chimera Posted February 15, 2005 Report Share Posted February 15, 2005 simple really, you get what you pay for. as someone posted earlier on this thread (pies i think?), spend a little more now and get a good quality filter that will go the distance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petplanet Posted February 17, 2005 Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 Ehiems are good. Wet/Drys had some teething problems and I think their aqua stop system could be better. Pricey, but if top off the line is what you want then it is the price you pay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northland chic Posted February 19, 2005 Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 I use a fluval 403 and a 103 on a different tank. I have found them both to be great. The only downside is that my LFS told me last time I rung that you can't get parts for 403's anymore. Which is a buggr but on the good side he sent me an assortment of parts for really cheap. Apart from that I use internal filters I got off trade me called maji jet or something like that. I only tried these cause they were cheap and they had a spray bar. But they do require cleaning quite often (are easy to clean though) and get noisy. We also have 2 PF 500 which we got with a tank we bought(they didn't come with impellors) . I like these as well but have never seen them in shops only once or twice on trade me.Also they seem to go through the impellors but if we had the proper ones they may not we just use impellors from little Rio's for them. Tried a shark but wouldn't even really pump out water so gave up on it lucky it was free so I wasn't that shattered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted February 19, 2005 Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 I use only DIY trickle filters with spa pool cartridge pre-filters. On my 1200L planted tank I use a trickle filter with 12L of Eheim Effisubstrat (5400m²) in the wet/dry area and 14L (2940m²) of commercial Siporax in the wet section. From time to time I add Seachem Purigen to the Weir section of the filter to maintain the sparkle in the water. The prefilter is a 75sq foot pleated cartridge type of 15 microns so the water is as crystal clear as a good marine tank. The pump cycles the water 5 times an hour (6000L/hour on a 1200L tank). I’ve devised a water return with a float / valve like that in your toilet. The water return is low in the filter so it never sucks air in and gurgles. As the float rises it opens the valve. This stops air suck in no matter what the flow is. As the pleated cartridge clogs up the flow reduced slightly. Consequently the filter is totally silent, a major concern for me as my other hobby is HiFi. The stereo and tank are in the same room so noise is bad when listening to music. I've tried canisters and hang on filters and find them very painful to use by comparison. The main problem is needing 2 or 3 canisters for a tank this size. Canister filters are a pain to clean and reprime. They don’t clean the water as well as a good trickle filter either. You know you’ve got clean water when you look through the long length of your tank and it’s just about as good as having no water in it. In my case this is 2.4m of water and it’s almost like looking through air… Trickle filters, if properly designed never need cleaning. Mine's been running for 10 years without ever being cleaned. The prefilter takes out all the muck that would clog up the filter media. This filter is overkill for a tank this size but it means it has massive capacity in the case of emergency. I've never had an ammonia or nitrite spike since installing it. Before setting up as a planted discus tank I used to keep Africans (for 2-3 years). I got bored with the Africans, although they are great fish and I'd still keep them if I had space for more tanks. I found the challenge of planted tanks better. Even with 300+ Africans the filter used to cope no problems and the water was always crystal clear. It only got a bit dirty during feeding but within 15-20 minutes it was all clear again. The filter takes very little work to maintain, - about 15 minutes a week to change and clean the filter cartridges... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted February 19, 2005 Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 What are the measurements of your tank Warren? Got any pics? Sounds sweet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted February 19, 2005 Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 2400mm long, 820mm wide and 640mm tall. Here's a link to pics about 2 months ago: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewto ... k&start=30 It was just setup for about 2 weeks in the photo after completely rearranging everything. It's much more mature now, looking like it's been going for years... I'll post a current pic during the week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke3d Posted February 19, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 That is one massive tank. Looks great in that photo nevermind the more mature version!! I am assuming their are simpler versions of your DIY filter - any suggestions on where to start looking. I have found a few things on the net, nothing that has grabbed my attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiverJohn Posted February 19, 2005 Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 Thanks for the info Warren! If you like you could copy and paste your reply into the post on "one or 2 filters" as well. Maybe I should look a bit harder at the 3 DIY jobbies I aquired when i purchased the tank ( for those of you wondering it was the 5x2x2 on trademe. ) With a tank this size using your rate of filtration mine should be somewhere around 3000lph. But I guess you need to consider the "acreage" :lol: of your surface areas. The DIY cantister filter came with approx 15l of what i think is one of the Efi** filter mediums (not the noodles). Thanks for the info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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