Hey guys and gals....I'm in the process of upgrading my 120 gallon tank to a 180 gallon and just want some opinions on the filtration...now I have an eheim 2217 and a eheim proII 2026 running on the 120, I know that this won't be enough to filter 180 gallon so i need to get another one...which one would you guys suggest? I'm thinking of the fx5, but the price is a little steep, thinking of getting eheim pro 3 but the highest rated one is for a 160 gallon tank...do you think that the 2217 and the pro 3 2078 would be enough....this tank will house mostly of community fish like tetras, silverdollars, etc....the largest fish eventually would be my flagtail.....thanks for the advice...
filtration suggestions for 180 gallon
- Thread starter G_sharky
- Start date
Would you consider building yourself a sump?
I'd highly recommend it.... you'll be happy you did.
I'd highly recommend it.... you'll be happy you did.
this tank don't have overflows and no drilled holes...plus I'm not a DIY kinda guy....lol....everytime I do a diy project i seem to somehow screw it up.....groovylime;4849502; said:
G_sharky;4849566; said:this tank don't have overflows and no drilled holes...plus I'm not a DIY kinda guy....lol....everytime I do a diy project i seem to somehow screw it up.....
check out the complete wet dry setups with hang on overflows. if your going to invest in a nice tank dont skimp out on the important stuff... also you can hide a lot if equipment in the sump area of a wet dry. just my opinion.. the cainster filters will work tho.. i like to over filter than under... when i would under filter i was always nervous about my tank.. now i spent the money and i bought peace of mind that my tank is okay no matter what happends in there...gl.
Eheim do a couple of filters that are rated for much bigger tanks than 160G_sharky;4849463; said:
The pro 3 2080 is capable of dealing with a tank that is 300+ gallons and the 2260 will do a tank that is nearly 400 gallons and if you want the biggest that eheim do the 2262 will cope with 500 gallons.Although the price will be probably higher than an FX5.
I personally love eheims have friends with FX5's and a lot of them complain about reduced flow after short periods of time.I have also always felt that the FX5 is to biased toward mechanical filtration and not enough space for bio media.
How can you be wary of an FX5's price but then consider an Eheim Pro 3? 
There's a good chance that the filtration you had on your 120G will still do the job on your 180G. I'm not an advocate of excessive filtration but I probably wouldn't be satisfied. That said an FX5 is pretty much the best value canister available. I don't know what the price is like in your area, but FX5s tend to be available online for significantly less than in store, especially on ebay. If you're willing to consider hang on back filters I'd add an AC110.
There's a good chance that the filtration you had on your 120G will still do the job on your 180G. I'm not an advocate of excessive filtration but I probably wouldn't be satisfied. That said an FX5 is pretty much the best value canister available. I don't know what the price is like in your area, but FX5s tend to be available online for significantly less than in store, especially on ebay. If you're willing to consider hang on back filters I'd add an AC110.
They're probably using polishing pads which require frequent cleaning. An FX5 can hold far more bio media than any sensibly stocked tank will ever need.ozzyboo;4851623; said:
I use polishing pads in my eheim 2078e and dont the reduction in flow anywhere near as quick as some of my mates using FX5's.Burto;4852082; said:
I dont dispute that there is probably enough bio media space,for a normally stocked tank, but you cannot deny that the filter is biased in favour of mechanical.
Less flow through greater surface area should increase service intervals for fine media.ozzyboo;4852229; said:
The FX5 definitely has a much greater volume taken up by sponges than left open for bio media.
But I really can't stress this enough, an FX5 can house more bio media than any sensibly stocked or even stupidly overstocked tank will ever need. I've been told by a critic of the FX5 that it can 'only' handle up to ~37ppm ammonia produced per 24 hours. None of my tanks produce even a quarter of that in an entire week. If you want to use a canister filter to treat raw sewerage an FX5 may not be the best choice, but for fishkeeping it has a tremendous excess of biological filtering capacity.
