Equipment Review and Discussion :: Bio-wheel filter in addition to canister model?

[jonnenaarala]

Hi!
I have about 50 gallon tank where one 10 yrs RES is living. At the moment I have Project PJF 1001 canister filter (I know it is not very fancy...) rated at 1000 l/h. It keeps water very clear but I am concerned about possible ammonium level rises and would like to add more power to biological purification. I have been thinking to add a bio-wheel filter to my set-up. One nice system could be Marineland Emperor Bio-wheel 400. What do you think about this idea?

I would be very glad for any comments!

Cheers,

Jonne

[steve]

How often are you doing water changes? And are they partial changes or complete changes?

[jonnenaarala]

At the moment I am doing partial changes (about 25%) weekly.

Jonne

[steve]

Is your turtle in good health? No shell or algae problems?

If you throw in a 50% or 100% change a month, I'd say you're fine. But some people do more frequent changes, some do less. If you have a fully stocked tank with fish and plants, then the extra bio filtration would be good.

[Bascomb]

john-ala -- The water exchange should be 5 times or more. If you have a 50 gallons of water you should have at least 5 times the water volume in gph. I would up size the canister if I were you. A 300 to 350 gph would be good. b.

[jonnenaarala]

I have about 150 litres water at the moment so my filter which is rated at 1000 l/h should be OK in that respect. However, I am wondering if I could benefit adding another filter unit. Maybe Bio-wheel or another canister filter.

If I would have two canister filters is it a good strategy to use my old one mainly for mechanical filtration and new one for biological filtration? Then I could clean mechanical one without disturbing the biological filteering process.

Jonne

[mikee]

I am not sure how your filter was rated? If the fish people rated it that may not be enough. How does that equate to gph? You need five times (gph) to get enough filtering. Having one filter do your mechanical and one do you biological may not work the way you want. Both will collect the particles and not just one.

[jonnenaarala]

I have about 40 Gal water and filter is pumping 260 gph. It is 6.5 times. I think I am going to buy Eheim Prof. II 2028 filter because it has those nice baskets for filter material.

Jonne

[mikee]

If everything is hooked up properly and filration gets off on the right foot you should be ok. Good Luck!