37 Gal New filter help please

Hello I have a 37gallon tank with a 7 Cichlids in it.

I purchased a Aquarium Kit that came with a power filter. I recently purchased a canister style filter that is good for up to 70 gallon tanks. My questions are,

1) Is there a problem with over filtering my tank like this?
2) My tank has not completely finished cycling yet should I wait till it has cycled before changing the filter
3)How should I go about changing this while trying to keep as much benifical bacteria in the tank as possible.

Any other advice is greatly apperciated. This is the place I go for all my fish keeping info and everyone here has been great. Thank you everyone.

 

Why change the filter, why not just add the filter. I am running 1000 gallons an hour in my cichlid 60 gallon tank because they are so dirty. There is not a problem running both filters.... as long as the water current does not push around the fish. It should not push the fish around if you place the current at the top of the water with the HOB filter. I am running 3 HOB's and a canister and I have not problems.

Are you going to use the HOB for another tank? If not I would say run them both.

 

good job on the canister - you'll need it. There's no reason not to run both filters.

If I were you I would put all the carbon (if you use it) in the HOB to make it easier to change it out.

 

Thank you for the help. I will run both as the fish are quite dirty.

If I do run both is it alright to put a few more fish in thus slightly over stocking the tank or is it still not recommended even with the extra filtration?

 

We would need to know what fish you have to provide any kind of an answer. Without knowing anything, I will say no, you are probably already overstocked. A 37 is only a 30x12 footprint, and that just doesn't leave much room for territories.

 

I have 3 Bumblee bees, 2 Yellow Labs and 2 Red Dragon Peacocks.

Ive been told and read that the bees and labs get to about 5ish inches and the peacocks about 4". So 1" per gallon means I am slightly over stocked. Do you think a small pleco for algae would be ok?

Thanks again for the help.

 

I don;t know anything about africans and have no idea if you are overstocked or not.