Filtration

[Jefft]

Heading to Petco to get 2 40g breeders and Sams or Lowes to pick up a HD Edsel Rack to set them on. I have more females holding than I know what to do with and a couple of males in my community tank ready to kill each other. I will be setting up at least 1 40 gallon breeder today. I need to know how well do the sponge filters work? Do I need a HOB filter as well or will a 40g sponge ( you know the type air hose hooked to the top) will that handle the filtration adequately?

 

[jonclark96]

I'm always a fan of multiple filters on a tank. The sponge will handle the bio load on the tank but I prefer a HOB filter for mechanical filtration.


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[cabinetmkr39]

I agree with Jon.

 

[Avatar]

Oh Happy Day

Depends on stocking/nutrient-waste loads. Good rule for filtration is to double (or treble) rated filter capacity. If I were to go simply with sponges on a 40 I'd use two in opposite corners - just be mindful of the fact that increased/decreased air-uplift through a sponge filter has a direct effect on water flow through the filter and hence efficiency. Small power heads fitted into the tops of the uplift tubes make for nice alternatives to air and create currents but they also tend to suction up absolutely everything (hence some calling them "poop filters") and can get clogged up pretty fast at which point the sponge collapses and the flow/filtration drops to virtually nothing.

Also, just because a sponge filter is rated/sized up to and for a specific size tank doesn't mean that bigger isn't better - I use sponges for 40s in all my 10G tanks - makes for a truly massive denitrifying colony and cuts way back on the need to rinse sponges.

Really fun setting up new tanks - sure it's part of the reason I have so many. Have a riot.

 

[Jefft]

yes .. well happy day is more like emergency separation of breeding colonies because everything has just gone nuts in my 75 community tank. The electric blue ahili has gone psycho napoleon. So this is more an emergency fix it. Thank you for the thoughts though.. and thanks everyone for your input.

 

[bossanova]

what's your stock list ?

 

[Jefft]

on the 75 gallon.. all were juvies mind you.. till last night..

75 gallon tank.

8 Yellow tail acei
6 Copadichromis borleyi Kadango ''Red Fin''- Pristine Aquatics and …House of Tropicals
6 Yellow labs … House of Tropicals and Dan
4 Cynotilapia afra cobwe orange black …Dan
6 Metraclimia callainos nhkata bay cobalt zebras ..dave
6 Metraclimia sp. Elongatus Cherwe Cherwe… dave
6 Alunacara electric blue Ahili … Russ

Been struggling to find a 90g to a 125 g anywhere and I cant find a fair deal to save my life or that of my fish it would seem. Hence today we are scurrying to Petco for 40G breeders to get the ahili out of the tank and alone with is girls. He is not the biggest fish in the tank but he is on a rip at anything that comes near him. the biggest fish in the tank is a red fin borelyi male at 4 inches.

 

[Jefft]

That should give you an idea. Like I said the largest is the Red Fin Borelyi in this tank. He is a gentle fellow. Its just the ahili that is freaking out at all 2 inches of his little napolean butt.

 

[Jefft]

1 40 gallon breeder with equipment heading home now only 1 unit left in the 2 petcos in my area.. purchased the edsal 4 tier HD stand setting up now taking seeded 40 g sponge filter into this new 40g tank. Had hoped to get a 90 to 125 before the breeder tanks to make sure lots of room for the colonies. Band aids will work though till petco restocks or a miracle happens and people on craigslist get real about used tank prices.

 

[Avatar]

Time out for the bully

Put him a gallon jar/jug with an air stone. And relax - you're the Keeper, they're the Kept.



"Character is revealed through crisis or the willingness to declare one."— Matt Quinn, age 17, first remark to his father on occasion of totaling the family mini-van during spring break.

 

[dogofwar]

^ It was actually my friend Dave driving

Sponge filters are great at bio filtration and (with enough air) can serve as mechnical filtration as well.

I prefer to pair a sponge and a box (for mechanical filtration) in each tank. Tanks with a box tend to be much cleaner / require less siphoning than the ones with sponges alone. And cleaning a box filter is about 100 times cleaner than cleaning a sponge (in my opinion).

Matt

 

[Jefft]

40 gallon set... water in! Two 10 gallons worth of still wet substrate added. Two HOB AC 50 filters , One sponge filter @ 40g. on the bottom, almost 50 lbs of pool filter sand fresh.. and dry.. coral pebbles added in for a little more ph.. 1 of the AC 50 HOB filters was running on a 10 baby tank I stripped. I will be getting one of the partition dividers to give "little Hitler", soon to be BIG Hitler and his girls most of the tank space. I will leave a little bit of space on the left end of the tank to be set up to serve as safe haven for newly stripped fry to grow out to "dont eat me" size. I added SAFE, Aquarium Salt, a little Malawi buffer, and a bottle of colony just to help the old seeded filters and substrate kick everything on over.

Mind you this was a race around town to get the tanks and shelving. The shelving is a Muscle Rack made by Edsal each shelf can hold 800 lbs so no worries on things falling through the shelves. Four tier high but just one half set for now Thanks Jon for the heads up there.

** Best moment of the day- After running around town, buying racks and tank, lugging it up to a 4th floor apartment, tearing down a 75g to catch little Hitler and his girls, stripping and tearing down two 10s, rearranging furniture to make it fit, clean up and all the rest that goes with this. I turned to Rochelle and smiled. "Ok so tomorrow we set the other stand, tear down this 40g we just set up so we can get another 40 under it and then we set two more 40s on the other half of the racks out in the living room right? Right then there was this look, kind of a mixed of helpless disbelief and venomous eyes narrowing fury. Ahhhh yes it is bliss living on the edge.

 

[Jefft]

Thank you so much all of you who participated in offering sage advice.

 

[turfboss]

Jeff - try the Petco on Alt 1 North off 695 (I think it is exit 10) - on the last day of the last Petco sale - they still had a boatload of everything when everyone else was out of almost everything. - Give them a call.

 

[Jefft]

Cool thanks George!!!

 

[turfboss]

Jeff - question on the Edsal Muscle Rack - tried to find your four shelf unit you mentioned (at Lowes) and can only find a 3 shelf and a 5 shelf unit (and none that say the sleves each hold 800#) so wondering where you got your shelving??

And, all the units under $100 only have particle board shelving - if the shelves you got with this system are the wire mesh (which hold 2000# even distribution) you are in great shape - but if they are the pressed fiberboard (particle board) be extremely cautious about getting them wet cause once they get wet they have absolutely no holding capacity - they will buckle and sag right off the crossbeams and your tanks will be on the ground.

I have similar racks with 3" channel steel and I replaced all the shelves with 3/4" plywood which I stained and then coated with 3 coats of polyurethane to seal them from any water damage.

 

[Jefft]

The unit I purchased is in fact the Muscle Rack 5 shelf unit. I did purchase the particle board. I didnt think at all about the point you have just made .. again another mistake by a rookie. They are rated at 800lbs a shelf evenly distributed. However, what I understand is they make wire shelf inserts which are available for this particular unit. Two sections are needed per shelf and they cost 3.22 per section so I suppose I will either go back and get the 3/4" plywood you suggest or I will be looking to pick up the wire inserts which seem reasonably priced. Thank you for the heads up George.

 

[jonclark96]

I have the Edsal shelf with the particle board units. The way my shelf is constructed, the rim of the tank sits over top the metal parts of the shelf. The particle board doesn't carry any of the weight of the tank.

I've had mine set up for a while with no issues. There are several threads of other folks who have used these shelves in fishrooms with similar results. The only modification that I made was that I added a cross brace to cut down on any lateral movement of the rack.

Just be careful when you are doing water changes not to spill water outside the tank and you should be okay.

 

[Jefft]

Thank you Jon it is a nice snug and perfect fit isn't it? I didn't get what you were talking about when you spoke of having to slide one tank in first and then the other till I finished setting the rack up. I was really worried it wouldn't fit at all but then once lifting the tank to the tops of the brace and slipping it into place it was like the thing was made for 40 breeders. I don't think you could slip a piece of paper between the brace and the tank. I wont ever buy another tank and stand set up this works too well and they make stands which will hold the larger tanks as well. its perfect. Thanks to you and verbal for the posts with this idea in there.

 

[Tony]

Jeff,

Even though it doesn't bear on the particle board, if you're concerned over it getting wet, you can always wrap the shelf in a heavy duty black trash bag. Trim the bag a bit so that you don't have a bunch of extra material and use tape on the bottom to seal it up.

Not sure if it's worth taking the tank down to do this, but if you're already moving the tank, then it'd be worth a couple of minutes.