filter for a 10 gallon tank

G

galen

AC Members
Jan 26, 2007
778
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0
NY
hi- well, i bought a whisper 30 filter and to be quite frank it was mediocre at best. this morning, it kicked the bucket after a long underachieving history. anyway, i need a new filter for the tank. what do y'all recommend? my girlfriend says i should get an aquaclear 30. she has it on her 10 gallon tank and it does ok i guess. neeon tetras and such are really a bad litmus tets though for performance of any filter.
my tank has 1 filament barb, 1 hoplo cat, 1 pair of mated mollies, and 1 baby red tail shark i saved from a really abusive tank. got 2 amazon swords, 1 rangeri sword, and 1 anubia nana.
me, i like to overstock and overplant my tanks so i like big strong filters. so i'm leaning at an emperor 280. is that overkill for the tank? remember i need a strong filter that actually does "filter" the water. im just plain sick of seeing clean pads with debris on the tank bottom. anyway, id appreciate some input. all options are open except buying a big tidepool wet dry or something! small canisters are an option...
EDIT: this tank is in my bedroom, so plz advise if noise is an issue with an emperor...
 
Check out the link.....http://www.drsfostersmith.com There are several different types that could be used. Maybe a penguin 100 or 200...:hi: How about gravel vac. also..
 
I have a penguin 125 and an aquaclear 20 on my ten gallon tank, one on each side. I don't think it is too much and all the fish and plants are happy. An emperor 280 is a huge filter for a ten gallon tank and over time the emperors tend to get noisey. I would be inclined to go with two smaller filters so if one should fail the other filter will pick up the slack until the other filter is operating again.

Marinemom
 
penguin is good, aquaclear is a good filter but its big and bulky, plus most of the time when the power goes out, the filter back siphons the water into the tank and when the power goes on theres no water to prime it in the filter chamber therefor overheating the motor if not discovered quickly. Penguin is good, emperor is stronger than a penguin and is more reliable. If you have fast current fish like danios or something then you may invest in that.
 
know what would be awesome for your tank? a sponge filter. Go to drsfosterandsmith.com and buy the largest sponge filter and an air pump.
 
i agree on the sponge filter. hwoever, what i need is a good all purpose pump to clean my water. i do have a sponge filter on my twenty gallon tank and it is superb, year after year. however, the problem is that the filter i have now is inadequate. the water is cloudy and has been cloudy for weeks now. 50-75% water changes every other day did'nt cut it and the cloudiness returns. to me, the problem lay with the filtration. so that's why i am looking at models.
 
Ive got 3 brand new (5 days old) emp 280's and there pretty quiet other then priming. They flow well and with double cartriges they filter the water very well. Imo its not to powerful at all. I have a pair of 280's and a penguin 150 on one of my 29g's and the fish dont seem bothered at all. My personal take on it is a pair of penguin 150's would be a good choice for a 10g or a pair of penguin 200's. Ive run both setups and either works well. Id go with the dual 150's personally. That way you have plenty of reserve capacity. Im sure nobody will agree with my take on filtration but I prefer to have plenty rather then not enough.
 
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