# Filter gph for 30 gallon



## TKC747 (Dec 5, 2008)

Am I correct in thinking that I will need 300 gph? 10 X 30 gallons per hour?

Can I cut it with a 170 gph? And not overstock? ~5 or 6 X30 gallons per hour?

TIA (Thanks in advance)


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## clgkag (Mar 22, 2008)

I personally think with moderate stocking 4-5 times is more than enough. That said I have an AC110 on a 29 gallon that is stocked pretty heavily.


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## gnomemagi (Jun 13, 2009)

170gph should be fine.


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## shadowspar (Nov 16, 2009)

you know this filter gph thing is really arguable. i know with ponds with koi, VERY DIRTY fish. you need 10x filtration. but there are ways to go around that, special bio media...aka drinking straws, have alot of places for bio bugs to attach to. therefore improving the bio filtration, and also with bio filtration too strong of a pump can actually be bad, pump water too fast through for adequate bio filtration. i actually say a pump that does 1x is fine.

i will say this though, pumps that were ment for the aquarium seem weaker than pumps for ponds, i have pumps of all gph for my pond and i have some for aquarium, i noticed my pump that was made for a 30g filter said 170 gph, i couldnt believe it this pump is small. so i tested it against my pond pump that was 120gph and the 120 gph pond pump was pumping WAY more water than the 170gph aquarium filter pump. CAN anybody explain this to me?


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

For healthy bio filtration you need enough water movement to prevent dead spots... 2~5 times turnover should supply this. The more decorations you have the more turnover you will need to prevent dead spots...

For thorough mechanical filtration you will need a bit more current. The reason being that despite common phraseology, **** doesnâ€™t floatâ€¦ Thus the current needs to be strong enough to push waste/debris into the filter. Naturally the larger the fish, the larger the waste, the stronger the current needs to beâ€¦

A few years ago I kept breeding pairs of Apistos in 29 gal tanks filtered by AC 110s. This kept the tank very clean and wasnâ€™t to much current for the fry to easily navigate. I do no think this much flow was â€œneededâ€


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## wheatbackdigger (May 11, 2008)

I get a chuckle out of "10X" rule. On this site, I saw one guy/gal claimed he turned his tank over 25 times per hour. HOB's lined across the back and on the sides. Each tank is different, different stocking, different feeding schedules and different maintenance schedules.

I think there comes a point of saturation, where adding more gph accomplishes obsolutely nothing. Just wasting money on extra equipment and electricity.

Another thing to consider, some fish (such as my WC fronts) do not like alot of water movement in the tank.

All that said, I run sponge filters only on a couple of 20g and the water parameters are as good as my canister filtered tanks and just as clear. Depends on the stocking, feeding, etc. I'd be lucky if I am turning these over two or three times per hour.

Start with the smaller filter and if doesn't keep up with the tank, add a second filter later down the road


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

if you use hob's you should easily be able to get plenty for a 30 gallon, i mean one emperor 280 would be plenty and not very expensive


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## shadowspar (Nov 16, 2009)

Toby_H said:


> For healthy bio filtration you need enough water movement to prevent dead spots... 2~5 times turnover should supply this. The more decorations you have the more turnover you will need to prevent dead spots...
> 
> For thorough mechanical filtration you will need a bit more current. The reason being that despite common phraseology, **** doesnâ€™t floatâ€¦ Thus the current needs to be strong enough to push waste/debris into the filter. Naturally the larger the fish, the larger the waste, the stronger the current needs to beâ€¦


what i said was only for filtration, i was assuming the OP would use internal pumps to prevent dead spots, thats how it is in ponds, you always have to have either a pump or a waterfall to keep current in all locations. dont most cichlid tanks use internal pumps just for circulation?


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

i only just started using powerheads when i went to a canister, theoretically if you have two good size hobs at each end of the tank you don't need a pump inside to move stuff as much as you do with one canister, with only one intake you have to make sure enough waste gets pushed from one end to the other


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

TKC747 said:


> Am I correct in thinking that I will need 300 gph? 10 X 30 gallons per hour?
> 
> Can I cut it with a 170 gph? And not overstock? ~5 or 6 X30 gallons per hour?
> 
> TIA (Thanks in advance)


A pair of FX5, supplemented with either a Emp. 400 or AC110, should take care of your tank.
TIC
(Tongue In Cheek) 
Must say, I am liking this swing back towards filtration sanity.
Seemed for a long time, my â€œjokeâ€


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

with smaller tanks, 10 times is more realistic and affordable, in larger tanks it becomes harder and more expensive

I also believe that smaller tanks need the help more so than larger tanks


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## fox (Jun 11, 2009)

wheatbackdigger said:


> All that said, I run sponge filters only on a couple of 20g and the water parameters are as good as my canister filtered tanks and just as clear. Depends on the stocking, feeding, etc. I'd be lucky if I am turning these over two or three times per hour.


Try this onna 220G tank with 30 - 50 africans and let me know how it works out for ya opcorn:

There is no magic number on how many X's per hour you need to turn over the tank. Ther are so many variables to consider such as type of filtration. tank dimensions, decorations, substrate, # of inhabitants, type of stock ... Mbuna will mess up a tank just as fast as Goldies and will require more turnover than other species for water clarity.

When all is said and done you only need as much filtration it takes to get acceptable water clarity and allow for enough BB to work at keeping the ammonia and nitrItes in check.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Dec 7, 2005)

You can make any combination work given the right maintenance schedule and fish load. For instance, Discus are horribly messy and many (maybe most) Discus keepers go the BB tank route and do big water changes every day. With that kind of schedule they use sponge filters because the Discus don't like very high flow. So you need to consider what you objectives are (type and size of fish, plants or no, substrate or no and substrate type, etc. etc.) I don't think there really is a magic formula for all this, but the 5x to 10x per hour rules are good guidelines to keep in mind when you have nothing else to base your analysis on.


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

We have to keep in mind any "rule of thumb" or short answer is ignoring all of the specific details... when takign this approach I suggest you "error on the side of safety" and aim for 10x turnover...

But in my opinion that kind of thinking is for the guy who wants a fish tank, not for the "hobbyist"...

For those of us who enjoy learning about our fish & their systems, factoring in the details and 'custom' fitting our filtration to our particular set up is all part of the fun.


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## TKC747 (Dec 5, 2008)

shadowspar said:


> Toby_H said:
> 
> 
> > For healthy bio filtration you need enough water movement to prevent dead spots... 2~5 times turnover should supply this. The more decorations you have the more turnover you will need to prevent dead spots...
> ...


Thanks Toby_H and shadowspar. I hadn't thought of dead spots but I'll look for them now that I know about them


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## bmweiler09 (Nov 17, 2009)

I think you should keep in mind that most hob's have adjustable flow. my emperor claims to do 280 gph, but I cant even turn that thing up half way without it overflowing. (and no the cartridge isnt clogged that was with a brand new one.)

So unless you have your filter running full blast I wouldn't go by 170 gph... and like alot of people have already mentioned there's alot of other important aspects.


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