Equipment Review and Discussion :: getting 50 gallon tank soon and need advice

[xsavingsaturdayx]

After christmas i plan on getting a 50 gallon tank,i have a good water heater thats rated for 75 gallons so i dont need to worry about that,but im not sure if i have 'ok' filteration for it.Right now im useing a 20 gallon rubbermaid and im running an 'Aqua-Tech power filter rated for 60 gallons and im also running a Whisper powerfilter rated for 30 gallons,if i use both these filters on a 50 gallon tank will it be enough? Thanks in advance

[steve]

Whats the other filter? If you have a small RES, you can start off with the one filter and see how it goes. If your RES will eat in a separate container, it would help the water quality too.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Yeah they are pretty small,2 inches to be exact.And i do feed them in a separate container.The other filter is a whisper powerfilter rated for 30 gallons,then i have an 'Aqua tech powerfilter for 60 gallons.

[Kallistos]

If you think about it, any filter is good enough. It comes down to, how often do you want to clean your tank. The set up you have right now is almost 2x the necessary size so it shouldn't be too hard to maintain.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

I do partial water changes every week and every month i clean the filter and everything that goes in the tank.So if i do decide to use both those filters in a 50 gallon tank,i would just have to clean it a little more often?Because i wouldnt mind.Sorry if i dont catch on right away,im half asleep lol.I just wanna get them out of that 20 gallon rubbermaid and into something thats the right size for them.

[Kallistos]

Yeah you'd just have to clean it more often. If you're willing to put in the work for your turtles that's fine. My filtration set up is only 2x. It's really not that dificult to keep the tank clean...

[cam722]

I'm sort of lost here.. what has to be cleaned more often? Filter or tank??

I used a Aquaclear 110 in a 75 gallon tank and my water was crystal clear and had no quality issues EVER. I know that others say it's not powerful enough but that sucker filters 500gph.. which is more than the canisters that I checked out did. Just how I saw things.. I cleaned it throughly like every 2 weeks and I'm not sure I ever did a full tank cleaning on the 75 gallon. Heck I couldn't because I could never catch the darn minnow that was in there.. he just didn't want to die and the turtles couldn't catch him.

[Kallistos]

I'm sleepy ,but overall cleaning has to be more. Basically my main point is that stronger filtration means less cleaning. You gave a good example the aquaclear 110 keeps it super clean ,but the Aquaclear 70 will not as good of a job and you might have to clean it every idk 11 days instead of 2 weeks.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

I'm sort of lost here.. what has to be cleaned more often? Filter or tank??

I used a Aquaclear 110 in a 75 gallon tank and my water was crystal clear and had no quality issues EVER. I know that others say it's not powerful enough but that sucker filters 500gph.. which is more than the canisters that I checked out did. Just how I saw things.. I cleaned it throughly like every 2 weeks and I'm not sure I ever did a full tank cleaning on the 75 gallon. Heck I couldn't because I could never catch the darn minnow that was in there.. he just didn't want to die and the turtles couldn't catch him.

cam722,i guess both the tank and the filter.The filters get dirty after a month or so,atleast they do in my 20 gallon im not sure how it would keep up in a 50 gallon,and yeah ive noticed that in the 60 gallon powerfilter it pumps 330gph,and if i combine it with my other filter it adds up to almost 500 gph.