# 60 gallon planted tank filtration



## catfat (Aug 28, 2010)

Hi everyone this is my first post here ive been looking at this fourm for a while trying to help me with my first planted aquarium. Let me tell you about the tank i have then i will ask my question.
I have a 60 gallon freshwater tank that is fully stocked if you go off of the surface area method. I have pool filter sand at the bottom with some larger river rocks. The only plants i have right now are some hornwort and some other plant that i found a petco i threw away the thing it came in and do not know the name. For filtration i took the little filter that does 100 gallons per hour off my old 10 gallon tank and also put on a whisper 60 power filter that does 330 gph. From what i understood before it is good to have the water get fillted 10 times through every hour so thats why i have the 2 filters on even though they say the whisper can do a 60 gallon. From what im finding out now though that filtration like this might not be the best for a planted tank. Im interested in adding a lot more plants and im seeing that some people dont even have filtration other than the plants and water changes and its making me feel like im going at this wrong. 
What should i do? should i take off the filters and put in a bunch of plants or leave one of the filters and add more or just leave it how it is and put some more plants in?
Oh yea for lighting i have 2 lamps over the tank. Each lamp has a 14watt cfl daylight bulb that puts out the power of a 60 watt old type bulb so i should have like 2 watts per gallon of light


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Welcome to TPT!

What are the dimensions on your tank? If it's a 48" tank and you want to stay low tech (not need CO2) but be able to keep a little wider variety of plants then I recommend one of these T5NO fixtures - http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...7/cl0/coralifefwt5aqualightdoublestriplight48

What you need the most for planted tanks are 

1: mechanical filtration- this traps debris than you can then manually remove from the filter with regular maintenance, and

2: flow - good water circulation helps ensure that debris gets drawn into the filters instead of collecting in dead spots that will then decay and contribute to water quality and algae issues

As you add in more plants, you'll find that the debris increases (dead plant matter) and the plant leaves themselves will block the flow- so you may need to increase/adjust your filtration or flow as you go along. If you find that your filters are adequate (they aren't getting completely clogged with debris) but you just need to boost flow b/c you start getting dead spots, another option rather than changing out your filters would be to add a powerhead or two.

It's a somewhat subjective thing- I personally like lots of flow, and I just watch what happens to all the flakes when I feed. If I notice they all fall down into one spot and collect, I can then play around with my equipment to see if I can get better flow.


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## catfat (Aug 28, 2010)

Yes my tank is a 48 inch. My whisper 60 filter actually broke on me the other day(i bought the filter secondhand and i have no idea how old it was) i ended up getting an aquaclear 70 only thing is i set up my tank where i had some clearance with the whisper but the aquaclear wont fit behind since its a little bit bigger front to back of the filter so i have it set up with the flow going length wise and i can see nice flow throughout the tank.


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## lnstevens (Aug 9, 2010)

Honestly I would go cansiter. They are a lot smoother and tend to be longer between cleaning. Aside from the fact they don't cause the surface agitation that other filters do. The surface agitation causes co2 to leave the water, which plants use. Not enough co2 = bad plant growth.


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## catfat (Aug 28, 2010)

lnstevens said:


> Honestly I would go cansiter. They are a lot smoother and tend to be longer between cleaning. Aside from the fact they don't cause the surface agitation that other filters do. The surface agitation causes co2 to leave the water, which plants use. Not enough co2 = bad plant growth.


Yea eventually I want to go canister but for now the hob is easiest for me and i got my tank sitting on the 2 by 4 and cinder block stand so the canister would be harder to hide lol but yes someday I will go canister probably my next tank


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