Which Filter On A 75g Aqueon?

In the process of getting another tank after a few years away from fish. I am getting a 75 gallon Aqueon and stand. The only thing I am pondering is which filter and of these three over the years I have had them all. I am getting up in age and want something easy to handle. I am retired with plenty of time to play? The filters I am looking at are the Fluval 406, Eheim Pro+4 350, and a pair of Aqua Clear 110s HOB filters The 406 has 383gpm output, Eheim Pro+4 350 has 350 gph flow, Aqua Clear 110s each has 428gpm together 856gpm flow. I kind of always liked the Aqua Clear filters so easy to maintain. The Eheim has a spray bar return which I liked. Looking for feedback on which way would you go and WHY?? The tank will be mostly Tetras of many types and several Angle fish and Cory Cats. Your opinion greatly appreciated

Thanks Bill

 

Hydor 600, 345gph full. Most filter companies gph is with empty trays. Hydor is with full trays. I personally have a Hydor 450, because my inline diffuser wouldn't fit the 600.

 

I started with a 406 on my 75 gallon and added a FX4. It's currently running both now and I'm happy with it. Total of 1083 gph.

 

Can't go wrong with any FX series canisters. I wish I could afford one! Saving my pennies tho! On my 75 gallon I'm using the Sunsun 304B & an Eheim Pro4+ 250. Possibly 775 Gph as the SunSun is questionable with their rated 525Gph. Still tho I'm happy with it.

 

A consideration is to have a mattenfilter (poret foam) on 1 side of the tank with an air powered lift return. Virtually maintenance free and cheap to run. You can hide the heater in the small chamber. Here is a link to SwissTropicals which is an excellent online store for this.

Poret® Foam Shop - SWISSTROPICALS

 

Can't go wrong with any FX series canisters. I wish I could afford one! Saving my pennies tho! On my 75 gallon I'm using the Sunsun 304B & an Eheim Pro4+ 250. Possibly 775 Gph as the SunSun is questionable with their rated 525Gph. Still tho I'm happy with it.

PetSmart has it on sale occasionally for $199. That's why I got mine.

A consideration is to have a mattenfilter (poret foam) on 1 side of the tank with an air powered lift return. Virtually maintenance free and cheap to run. You can hide the heater in the small chamber. Here is a link to SwissTropicals which is an excellent online store for this.

Poret® Foam Shop - SWISSTROPICALS

A matten filter isn't a good choice for a 75 gallon community tank. Even for a shrimp only tank, the foam wouldn't be stiff enough to stay in place w/o deforming. And you'd want a pump for return flow for any decent filtering in a 75g.

 

PetSmart has it on sale occasionally for $199. That's why I got mine.



A matten filter isn't a good choice for a 75 gallon community tank. Even for a shrimp only tank, the foam wouldn't be stiff enough to stay in place w/o deforming. And you'd want a pump for return flow for any decent filtering in a 75g.

The 4” thick foam will stay in place I believe. I actually have 2 of the 75 gallon size foam squares which I am planning to use for this purpose. Do t get me wrong, I love my FX6!

 

I wouldn't get too excited about all these flow rates and gph. All filters are rated at the pump motor itself. Not installed in a canister or anything. No media baskets, no media... nothing. Lucky if you get 50% of the rating once you load the filter up with whatever you want. Your beneficial bacteria only grows to your bio load anyway. All things considered equal, if your tank, substrate, ornaments, glass and filter are running fine at 50% bio load you still don't need any more filter as it will do nothing for growing BB. It's more important to move water over and through your tank so the BB can do it's job.

 

dakota, did you make your filter selection yet?

I also have a 75 gallon tropical community tank. It is heavily overstocked though, compared to the stocking you listed.

I started with an Aquaclear 70 & 110. Great HOB's after I figured out how to quiet them down.

I then added my first canister, a HYDOR 600. After a lot of research, I started to lean towards them. Then around 2 months ago when Dr. Foster and Smith had a sale on them for 50% off, I couldn't resist buying the 600 model for $105. The Hydor 600 has 5 huge trays. I think their website listed that model as having a little over 12 quarts of media volume capacity. At those prices, I should have bought a 350 model for $77 also when I had the chance and stored it for a future project!

So far I have not had any issues with the Hydor. It has zero bypass, no noise from outside the cabinet, has a ceramic impeller shaft, made in Italy and they have a huge multi-piece spray bar that can be configured to almost any length you want!

The 600 came with 5 trays. 1st tray was course sponge, 2nd tray filter floss pad, 3rd -5th trays half filled with Hydor's sintered glass media rings. I was able to combine all the bio-rings into the 3rd tray and 1/2 the 4th tray. The other 1/2 of the 4th tray and all of the 5th tray are filled with Seachem Matrix, Fluval Bio-Max and (2) 100 gram bags of Purigen. My second tray now has Polyfill and 2 layers of bonded filter mat cut to size, while another layer of bonded filter mat and then a 100 micron filter pad is layered at the bottom of the 4th tray where the Matrix starts (water flows from the bottom to the top).

Any of the Hydor models are beasts.

Have you considered the Seachem Tidal 110's as an alternative to the AQ110? Their basket system seems easier to use than the AQ's. There are a lot of youtube videos on the Tidals.

My AQ 70 & 110 are relatively easy to maintain. I run pre-filter sponges on the intake tubes, I cut the stock sponge in half then run layers of Polyfill and/or filter pads ( and ), then bags of Fluval Bio-Max and Seachem Matrix bio-media. I used to have my Seachem Purigen in the AQ's, but now they live in the Hydor Canister.