Second filter...

[doctawife]

I have a 29 gallon tank with a Penguin 175 filter that has 8 tiger barbs, 2 clown loaches, and 2 zebra loaches. It will soon also be planted (and hopefully the tiger barbs won't go to town on the plants...).

I just took my undergravel filter out to prepare to put plants into the tank. I was wondering if folks had any suggestions about additional filtration for the tank. I generally believe that more filtration is better, but I'm not sure what I should add.

Also, funds are limited, so cheap options are preferred.

-Mary

 

[Somonas]

I would suggest a canister filter since you have plants. If you have any plans on injecting co2 a canister is the way to go. you can get used ones at aquarium club auctions and on Ebay. If you dont have plans to use co2 hob's work well an Aquaclear 200 would do that tank well.

 

[michael]

A bio-wheel will work great for your size tank and are usually cheaper, however, i prefer canisters myself.

 

[rocketshrimp]

Just a question and suggestion i think the filstar 3 would be good and get rid of the other filter

 

[Managuense]

if you plant to have a planted tank, i would avoid bio-wheel filters-- as they pretty much zap all of your CO2.

just a thought.
M

 

[doctawife]

I've heard the argument that bio-wheels kill all your CO2 production. I asked the fellow at the LFS about that, and he implied that without the biowheel, my filtration would become less than stellar. I have DIY CO2 in the filter intake, I hope the biowheel isn't just exchaging my CO2 right out.

But we'll see. The plants are in, and hopefully they won't die!

-Mary

 

[allthingsanimal]

Ditch the Bio-wheels. I have a 55 Planted and I used to run a penguin 330 and a penguin 170 with no co2 injection and the tank was o.k..... I took off my biowheels and I noticed that my plants started growing again. I DO believe that the wheels deplete co2. I would not over filter. Most plants will not handle the current. Always consider quality of filtration over quantity.

 

[Somonas]

the only filtration biowheels is good for is biological, and you don't need any of that in a healthy planted tank. (the plants will take up the ammonia before it even gets converted to nitrate etc) of course this is dependant on fish load and other factors. I am comfortable that I could remove all of the media in my canister and bleach it, and still have a perfectly healthy tank.... bio on the gravel anyway... but filterless plant tanks are for another thread