# Enough filtration?



## SteelCurtain85 (Oct 20, 2011)

I have a 55 gallon cichlid tank, I currently am running two penguin biowheel 200s. Is this enough filtration?


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## SuckMyCichlids (Nov 5, 2011)

how many and what kind of cichlids?


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## SteelCurtain85 (Oct 20, 2011)

1-4" frontosa
2-3" OB peacocks
2-juvi red emps
1-2" clown loach


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## SuckMyCichlids (Nov 5, 2011)

oh its that tank lol, im guessing you have enough, your pretty much set up at double the filtration for your tank size which is a fairly good rule of thumb


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## SuckMyCichlids (Nov 5, 2011)

ive never had any of those fish so i cant say really, i dont know how messy any of them are


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## tommy111 (Aug 10, 2011)

For a cichlid aquarium it is recomended that you have 10X filtration. Yours is a 55g so you should be moving 550 gallons per hour but since you only have 5 cichlids plus your clown i would say that your filtration is ok for the moment. however once your cichlids grow you will need 10Xflitration not to metion a larger aquarium lets say a 75g to 125g.Why well your frontosa along can grow up to 12inch,peacock 6inch,clown loach 15 inch or more and the reds i think 6 or more. Of cource this is going to take several years to happend so you have plenty of time.


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

Hello Steel...

Filtration is pretty simple, provided you change at least half the tank water weekly. I do large and frequent water changes and use a filter with a gph (gallon per hour) rating roughly 6 times the volume of my tank.

A 55 G would need a filter with a minimum gph of 330. Keep in mind that over filtering your tank just means that your filters are taking in toxic water and replacing it with water that's a little less toxic. A lot of filtration doesn't take the place of replacing the old water with new, clean water. 

B


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## Aquarist03 (May 1, 2012)

The best way to know if you have enough filtration on your tank it to test your water and see how much nitrates your tank is producing. If your tanks nitrates are constantly going above 40 PPM between water changes you probably don't have enough filtration on your tank. Granted filtration isn't the only thing that causes the nitrates to skyrocket, but it definitely helps keep it under control. I have an FX5 and a 405 on my 120G tank with 15 peacocks, haps and fronts and 2 plecos ranging from 3 to 10 inches. I do 50-70% water changes a week and see very little increase in nitrates. 

Hope this helps.


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## Manafel (Sep 4, 2011)

You can actually have too many nitrates from having too much biomedia. I have a 75gal with a fx5 on it and before I had a unfortunate series of events, I was hitting about 40ppm on nitrates, so I have a hard time believing that having high nitrates means you are underfiltering. I actually moved to using some ammonia removing media for chemical filtration that helps keep it down. It's all a matter of how you do it.

Nevertheless, I doubt he still needs help with deciding since this thread is so old *lol*


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## Aquarist03 (May 1, 2012)

Manafel said:


> You can actually have too many nitrates from having too much biomedia. I have a 75gal with a fx5 on it and before I had a unfortunate series of events, I was hitting about 40ppm on nitrates, so I have a hard time believing that having high nitrates means you are underfiltering. I actually moved to using some ammonia removing media for chemical filtration that helps keep it down. It's all a matter of how you do it.
> 
> Nevertheless, I doubt he still needs help with deciding since this thread is so old *lol*


I suppose that is true. I do also use ammonia remover in my chemical filtration as well as nitrazorb, which I am sure is another reasone why I have little nitrates.

LOL. I didn't even look at the date on this post. I will chalk that one up to being new to the forum.


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## Manafel (Sep 4, 2011)

No problem lol


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