So I've been reading up on planted tanks (fake plants can be so tacky and boring ) and after reading through some of the great stickies here I started looking into sponge filters as recommended by pretty much everyone.
Most of the threads I saw posted about this were for tanks 30g or smaller and so I'm curious if the setup I have in mind will be sufficient for my purposes.
Currently I have a 38 gallon (not yet planted) and will be setting up a new 20 gallon (planted) in the next week or two. I also have a friend giving me a 55 gallon tank for free, which I plan on (eventually) planting.
So what I was thinking is a pump large enough to run sponge filters in all 3 tanks, plus possibly a 10g QT tank as well. Estimating pump strength versus the gallons I'll be filtering I came up with the following:
Tetra Whisper 60 Air Pump
Lok-Tite 4 outlet control valve (plus tubing to the 4 tanks)
Hagen Elite double sponge filters for the 38 and 55 gallon tanks and single sponge versions for the 10g and 20g tanks.
Now from my reading so far I've noted that the smaller tanks will be just fine with a single sponge filter, but I've only seen the double referenced up to a 29g tank.
So my question is should I buy additional single or double sponge filters for the larger tanks?
And will the air pump I've listed be sufficient to run all of the above, with or without additional filters for the large tanks, or should I buy a second (or even third?) pump and split the load?
Thanks!
Most of the threads I saw posted about this were for tanks 30g or smaller and so I'm curious if the setup I have in mind will be sufficient for my purposes.
Currently I have a 38 gallon (not yet planted) and will be setting up a new 20 gallon (planted) in the next week or two. I also have a friend giving me a 55 gallon tank for free, which I plan on (eventually) planting.
So what I was thinking is a pump large enough to run sponge filters in all 3 tanks, plus possibly a 10g QT tank as well. Estimating pump strength versus the gallons I'll be filtering I came up with the following:
Tetra Whisper 60 Air Pump
Lok-Tite 4 outlet control valve (plus tubing to the 4 tanks)
Hagen Elite double sponge filters for the 38 and 55 gallon tanks and single sponge versions for the 10g and 20g tanks.
Now from my reading so far I've noted that the smaller tanks will be just fine with a single sponge filter, but I've only seen the double referenced up to a 29g tank.
So my question is should I buy additional single or double sponge filters for the larger tanks?
And will the air pump I've listed be sufficient to run all of the above, with or without additional filters for the large tanks, or should I buy a second (or even third?) pump and split the load?
Thanks!