water that affect mostly fish.
Turtles aren't really affected by those, if at all. It also absorbs bad smell, like
TurtleKeeper48 wrote. In a properly cycled and filtered tank, there is no odor.
Hence, I prefer to suggest using the space in a filter for biological filtration instead.

One of the important factors of a good filtration system is water retention in the
filter. If the filter container is small but the flow is high, water passes through
the system too quickly for the good bacteria colony to process. High flow must
be accompanied with larger container, so the amount of time water stays in the
filter can be longer.

I say there's no such thing as too much filtration. As long as the turtle is not
swimming in a whirlpool, the system is good. However, you need to keep in
mind what I wrote above: high flow must be balanced by larger container to
maintain retention time.

[blueK5]

I have the output for the canister on the bottom pushing debri toward the intake and it does flow good (if she is in front of the out put it can move her or she can swim in place) the two hots suck from the middle and the top water one at either end and the canister is in the middle to curb against dead spots.I do apperciate the intel very much. Right now we're gonna go out and see about sand and a background.Oh what about the water changes?(25-50%) still at least once a week or could it last for two? Thanks everyone!

[marisa]

An excellent response from Kemul.