Filter for 125 gallon Tank

Ok, thanks. I originally had two Aqueoun Quiet Flow filters on my 55, but then I took one off to begin a second tank. I replaced it with the Aquaclear with the intention of using that as my second filter for an eventual upgrade. I've been keeping an eye out for other deals ever since. Now I've found the Fx4, which looks like a go. One of these days I'll find the tank...I hope.
 

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I pulled the trigger on the FX4. so, now I've got the filtration part of my upgrade set.
 

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Hello, again. This isn't a question about filtration for a 125, but it is about filtration, so I thought I'd throw it out here rather than starting a new thread.

When I break down the 55, to upgrade to the 100 I bought, I'll have an extra filter. I'll have an unused Aqueon Quiet Flow 55/75. I'm currently using a Quiet Flow 30 on my 29 gallon. I'm wondering if I should keep that tank as is, or if I should put the 55/75 on it. I know it's essentially impossible to have too much filtration, but the 29 has some small fish, so I don't want them to struggle. I'd like to sell whichever filter I don't use on the 29, but I want to keep whichever will best suit my needs.
 
I'd probably transfer the media over from the 30 to the 55/75. That's quite a bit of filtration for a 29 but a quietflow 30 isn't quite enough.

Then again, if your 29 is lightly stocked, a quietflow 30 may be just fine.

if it ain't broke...don't fix it
 
Hmm...Actually with that I'm not sure I'd do a 55/75 on a 29. That's quite a bit of flow for fancy guppies or young angels who aren't the best swimmers. I'd actually consider selling the 55/75 and getting a second filter like an aqueon 10 or 20 to run along with the 30. Though I guess you could test the 55/75 and see how your fish do with it.
 

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Thanks, tyguy7760! So far, things seem to be doing well with the 30. But I'm thinking it may or may not be enough filtration when my fish grow. My Keyhole is only the size of a Diamond Tetra right now, and my Angel is double (or less) that size.
 
Yeah...I definitely think your filtration needs an upgrade...but i'd be hesitant in putting one with that much flow in a small tank with guppies.
 
So, would you say it's a situation where I'm fine for now, but I should have the smaller, supplemental filter once everything is full grown?
 
Yes. Though there is no reason to wait on getting the smaller filter. Go ahead and get it now. It can only help
 
Ok, thanks!
Not that I'm going to test the theory, but just so I know, if I use the larger filter, worst case scenario is smaller fish finding it difficult to swim, or filter will suck them up?
 

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Filter should not suck them up unless they are already sick.

But typically fish with large tails and fish that come from slower current waters are going to have difficulty in high flow tanks. I would think your guppies will struggle and I'm not sure how the angels will do either.
 
Rather than posting a new thread, I decided to come on to this thread (since this question is about filters) to see if I could get some assistance.

I bought a water changer, and did a water change the other night. I made the mistake of not turning filters off first, and drained the tank below the intake tube for my Quiet Flow 55/75. It stopped working, and I can't get it to restart, which it usually does once there's sufficient water back in the tank. The filter media is not clogged, and neither is the intake tube. Any suggestions?
 
For a 125 ? I have a fx6 on my 120. I'm looking into a seachem tidal 110 too for a little xtra media space and surface agitation. And I just really want to try one.
 
No, it's not on a 125. It's the secondary filter on my 55. Just thought I'd ask the question here rather than starting a new thread.
 
Take off the motor and see if the impeller spins when you plug it in. Also, somehow, someone on Fishlore got their Quietflow working my filling it with water.
 
Thanks, I'll see. Oh, I meant to mention, also, I did make sure there's water in the filter.
 
So my boys and I are making the leap from a bunch of 20 -40 g tanks with HOB filters to a 125 g with a canister filter. We are just in the infant stage of setting up the tank and have only decided on substrate (pool filter sand) and heat. Still researching fish, lighting and decorations in the tank. I am getting confused on how powerful a filter I need. I recently purchased a Penn Plax Cascade 1500 elite that is rated for a 200 g tank. I am concerned however about the flow rate after reading some of the threads on this site. It is 350 gph. Do I need to double up or will this be sufficient? Considering African Cichlids ...but haven't decided.
 

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So my boys and I are making the leap from a bunch of 20 -40 g tanks with HOB filters to a 125 g with a canister filter. We are just in the infant stage of setting up the tank and have only decided on substrate (pool filter sand) and heat. Still researching fish, lighting and decorations in the tank. I am getting confused on how powerful a filter I need. I recently purchased a Penn Plax Cascade 1500 elite that is rated for a 200 g tank. I am concerned however about the flow rate after reading some of the threads on this site. It is 350 gph. Do I need to double up or will this be sufficient? Considering African Cichlids ...but haven't decided.
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Greetings and welcome to Fishlore

You want around 10x the water column in GPH filtration. On our 150 gallon we use two canisters and two bio wheels for a GPH of over 1,460.
I use only Marineland filters. Penguine, Emperor bio wheels and Magnum 350 and Magniflow 360 canisters.
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350 isn't near enough. 1,000 an hour is about right in a 125; you won't get near enough movement near the bottom and in the corners otherwise; those dead areas are, well, dead; low oxygen, high dissolved toxins and solids...

If you're going to go to the time and expense of setting up a big aquarium, do it right.

Pool sand will give you diatom problems and feed other algae. I highly recommend an intert substrate if you're not going to plant.

Here's my 125 gallon species tank (Fahaka puffer); he gets a daily 10% and 2x weekly 50% changes - large, messy fish.
 

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Roger_Ramjet makes a good point. BDBS (Black Diamond Blasting Sand) is a great choice. We use it in the 150, 44 and the 37 gallons. Use the med-coarse. You can get it at TSC (Tractor Supply CO) for $8.00 for a 50 lb bag.

By using a combination of waterfall bio wheels and canisters you get a great combination of water movement and a large increase of surface area (for the gas exchange).
 
Greetings and welcome to Fishlore

You want around 10x the water column in GPH filtration. On our 150 gallon we use two canisters and two bio wheels for a GPH of over 1,460.
I use only Marineland filters. Penguine, Emperor bio wheels and Magnum 350 and Magniflow 360 canisters.
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Thunder_o_b...thanks so much for the info. So I am now considering adding two Marineland panguin 350's to get me over 1000 gph. I wish I was part of this site earlier before I made some of my previous decisions Now based off the others responces I need to figure out what to do with the 150 lbs of pool filter sand we already washed and put into the tank. Can I mix with other material?

350 isn't near enough. 1,000 an hour is about right in a 125; you won't get near enough movement near the bottom and in the corners otherwise; those dead areas are, well, dead; low oxygen, high dissolved toxins and solids...

If you're going to go to the time and expense of setting up a big aquarium, do it right.

Pool sand will give you diatom problems and feed other algae. I highly recommend an intert substrate if you're not going to plant.

Here's my 125 gallon species tank (Fahaka puffer); he gets a daily 10% and 2x weekly 50% changes - large, messy fish.
Click to expand...
 
It's all good advice above. It's really up to you. Adding another Cascade 1500 wouldn't be overkill - but they are big canisters as I'm sure you know.

But you might try getting one of these ...

It's a filter booster that goes before the input on your 1500. It will do all your mechanical filtration and you can then fill ALL FIVE media trays in the 1500 with some good biomedia like Pond Matrix or Biohome. Over time, this system will reduce even nitrate buildup and with five trays of bio-media, you can't have a more robust bio-filtration. Another plus? The booster is what you'll be cleaning most of the time ... you'll have to open up the 1500 for cleaning maybe half the time ... maybe even less and the filter booster is WAY easier to clean. You can clean it every week in about 10 minutes or less.

You could then add a large HOB and some sponge filters and you have lots of flow.

But this is just one thing you could do ... there's a million other very valid options you have.
 
It's all good advice above. It's really up to you. Adding another Cascade 1500 wouldn't be overkill - but they are big canisters as I'm sure you know.

But you might try getting one of these ...

It's a filter booster that goes before the input on your 1500. It will do all your mechanical filtration and you can then fill ALL FIVE media trays in the 1500 with some good biomedia like Pond Matrix or Biohome. Over time, this system will reduce even nitrate buildup and with five trays of bio-media, you can't have a more robust bio-filtration. Another plus? The booster is what you'll be cleaning most of the time ... you'll have to open up the 1500 for cleaning maybe half the time ... maybe even less and the filter booster is WAY easier to clean. You can clean it every week in about 10 minutes or less.

You could then add a large HOB and some sponge filters and you have lots of flow.

But this is just one thing you could do ... there's a million other very valid options you have.
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Thanks Swampgorilla...I will defiantly check that out. Does it effect the flow rate of your canister filter? I don't want to overwork the pump and hurt the filter.
 
350 isn't near enough. 1,000 an hour is about right in a 125; you won't get near enough movement near the bottom and in the corners otherwise; those dead areas are, well, dead; low oxygen, high dissolved toxins and solids...

If you're going to go to the time and expense of setting up a big aquarium, do it right.

Pool sand will give you diatom problems and feed other algae. I highly recommend an intert substrate if you're not going to plant.

Here's my 125 gallon species tank (Fahaka puffer); he gets a daily 10% and 2x weekly 50% changes - large, messy fish.
Click to expand...
Thanks Rojer Ramjet...This is my tank so far. The penn plax is coming today. the pool filter sand has a 20 to 40 sieve size and is silica sand...is it all garbage or could I add anything to save some of my investment so far.
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First 125 g tank.
 
Use the pool sand you have it, unless you like black sand better (blasting sand).
You already own the p/p canister, so use it. It is very under powered for a 125 so as additional filters I would suggest either a Fluval FX6 or 2 Sunsun 304B's plus you p/p canister I would stay away from HOB's because of the noise and the amount of work to maintain them. Africans are real picky about clean water. There are lots of good lights out there, but I prefer the Fluval 2.0 plant lights even if your not growing plants, it makes the fish's color pop.DSCN5149.JPG DSCN5150.JPG
 
Thanks Rojer Ramjet...This is my tank so far. The penn plax is coming today. the pool filter sand has a 20 to 40 sieve size and is silica sand...is it all garbage or could I add anything to save some of my investment so far.
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  • Media owner BrendanB
  • Date added
First 125 g tank.
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Silica will always feed diatoms and nuisance algae; personally, I'd just add some laterite and humate soil, then control lighting.
 
Thanks Swampgorilla...I will defiantly check that out. Does it effect the flow rate of your canister filter? I don't want to overwork the pump and hurt the filter.
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It will marginally slow the rate of flow of the system. Flow rates are deceptive. You will see advice like ... "it should turn the water over 10 times per hour" ... or something like that. The real factors are quality media and lots of it. More surface area for bacteria equals a more efficient filtration.

I have an Eheim 2215 that I restrict the output flow to a crawl on ... it's probably designed for around 160 gallons per minute but I restrict the flow to less than 50 because it outputs to a U/V sanitizer (this is WAY more restriction than you notice by using a filter booster on a canister - if you notice any at all). The Eheim has run fine for two years this way.
 

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It will marginally slow the rate of flow of the system. Flow rates are deceptive. You will see advice like ... "it should turn the water over 10 times per hour" ... or something like that. The real factors are quality media and lots of it. More surface area for bacteria equals a more efficient filtration.

I have an Eheim 2215 that I restrict the output flow to a crawl on ... it's probably designed for around 160 gallons per minute but I restrict the flow to less than 50 because it outputs to a U/V sanitizer (this is WAY more restriction than you notice by using a filter booster on a canister - if you notice any at all). The Eheim has run fine for two years this way.
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thanks for the reply. I just bit the bullet to add to SunSun 340s to the filtration. for 16 0 that is a lot of filtration With the option for uv when needed. that will bring me to just about 1400gph. I may just use the two SunSuns and keep the 1500 for my 55 gallon tank. what do you think?
 
thanks for the reply. I just bit the bullet to add to SunSun 340s to the filtration. for 16 0 that is a lot of filtration With the option for uv when needed. that will bring me to just about 1400gph. I may just use the two SunSuns and keep the 1500 for my 55 gallon tank. what do you think?
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Do you mean the SunSun 304?

The U/V in the SunSun ... and really any canister is useless - it burns electricity and does nothing else. If you bought the 304 it has a 9 watt U/V and the 525 gph flow is way too fast for it to do anything. A 9 watt UV "taps out" at about 150 gph and that's only for algae control - parasite control isn't achievable at all with a 9 watt lamp.

Companies include the UV in their canisters pretty much as a marketing ploy only. It's aggravating because UV has a bad name - lots of people say it doesn't work. Most of them are people who have 9 watt bulbs in 500 gph plus filters. I have a 57 watt attached to output of a canister - but that canister is restricted to less than 50 gph.
 
I have an AC 110 that I bought before I found out canisters were a thing. I figure I can keep it running and use it for QT when needed, but I'd definitely like to go with a canister (or two canisters?).

The highest GPH I've been able to find on a canister is the Fluval FX6 (website says pump output 925 GPH and flow rate 563 GPH, I'm assuming actual filtration is closer to 563), but the AC 110 also claims 500 GPH. Are there bigger canister filters readily available? Theoretically with both of those I'd have like an x8 turnover rate, which I feel okay about, but since HOB's aren't that efficient idrk.

I'm honestly not sure if this is enough filtration, or if I should have more, or if there are better options, or if it's actually just overkill and I should get something smaller. If anyone with a bigger tank wants to let me know what they use for filtration or give recs it'd be much appreciated.

Also, still not sure on stocking, but aiming for understocked and no plans for anything with a huge bioload, but better safe than sorry haha.
 
I think it's somewhat important to know what kind of stock you'll be aiming for when choosing a filter there are a lot of factors at play, just as an aside though the GPH and flow rates tend to be the maximum possible rates it can achieve and not what you would always expect - just having a canister filter below your tank drops the actual GPH by a fair bit as it's working against gravity. You could probably find the actual flow rates somewhere based on normal variables.

If money is no object then just throw in the biggest canister filter you can and look at optimizing it (some people replace the central sponge media with bio media). You have to take into consideration how much flow you'll be throwing into your tank and stock fish that can deal with that level of flow, you do have the ability to alter the flow rate with most canister filters but then you are heading into the 'overkill' capacity by doing so. The massive upside to canister filters is that it's the most 'hands off' approach. In terms of your tank specifically, the Fluval FX6 should do more than a decent job at filtering your tank, I have 2 friends both running a 125g with a 207 filter and they've had 0 issues with weekly 20% water changes I believe.

In a heavily planted tank with shrimps you could easily get away with a couple of sponge filters and 1 or 2 hob filters, but you might have to do more water changes than you would with a canister filter. I was very impressed with how well my sponge filters worked when I first started using them and now I would probably keep one in every tank.

Overall I found it better for me personally to start on the lower end of filtration and build it up later if necessary than just to jump straight into the deep end but I can definitely see why people opt for a canister filter.
 
I just bought the FX6. Looks like a good canister. Good for a 400 gal tank. That and your 110 will be more than enough. On a side note the Fx6 is on sale for 249 at PetSmart.
 
Welcome to fishlore.. There is no such thing as to much filtration IMO 2 canister filters are the way to go on your 125g.. With the fx6 don't get my wrong it is a good filter but the price is high I would go with 2 sun sun 304b you can get them on Amazon for cheaper then the price of 1 fx6 the are rated at 525gph which will give you 1050gph total.. even with the reduced flow from media and head height you should still be getting around 600gph flow or just under 6x turnover and that should do a good job keeping your tank clean...

I forget to mention the sun sun 304b also comes with a 9w uv light that the fx6 does not have..
 
Only thing is the sun suns have a tendency to leak. Ask me how I know . I’ve got the 304 in a closet now it leaked about 10 gal before I noticed .
 
Only thing is the sun suns have a tendency to leak. Ask me how I know . I’ve got the 304 in a closet now it leaked about 10 gal before I noticed .
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No they don't. Yours does maybe, but hundreds of thousands or millions of others do not. Please don't spread rumors.
 
As stated a sump is probably your best bet. However I never liked sumps, so on my 125 I went with 3 HOBs. Each with 400 GPH. it has worked well for about 5 years now.
 

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Cichlidude a rumor is something you heard not experienced. I’ve experienced it!! I was a sunsun believer and had 2 running. When that one leaked after a power outage I gave up on them. The saying IS true..,you get what you pay for!!! Many reviews about leaking. Just telling my experience.
 
Any filter can leak canisters and hob I have had hob's leak and I I have had canisters leak both name brands and off brands so you if you go on the fact it could leak then pack it in and find a new hobby..
 
Cichlidude a rumor is something you heard not experienced. I’ve experienced it!! I was a sunsun believer and had 2 running. When that one leaked after a power outage I gave up on them. The saying IS true..,you get what you pay for!!! Many reviews about leaking. Just telling my experience.
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OK, well I've had a Sunsun for almost 8 years now and mine has never leaked. If they do leak it's because of incorrect assembly. You don't get 4 star rating if they leak. But all manufactures canisters can leak. Just a few weeks ago someone posted a poll and Fluval leaked the most.
 
OK, well I've had a Sunsun for almost 8 years now and mine has never leaked. If they do leak it's because of incorrect assembly. You don't get 4 star rating if they leak. But all manufactures canisters can leak. Just a few weeks ago someone posted a poll and Fluval leaked the most.
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Agreed. 90% of canister filter leaks are due to operator error or pinching an oring. Once you pinch the oring you have to replace it don't try and run it thibking it will be fine. Canisters leak because of improper assembly or maintenance.
 
Thanks guys!! I think I’ll go with two sunsuns. You can’t really argue with double the filtration for a fraction of the price, and sunsun seems really popular on here. I originally planned to do a sump but got overwhelmed fast with all the diy stuff.
 
Thanks guys!! I think I’ll go with two sunsuns. You can’t really argue with double the filtration for a fraction of the price, and sunsun seems really popular on here. I originally planned to do a sump but got overwhelmed fast with all the diy stuff.
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Good choice. Get 2 of the 525 gph and you are set.
 
What filter is suitable for a 125 gallon tank? I'm looking into Fluval as I have heard many positive reviews on it. But the Fluval 4FX seems really expensive! The Aquaclear 110 seems good as well.
Are there are any reliable filters that aren't too expensive? Could I use a Fluval 406 and Aquaclear 110?

Does this filter seem suitable also? I am concerned about leaks.

It is a Polar Aurora External Canister
 
Does this filter seem suitable also? I am concerned about leaks.

It is a Polar Aurora External Canister
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^^^^
Two of those.

Might want to look at this also. Sunsun HW 5000 1200 gph with controller.
 

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