Habitat - Indoor :: Large Filter

[Mobat555]

Currently I am running an XP3 on my 150 gallon tank with close to 110 gallons of water. It works fine for about a week and then gets brown cloudy. I have replaced all the filter parts of my XP3 and ended up with the same result. The XP3 itself is only a few months old and worked very well in my 55 gallon tank, but when I upgraded to the 150 it cant keep up.

I have thought about chaining two XP3's together and seeing how it worked, but before I drop another $130 on my free turtles I want to make sure there isnt a big ol filter out there I would be better off buying.

Any recommendations welcome, I can also run two filters simultaniously from the tank. But I would prefer not to since the space for piping is limited.

[TinySlider2]

I don't know about the filter. But I love that tank. I am jealous! lol

[Jessica313]

i also dont know about the filter.. and im also VERY jealous of the tank...

where did you get that????

[Spookster]

I don't think you can chain two filters together. What kind of media do you have in the XP3? I have an XP3 filtering about 85-90 gallons of water with one adult female RES and don't really have a problem. Are you also doing your weekly partial water changes?

[Mobat555]

I am doing water changes, and I was didnt think I would be able to link them. The media I am using is everything for the XP3, and the specific replacments for each one.

I got the tank for $100 off craigs list, or should I say my g/f found it. Came with the acrylic stand and a filter system. However the filter system requires the tank to be completely full to use, why I went with XP3.

This is its current state.

[Spookster]

Well the XP3 has many different media available and not all of it is intended for turtles. Which media are you using and in which baskets? Which ones you use and in which order is important.

[Spookster]

In my XP3 I have:

Top basket from top to bottom:
1 Filstar Microfiltration pad
1 Box of Filstar Ceramic Rings and 1 box of Filstar Bio-Chem stars

Middle basket:
2 Filstar activated carbon pouches (number of carbon pouches depends on tank size. I have a 90 gallon which requires 2 pouches)

Bottom basket from top to bottom:
2 Filstar fine foam pads 30 pores per inch
2 Filstar coarse foam pads 20 pores per inch

[Mobat555]

Not a bad Idea, I have about half of what you do in terms of elements in the filter. I will double them and give it another try. See how clean it keeps it.

Mobat

[missibsu]

Not sure if this makes a difference or not, but I know that some people actually use less media. The suction would be greater with less media, I think...

Instead of linking two filters together, you could go ahead and buy a second xp3 (or possibly lesser model) and use both on the same tank.

[Spookster]

Not sure if this makes a difference or not, but I know that some people actually use less media. The suction would be greater with less media, I think...

Instead of linking two filters together, you could go ahead and buy a second xp3 (or possibly lesser model) and use both on the same tank.

Some people suggest not using the microfiltration pad as it gets clogged up and reduces suction. In mine it hasn't really been an issue and hasn't reduced the suction. It does a good job at filtering out much gunk that makes it past everything else so it is nice and icky when I replace it. I clean the filter once a month in which I replcae the micro filration pad and clean the sponges. Other than that I just replace the activated carbon about every 2-3 months. I also do about 30% water changes every 1 to 2 weeks. Between doing all of that our tank is always crystal clear.

[marisa]

Spookster, I'd switch those foam pads to have the 20ppi ones on the bottom abd the 30ppi pads above them (from your description, it looks like the finer ones, the 30ppi) are on the bottom). When the water is filtered, it goes from the bottom up, so the 20ppi pads which are less dense, would filter the larger particles and then the 30ppi pads would collect the smaller ones...

I'm one of the "some people" who don't use microfiltration pads (haven't in a long while) because they were impeding the flow of the water more quickly than without them. For me, the filter works fine without them.

A fair number of turtlekeepers use just the pads and biomedia (you can't have too much biomedia).

You could run two of the XP3s at opposite ends of the tank. Or you could use a supplementary filter (the AquaClear 110 is the one usually mentioned) to help deal with mechanical filtration.

[Spookster]

Spookster, I'd switch those foam pads to have the 20ppi ones on the bottom abd the 30ppi pads above them (from your description, it looks like the finer ones, the 30ppi) are on the bottom). When the water is filtered, it goes from the bottom up, so the 20ppi pads which are less dense, would filter the larger particles and then the 30ppi pads would collect the smaller ones...

Good eye. Actually I do have the coarse pads on bottom. I just had the numbers backwards.

[marisa]

That comes from being a proofreader/rewriter/editor. (The same sequence was given in another post a while back, but I was too lazy to question it at the time.)

[Mobat555]

Thanks for the suggestions, I wouldnt mind using an AquaClear 110 however my acrylic tank tapers in at the top and has holes. So I cannot use an over hanging filter (you can tell if you look closely at the first picture). Would you suggest a submerged filter?

[marisa]

I don't really like submerged filters because they tank up space in the tank (although you do have a big tank so that's not really an issue). The tank tapers at the top (the bottom is larger than the top of the tank)? How much of an angle is there? It doesn't look like there's really an angle in the picture... I use an AC 110 on a stock tank, and it tapers from the top down (top is wider than the bottom). I have it supported by stacked wooden blocks (bricks would work as well) to keep it level and it works fine.