Too much filtration?

[PBM3000]

I guess I could switch it off for a month or so and see what (if anything) happens...

 

[Zeus.]

But taking it to another level gilhams in thialand has some of the largest Freashwater fish in the world Arapaimia to 560lB for you to catch and return OFC no water changes going on there unless it rains OFC. They do top it up from the local river from time to time. They do run aerators all day and night OFC.

 

[zozo]

I guess I could switch it off for a month or so and see what (if anything) happens...

The predicability you wont notice a difference is highest.. 🙂

To be honnest i've tried one, just because against beter judgement i still was curious.. Accidently constructed my sumps piping idealy to fit a UV tube light 24mm x 300mm in the excisting sumps 32mm x 30mm tubing. So i bought one, 3 x over powered according its specs vs the tank volume, to be sure at least theoriticaly it is strong enough. Installed it in the sumps tubing where it's constantly submersed in the flow. So the water has a 3mm gap over a lenght of 30cm in 360° over the UV tube to pass before it ends up in the sump. With approximately 2 to 3 times turn over. The tank ran over a year without it.. Now it's running over 6 months with a UV light installed. I do not notice anything beneficial, nor anything negative regarding micro fert deficiencies.. Can't tell what it does or if it does anything, but consume power. Only thing i have is my believe, which was always sceptic to begin with. 🙂

As said, i made it because accidentily created the ideal situation. Else i wouldn't even got the idea i guess.. Any extra experience is one more to add, it wasn't that expensive and worth a try from a experience (also constructional) perspective and maybe proof myself wrong. Tho yet still waiting for that wonder or deficiency to happen.. 😉

 

[fishes]

From my understanding, too much filtration and too much flow can be 2 different things...

Too much filtration means you won't provide the bacteria in the filter enough ammonia/nitrites to have a healthy sustainable colony, meaning that it becomes harder for the bacteria to quickly deal with ammonia/nitrites spikes.

Too much flow on the other hand, will blow everything with it... and it's usually easy to manage.

Your setup seems to be just fine. The rule of thumb is for the filters to pump your aquarium's water volume 10x per hour, so a 240L tank would need a 2400L/h output. The EHEIM 4e+ 350 works at 1500L/h and the Fluval 306 works at 1150L/h, a 2650L/h in total (and these numbers from manufacturers are usually debatable, to say the least), so you're not that far from what you should have, which means you just need to work around the amount of flow.

I run a EHEIM Classic 250 in a 19L Fluval Chi tank myself with no issues so far. I only had to deal with the huge amount of flow it had.

If you have a spray bar, you can open it's holes a bit more, or even open a few more holes on it. Also, pointing the holes upwards may help you reduce flow, but I'm not sure if this helps with the floating plants.

Been thinking about this a little and i cant see how too much filtration can make much difference.

Say you have enough bacteria in your filter, which is constantly growing and shrinking in numbers dependant on your tanks needs or just going slightly dormant Then you increase the surface area by say time times all you will do is give the bacteria more places to live, the bacteria will respond the same to any changes in biological load as long as there is enough surface area for them to expand. So IMO the biological filtration will remain unchanged except your total biological filtration capacity will be higher so will be able to cope with a higher load if the need arises.

As to the mechanical filtration the more you have as long as flow is good is not bad either as it will take longer to clog up IMO, regular cleans are always better but having a filter which needs cleaning less can be a good thing at times as well IMO

Bacteria will continue to grow. Their population will not go up and down. There is so much more than the 2 types of Bacteria to in filter. There is bacteria that eats bad bacteria out of the water. Do not clean filter unless flow slows down and then just clean enough to increase flow again. There is so much misinformation out there. You actually want 20 times the surface area needed to eat ammonia to have crystal clear water. That crystal clear water doesn't come from the filter, it comes from the other bacteria it seams like most people don't even know exist to eat bad bacteria out of the water which would be attacking the fish.

 

[si walker]

AHH that's so funny.
What happened if I only have 18 time's the surface area for the bad bacteria eating thingies to live on.

Look, it doesn't really matter, just do what you can do.

It's all fine!

Enjoy.