Filteration for Discus

[Discusrite]

Hi everyone
I am planning on a 4 feet tank with a sump
Will use bioballs as the filtering media.
Now I know that everyone here uses and recommends sponge filter but I already have these planned for quite some time.
My question is, how many times should I have the water pumped through the sump?
And any other comments?

[Carol_Roberts]

I don't know as I only use hang on the back filters and sponge filters. If you don't get a good responce here try the Do-It -Yourself section - all the handy guys hang out there.

[Mike_T]

the main reason a lot of us prefer hydro sponges & aqua clears is that maintenence is easy. they need to be squeezed out often, and if you keep multiple sponges you'll always have a good biofilter. with discus, i wouldn't worry about turning the water over more than three times in an hour. they're not big on heavy water movement.

-mike t

[Discusrite]

Allright! The dimension of my tank is 4x2x1.5 feet.
That is a 90 US gallon/ 340 liters right?
And that means I'll need a (270 gallon/1020 liters) / hour pump.
So what about heater for a tank this size? how much wattage? bear in mind that I'm living on the equator.

[Carol_Roberts]

Here we figure 3 - 5 watt per gallon. I would guess a 300 watt heater or two 150 watt heaters.

[dgmckay]

I really like the Marineland Emperor filter. I use one on my 40G, and it turns over 280 gallons per hour. It has a biowheel, which is a wheel of material on the output of the filter that is kept wet and rotating by a spray bar. That's where the bulk of the de-nitrifying bacteria live - and you never need to replace it. So, unlike an AquaClear filter in which you have to be careful about only changing out one (of the 2 or 3) pieces of media at a time, with the biowheel there's no problem. The Emperor also has a nice and large body to accomodate mechanical and/or chemical filtration media. I put a big piece of filter floss in the cage that comes with the filter, and change it out on a bi-weekly basis. I also drop some wafers of peat in to the filter and change them out on the same schedule. (I used to use the Rite Size carbon inserts that Marineland makes for the Emperor, but I stopped using them about 2 months ago. I didn't see any benefit from the carbon, and the carbon inserts were expensive. The carbon also adsorbs some of the minerals from the fertilizer that I dose for my plants, and it removed the tannins from the peat. I kind of like the darker coloured water that results from the tannins, and the fish seem to like it too.)

One other thing, the Emperor by itself seems sufficient to keep the oxygen levels in the tank up - and it doesn't create a massive current in the tank.

The downside of the Emperor is that it's more expensive and is noisier than the AquaClear filters. I had a tank in my bedroom with an AquaClear, and the noise was no problem for sleeping. I wouldn't want an Emperor in there.

Regards,

Dave.