Tropheus Filtration - 125 gallon 40 WC Adults - Advice?

[Chris Derrick]

125 gallon tropheus tank with 40 wild caught ikola, two emp 400 hang on back filters, 1 FX5, one Eshopps 400 wet dry with two large chambers of bio balls and a mag 10. I have two korilla #4 in the tank pushing 1200GPH each for flow! My question for ya all is do I need the emperoor 400's any more or can I take em off? I was thinking about using one on my emergency tank when I need to use it and just giving the other to a friend of mine. I thank you guys for your opnions. CD

[algarciajr]

Wash the 400's off and then after using them on the 125 gallon for about a month see if they are really dirty. If they are not then you should be ok without them. I am running a much smaller wet/dry and an eheim 2217 on my 125 gallon that houses my Ilangis (about 26 of them). I just removed an aquaclear 110 after adding the eheim, plus I do 90% water changes every 7-10 days and the tank is fine.

[myjohnson]

If you decide to remove them, then do it one at a time and 2-3 weeks apart so you don't remove so much of the bio-colony.

I think you could do without. I seen people do with less and have no problems.

[Chris Derrick]

I wash all the emp 400 filters with pressure water hose twice a week I do not use them for biological filtration other then the biowheels. I do 75% water change or more twice a week now I also wash the pads on top of the wet dry twice a week.

[geoff_tropheus]

I would leave them, becuase they are so easy to clean. I would quit buying the catridges though, and I would pack that grey slider one with Charcoal, and then put floss in the front of it for fine filtration and polishing.

Then clean that out every week/2 weeks etc...

You would be fine with the MAg10 Driven wetdry and the FX5, but having the two Emperor 400's is only good bonus material and extra mechanical filtration. I'd keep them as long as I did not mind the added look and associated costs with them.

Up to you man,... In fact you probably could get by on upgrading to mag-12 or mag-18 and keep using the koralia's as long as your overflow can handle the extra flow.

Let us know what you decide...

Geoff