Aquaclear 30

[sower]

I am new to this hobby. I currently have a 20 Gal tank with 2 6cm fancy goldfish and 5 snails (2 Malaysian trapdoor and 3 Ramshorn of 2 varieties I believe). I consider my tank as heavily planted as I've run out of space to plant any more plants.

I've had this tank for about 7 weeks, and have been running the AC30. The filter has a sponge, bag of carbon and a bag of biomedia filtration material. I just bought a 100 ml of Seachem Matrix that I plan to put in.

My Questions:
1) Is the AC30 sufficient for a 20 Gal?
2) Do I still need the carbon?
3) Should I replace the carbon with the Seachem Matrix?
4) What else can I put in the filter to increase it effeciency?
Cheers.

[rich311k]

An AC50 or another 30 would be a good idea especiaaly with the goldfish.

No need to run carbon.

I run my Acs with a pad, some bio noodles and filter floss.

[sower]

An AC50 or another 30 would be a good idea especiaaly with the goldfish.

No need to run carbon.

I run my Acs with a pad, some bio noodles and filter floss.
I will look into getting another filter soon. I have two lights (60 watts total) and if I get another filter, I will have to rest the light on the two filters, will that be fine? It is currently resting on one filter.

What brand do you recommend for the pad, bio noodles and filter floss?

I only bought AC as it was recommended by the guy at the store, are there products better than the AC?

Thanks for the quick reply

[Wild Turkey]

AC's are one of the best as far as HOB (that variety of filter) goes. You could throw on another ac and that will do nicely.

Running carbon is optional. In a planted tank I would go without it but thats just my opinion.

If you do run it, change it monthly.

[Northernguy]

Agreed Ac are the best way to go for an HOB filter.
AC filter products work well to.

[gm72]

I run all AC HOBs for such an application. I run sponge prefilters on all of them for mechanical filtration and just load the box with Ehfimech for bio filtration. Works perfectly! I use AC 30s on my 10 gallon tanks.

[sower]

Just wondering if it would be a good idea to buy a used Eheim 2213 instead of a new AC50? The price works out the same, let me know

Sorry if it came across rude, but thanks heaps for the advise. I'll do some research and create a new thread if I have questions.
Cheers.

[190MPH]

An AC50 is $17 on F&S with the cheat code, hard to beat that.

[aquyenl]

can u explain this cheat code?

[gadget228]

can u explain this cheat code?

Sent pm to explain.

[annageckos]

Either a canister or another AC would work fine. But you may want to look into upgrading your tank to at least a 30 gallon since you have goldfish.

[Taurus]

I run all AC HOBs for such an application. I run sponge prefilters on all of them for mechanical filtration and just load the box with Ehfimech for bio filtration. Works perfectly! I use AC 30s on my 10 gallon tanks.

I'm starting to replace the biomax that came with my AC HOBs with Ehfimech because it's made out of hard ceramic and will never need replacing. We talked about this over in the canister filter thread gm72. I think it will be just as effective in the ACs??

I'm still running my sponge on the bottom of the AC media basket, but may consider placing a sponge of the intake as that would given me more room for the Ehfimech.

[sower]

An AC50 is $17 on F&S with the cheat code, hard to beat that.
What is F&S? And wouldnt shipping to Australia be expensive...
I'm still running my sponge on the bottom of the AC media basket, but may consider placing a sponge of the intake as that would given me more room for the Ehfimech.
Do you mean placing a sponge in the intake tube?

[lowlight]

What is F&S? And wouldnt shipping to Australia be expensive...

F&S= DR. Foster & Smith it is a website that sells aquarium supplies as well as other pet supplies. I don't know about the shipping.