nitz

I recently cycled my 29 gal tank (fishless of course) and have a penguin 200 bio wheel filter running on it. The flow rate is 200 gallons per hour. I saw in a thread that you should have a filter that turns your full tanks volume at least 10 times per an hour. So should I get another filter?

I was thinking about getting the emperor bio wheel 280 to add on top of this filter. It has a flow rate of 280 gallons per hour. Should I get the emperor or just get another penguin 200?

outlaw

More filtration in most cases never hurts.

Just want to make sure your fish can swim without fighting the current.

nitz

Thanks outlaw. Well I'm going to be having a female gourami (who is already in there and dealing with the current from the penguin 200 very well) and possibly some cherry barbs for more of the mid to upper strata of the tank. I think they should be able to deal with the current fairly well. The penguin seems to keep the current to the top of the tank and not a bit in the mid level but no current at the bottom. It gives a bit of a ripple effect but I don't think that it's too severe.

Do you have any experience with either the penguin or the emperor filters? Just to give me an idea of the current that the emperor gives off. I expect it to be a bit more than what the penguin does due to the flow rate difference. Will the difference in current make a difference to the fish I mentioned?

COBettaCouple

If the fish are happy, I'm always in favor of more filtration.

nitz

Thanks Dave!! (found out your name yesterday )

Happy belated birthday

outlaw

I can't say I have experience with those filters. I have had HOB's before. My first one had a flow adjuster on the intake tube which was nice. The second one didn't. It was only 120GPH but I had it on a 5Gal tank. I put some floss at the outlet of it and it calms the flow down but still gives you surface movement. You could always put it in there, see how they do, and modify the filter if need or add some floss or more filter pad to slow the flow down.

Hope this helps and good luck.

nitz

That definitely helps. Thanks for the advice.

David C

If the current ends up being a little too much, you can just build a baffle (info in the DIY section) and that would reduce the current but maintain the flowrate. I know the gourami is a rice patty type fish but I'm sure they can adapt to a bit of current, plust there would probably be some dead spots they can hang out in throughout your tank.

nitz

Thanks David. I took a look in there and this is the only one the thread that I can see that actually shows what a baffle looks like: SUMP setup and some questions

Where would I put the baffles? Would I set them up in the positions shown in the picture in that thread? Would floss do the same job?

I was thinking about the floss and wasn't sure where to put it since I have a bio wheel on the output of my HOB filter. Would I just put it in the media compartment?

outlaw

as long as it doesn't stop the wheel, you could try setting the floss near the surface of the water in the filter. That way it will slow it down.

nitz

Thanks outlaw. I'll pick up some floss next time I'm at the lfs.

outlaw

NP, glad to help. If it doesn't work out, the floss is pretty cheap. At least here. I was able to get a standard pillow size amount for about 10(us) dollars.