90 gallon fish tank

[tyler_medeiros]

ok so i was thinking about the filters i was planning on putting on and me and my girlfriend were wandering around a pet store and saw a uv steralizer. Ive nerver used one but i know someone who used it in a pond and it kept the watter krystal clear. OK so i was planning to use:
- 2 AquaClear 300 (rated for 20-50 gallons)
- 1 Uv steralizer (rated for 65 gallons)
would that be good enough

[t_chelle16]

If I'm not mistaken, UV sterilizers are mainly to prevent algae (huge problem with ponds because they they get so much light). As long as you don't have tons of light on the tank and you don't overstock or over feed you shouldn't have any algae problems.

-Chelle

[tyler_medeiros]

so should the two aquaclear 300 be enough to filter a 90 gallon.
Im not planning to have more than 20 african cichlids in it.

[kc5gvn]

On a tank that size the flow of the two filters combined should have a minimum turnover rate of 500 gallons per hour, and even better 900 gallons per hour. UV sterilizers were originally used on Marine tanks to control Oodinium problems. They were also found to work well on ich. The control of algae was learned later on, but as I remember UV's did not work well in controlling red algae.

[tyler_medeiros]

with the two aquaclear 300 it puts out 600 gallons an hour
do you think that that will be sufficient

[tyler_medeiros]

ok so we just got back from the lfs and the guy suggested we use a fluval 404. We went through everything with eachother and he said it would be our best bet.
What do you guys think

[t_chelle16]

The 404 would be on the really low end of the recomended gph/turnover (3.7x tank vol). If you don't really heavily stock the tank, it should be fine. Otherwise I'd add another filter.

-Chelle

[tyler_medeiros]

o hi realized that the gph was only like 350 so i was wondering if i could add power heads to circulate the water more.
is that an option

[tyler_medeiros]

and if we add the power head it is an extra 400 gph added on to the fluval.

[t_chelle16]

A powerhead will help circulate the water in the tank and prevent dead spots, but it really won't help the filtration since it isn't actually moving more water through the filter.

-Chelle

[tyler_medeiros]

what could be done to help fix it
im on a budget so it cant be to expensiveand i dont want a hob because i want the tank as close to the wall as possible

[tyler_medeiros]

any suggestions to the filter problem.

[t_chelle16]

Short of adding another filter, I don't think there's anything else you can do. I don't know of any way to increase the efficiency of a canister.

-Chelle