Is there such thing as filtration overkill?

[TobiasRieper]

I currently have a Rena xp4 hooked up to my 150g. 450 gph for aquariums up to 265 gallons. They are on sale right now so I was thinking about picking up another one and hooking it up to my 150g (so id have 2 running in the same tank). Would this be overkill? I know depending on what fish are in the tank could make a difference, depending if they are messy or not.

Lets say my 150g was understocked, meaning there wasnt that many fish in there. Would the filter bacteria decrease in the filter that is already established due to the decreased amount of 'food' for the bacteria if I hooked up another filter? Or is there never such a thing as too much filtration?

I hope I made sense .

[EliWhitney314]

I would like to know this as well.

[edmlfc1]

With a puffer you want 10X turn over in your tank. So you would want 1500 turnover in a 150 gallon. To answer your question: You can never have too much filtration.

I had 2 Rena xp3's and 2 Emperor 400's on my 160 gallon.

[Pyratt]

Yeah as far as my logic works, there is no such thing as "overfiltration," but there is such a thing as too much current.

[Agnate]

Would the filter bacteria decrease in the filter that is already established due to the decreased amount of 'food' for the bacteria if I hooked up another filter?

If your tank is "understocked" such that the amount of ammonia and nitrite produced can be completely handled by the single filter that is on the tank, then you are correct that the amount of bacteria in your first filter would decrease when the second filter is added (since you're total surface area for bacterial growth would increase, but your amount of toxins wouldn't), so you would have some bacteria die-off. However, this wouldn't happen overnight, as your filter does not come with bacteria. What would happen is that new bacteria would form in the new filter, and as the bacteria population increased, the number of available resources would decrease, so some bacteria would die off.

So, in terms of worrying about bacteria die-off from adding another filter, you won't have to worry, because its more likely that the single filter is being pushed to its limits in keeping the toxins low, so adding a second filter would be anything but detrimental to the system. It also acts as a fail-safe, in case your other filter breaks. I *always* encourage a double-filter system, if only to prevent catastrophes and heartaches later on.

Hope that cleared things up!

[TobiasRieper]

Thanks people, so I guess there is no negative side to having 2 filters... awsome.

[Agnate]

Only negative side is the cost! ^_^

[yunachin]

I always over filtrate.

[TobiasRieper]

Only negative side is the cost! ^_^

Yup very true, I went up to Petsmart today and the sale had just ended the day before with Rena xp4's costing just over $150, now they are back up to 280 somethin. BLAST, ill just have to wait till they have them marked down again, probably another good 4 months . I have 2 hob filters adding up to 70g filtration but they dont fit on the back of my 150g!! AHG!...

[Myaj]

Too much current would be the only thing I'd be concerned with honestly.

That reminds me, I should go set up my XP3 on Paris's tank one of these days, I need to get the AC500 off there.