nor_wester Posted October 9, 2004 Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 I haven't owned a large tropical before, so I'm a little unsure what may be best here. My tank is 1220x620x455 and I want to make sure I get it right 1st time. I'm open to any suggestions & help :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fins Posted October 9, 2004 Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 I would go for a large external filter with as much circulation as possible and a spray bar. I have a tank of similar size and have 2 300 watt heaters and the largest Via-Aqua external power filter available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breakaway Posted October 9, 2004 Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 Hi Nor_Wester Firstly, Welcome to the fishroom Secondly, To Answer your question. With a tank that size, I would go with a external filter, simply because the tank is so big. Id probably add some internal power heads to give the tank a little more circulation. Good Luck with the new Tank. Breaka\/\/ay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_from_nz Posted October 9, 2004 Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 Hi there, I have a tank a similar size and have both (as well as 2 ugf's) but personally i like the internal best mainly because my external sits on the ground 900mm below the bottom of the fish tanks most external filters have a low pressure tolerance in their pumps and to pump the water up that far (and is even worse if you have lots of filter midium) you loose alot of flow with an internal they take less time to clean, have no head hight (as they are at the tanks level) so the only flow lost is from the pressure of the filter midium. if i were to do it again i would go back to the normal style tank where yo u can only see 1 1200mm face and 2 ends (at the moment i have a bullet shaped tank so you see 2 1200mm faces) adn have 4 internals running in there that way you could have great flow and only clean one filter at a time thus not killing you beneficial bacteria. although another effective filtration method i had on my old tank was cutting the return pipe short and filling a breeding tank with filter whool and sitting it out of the water so ontop of external filtration you have an effecient wet dry filter worked really well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 9, 2004 Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 Unless you have the outlet of the cannister filter above the tank, there is no head that the pump has to pump against. The only restriction is any media in the filter and the hoses, NOT pumping the water back from the cannister up to the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nor_wester Posted October 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 Thanks Folks for the welcome & the information. I'm going to be running undergrav's as well, so I guess it may come down too how much room I havearound the tank. im looking at a new Atlas 800F on the net, but I'm waiting to be emailed some more info about it. Has anyone here had any dealing with this make. Would really like to hear, Cheers :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_from_nz Posted October 9, 2004 Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 Unless you have the outlet of the cannister filter above the tank, there is no head that the pump has to pump against. In theory if the canister is either higher than the top of the tank or lower than the bottom of the tank you get head because you have a sealed loop and either way the water is transfred against gravity (the return from the canister still needs pressure to move the water up and back into the tank) or (the feed to the canister needs to pull water up in order to pump it to flow back down into the tank) this is how i understand it anyway i caould very well be wrong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 10, 2004 Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 this is how i understand it anyway i caould very well be wrong Yup, you're wrong. This keeps coming up for some reason, don't know why it's very basic, anyway... Because it's a sealed loop all the pump has to do is move the water any distance the outlet is above the water level. Take a hose, put one end in the water, suck on it until you get a siphon going then dangle the center of the hose near the floor and hold the other end up above water level. If the pump had to pump the water back up to the tank's water level then when you do this the water would simply stop at the lowest point in the hose because there is no pump to pump it back upwards. Obviously, this isn't the case. The water naturally flows through the hose until it's matching the level in the tank. That's exactly what it does in the cannister filter. Now if you lift the end of the hose up so it's say 6 inches above the water level, that's the only height that the filter would have to actually pump it. So, you're only losing 6 inches of head worth of flow and whatever resistance there is in the hoses and inside the cannister. Drop the outlet into the water and then the only losses are resistance in the hoses and cannister because there is no head. Now if you were talking about a sump, then yeah, that's not a closed loop and the pump WOULD have to pump it the height up to the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_from_nz Posted October 11, 2004 Report Share Posted October 11, 2004 :oops: Thanks for the reply IRA makes scence and clarifies it form me *also glad to know obviously im not the only one dumb enough to make this mistake* :lol: Reagards, Daniel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted October 11, 2004 Report Share Posted October 11, 2004 We all make mistakes Daniel - the dumb bit is when we don't learn from them or if we keep repeating them. I prefer external filtration only because they don't take up space inside the tank and you don't have to hide them from view so they don't ruin your aquascape. You can also maintain them without having to get your hands in the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.