Two emperor 400 filter saltwater 35 gallon tank?

Question

I have a 35 gallon saltwater tank....and I am using two emperor 400 filters.....is this a good idea? please advise

Answer 1

The recommended rate for filtration is to have a turnover of 5-10 times the volume of your tank every hour for most tanks, although you can have more if the fish are ones that prefer more current, or you're somewhat overstocked.

Saltwater organisms are exposed to waves and currents all the time in the ocean, although the strength will vary with depth. What's more, the current they are exposed to is turbulent, so the water doesn't come from the same direction all the time. In a tank, simulating this can benefit your fish (and corals if you keep them). You might try hanging one filter on the back and another on the side, so you get the turbulance in the flow.

Typically what is done is to use one filter, and one or more powerheads (depending on the size of the tank). The powerheads keep the water (and wastes) circulating to prevent dead areas from forming behind your live rock or decorations, or in corners. This makes it easier for your filter to pick up the solid particles.

While the Emporer's biowheels will help with biological filtration, if you use live rock in your tank, two of these may not be necessary. What you might try is to remove the biowheel from one filter, and use a timer to run it only part of the time, for a few hours in the morning and in the afternoon. This can simulate the changing direction and strength of the natural tides.

Just make sure you are providing a few quiet areas in your tank so your fish (and inverts if you have them) have a place with less flow so they can rest.

Answer 2

Emperor Power Filter 400

Answer 3

You're going to blow their little fishy faces off with that much power. Goldfish require the most filtering of any fish and that ratio is 10 times the gallons per hour as the size of the tank. So, for goldfish in a 35 gallon, you'd need a 350 gph filter, or just one of those 400s would do. For your fish, you don't really even need one filter at that power rate, but definitely not two. If you're stuck with them and have no choice but to use them, use only one, and if you have a flow control, turn it down to about half.

Answer 4

kay is correct, any saltwater tank will benefit from good flow, 10x minimium and you have more than that, as for blowing the fish around, i have seen 40x tank flow with fish and they had a bit of a problem in the current but nothing much. i dont like power filters on a saltwater tank, look into wetwebmedia.com for more ideas

Answer 5

Larey is correct and YES you can over filter a fish tank which leads to the loss of beneficial bacterias and cloudy water. filtering the volume of the water 3-5 times per hour is great.

You would better off with a protein skimmer and a power head in place of your second emperor 400.

Over filtering is as bad for your tank as under filtering. I would remove one of the filters.

Answer 6

Sounds like you're over-filtering. I generally used to advise my customers to try to get a filter that will filter their size tanks 3-5 times per hour. A little over that is ok--in fact, I tend to slightly over filter my personal tanks, but, if you're referring to the emperor 400 gallon per hour filters, just one of those filters will filter your tank 11 times in one hour. If you had two running, then it'd be 22 times per hour. I'd imagine that the current would be very very strong in your tank with both of those things running. Too strong of a current will seriously stress your fish and corals. I wouldn't do a bigger filter than one that filters 200 gallons per hour on that tank unless you plan on seriously over stocking it. Good luck.

Answer 7

You can't really overfiltrate unless the water circulation is blowing the fish and aquarium decorations all over the place.

Saltwater aquariums benefit from high flow/high water circulation conditons, many reef set ups utilize a greater water flow than what your filters are providing.