# Filtering My 125 gallon NPT



## kshafer (Jan 23, 2011)

I will be setting up a 125 gallon NPT next year. For water movement, I was planning on a powerhead at one end and a filter at the other end. I've read that I should not disturb the surface too much to retain as much CO2 as possible. Would one HOB power filter disturb the surface too much? Would a canister filter be better? I don't have any experience with canister filters and have always been leery of them after hearing horror stories about leaks. How big of a filter do I need? I had two AC 110's on a 125 gallon with African Cichilids but I don't think I need that much filtration on a NPT. Any opinions on what I need are appreciated. Thanks.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

My experience has been that surface agitation is a good thing, and "too much" doesn't really hurt anything. My main advice to you is that you avoid soil from your yard as a substrate unless you know for certain that it will not disperse into the water column. (I made this mistake in a 125...not fun. ) 

Filtration depends on what you have planted. If the tank is crammed full of a large variety of plants (large rooted swords/crypts, fast growing stems, and everything in between) then filtration becomes less important. If you limit the number of species or plant less heavily, get as large and powerful a filter as you can manage. When I had my 125 NPT set up, it was my strongest desire to have a huge canister with a 1,200 gph pump on it (these don't exist unless you build your own). I ended up using 2 700gph powerheads for flow and that seemed to work. But I truly feel that having a canister filter would have been a better option...for the extra bacteria colony.


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## kshafer (Jan 23, 2011)

Thanks for the quick reply. I won't worry so much about surface agitation. Now I'm worried about soil in the water column. Is there a thread on here about the 125 that you had problems with? I know if I have a disaster it will be a big disaster but I don't want anything smaller, or larger for that matter.


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