Removing Canister ?

[DHyslop]

Hmm--maybe I should add a canister or a bioballs to my system.

Will bioballs be effective at all underwater, or must the water trickle?

Dan

 

[Feelers]

Yeah Dan I was thinking the same thing, I have a normal cannister filter, ie its not a w/d.

Its a cheap chineese eheim 2028 knockoff, for about 1/8th the price. Its good for a tank up to 1200 L apparently.

Spot the difference? haha, the left one is my cheapo. US about $97.
Im real happy with it, but I was told not to use it(by reefers). I will be filling it with nylon pot scrubbers - they have more surface area than bioballs I have read, and provide easier flow, meaning they dont block as easily.

dbbga - Why dont you try slowly removing it, take some readings, then chuck it back if you were better off with it?
As long as you do it all slowly I dont think your tank would crash. Maybe you can help people like me come to a decision on whether to use it or not!!!


As a related question, what happens if you put live rock in your cannister?

 

[Colin]

well, i'd guess that if you put live rock in the filter it would get clogged very quickly and that would defeat the purpose of having it in there. The reason the rock needs a good flow in a tank is partly to prevent clogging and dead spots. But then, I haven't tried it... possibly these dead spots would be good for anaerobic bacteria converting nitrate to nitrogen?

My cephalopod right now is about 80 UK gals. It has about 25kg of live rock. Mechanical filtration is done by a fluval 1 internal filter. An aquamedic 1000 multi skimmer is witched on for about 2 days a week and a 10 - 15% water change monthly.
Vigorous water movement is provided by air stones.
It only houses 4 sepia bandensis.

I dont think I would try this set up with an octopus which is going to get big like a bimac, briareus or vulgaris etc.... there would be too much waste for the rock to cope with alone

 

[Feelers]

Colin what are your water parameters like? - at nil or are there nitrates present?

whats the maximum acceptable limit for nitrates?

 

[cthulhu77]

I have a different opinion of bio balls, but we've been over that one before ! (hate em)
Canisters, though, I am quite fond of...but I don't run them fulltime, either. Using them with the cleaning pads and a lot of carbon a few times a week, for a couple of hours, really removes a lot of stuff from the water, and causes no spike in nitrates.

Personally, I don't really care for Fluval's very much, and tend to gravitate towards the Rainbow/Lifeguard or Magnum can filters...much more aggressive, and meant for intermittent use.

greg

 

[Scouse]

Ive mentioned this before with limited response but maybe this is the place to throw a spanner in the works an say ....since the canister is for housing anti-phosphate media, carbon and a mechanical filter

what are peoples thoughts on replacing with a sepaerate mechanical filter, then using two reactors (ones made by two little fishies but loads of other reatailers out there) so you can fluidise the ferrous iron and carbon and get more out of them rather than them getting dry at times with a canister?

Please tell me im talkin rubbish if you think so, no one seems to have an opinon on this, either good or bad.

Nice one

 

[Colin]

I dont think I have ever had a tank with nil nitrates... ever and dont think it is much of a problem for cephalopods as long as extremes are avoided... probably best to aim for under 50ppm

 

[DHyslop]

I have a different opinion of bio balls, but we've been over that one before ! (hate em)
Canisters, though, I am quite fond of...but I don't run them fulltime, either. Using them with the cleaning pads and a lot of carbon a few times a week, for a couple of hours, really removes a lot of stuff from the water, and causes no spike in nitrates.

Personally, I don't really care for Fluval's very much, and tend to gravitate towards the Rainbow/Lifeguard or Magnum can filters...much more aggressive, and meant for intermittent use.

greg

Greg,

So when your canister isn't running do you just have a prefilter, skimmer and the LR doing the work?

Reefkeepers tend to think of maintaining their system as balancing an ecosystem. It seems ceph-keepers should view their tanks as more of a life-support system.

Dan

 

[cthulhu77]

My tanks are mostly modified reef setups...so yep, I use a prefilter, skimmer, and a lot of LR...fairly heavy water flow.
Using the rainbow/lifeguard flush filter does an astounding job of picking up detritus in just a few minutes, but it can be messy !

Have always had trouble with eheims and fluvals, I know it is just me though, as all of my friends love them.

greg

 

[DHyslop]

My tanks are mostly modified reef setups...so yep, I use a prefilter, skimmer, and a lot of LR...fairly heavy water flow.
Using the rainbow/lifeguard flush filter does an astounding job of picking up detritus in just a few minutes, but it can be messy !

Have always had trouble with eheims and fluvals, I know it is just me though, as all of my friends love them.

greg

My 75 gallon system has a similar "reef-like" setup and I want to push it up a notch for an octo. Right now I have around 70 lbs of live rock and a Turboflotor 1000 in the 30 gallon sump. After the advice posted in this thread, I'm definately going to add some active filtration. Since my PVC system for the skimmer puts part of my overflow into the skimmer and just pours the other part into the sump, it would be very easy for me to add a bioball tower about 6" x 12" x ~20" tall next to the skimmer. I don't know how effective that would be, but if a canister would be better I'd pay for it.

Dan

 

[cthulhu77]

Well, there are a lot of people with quite a lot of experience (like Colin) who have had good luck with bio balls...I never have. I use the can filter to remove detritus from the tank itself, kind of like a shop vac...don't know if it would be worth the $$ to use in the sump or not.

greg

 

[DHyslop]

Greg, would you be so good as to share some details about your tank, specifically its volume, how many pounds of LR and what your flow rate is?

I hate to push on this too hard, but I'm really interested in finding some baseline numbers of good, proven setups.

Dan

 

[cthulhu77]

Tanks are all down right now, as the big move approaches (nothing sucks more than moving...aaarrrgghhh)...but, the tanks are/were:
55 gallon, 50+lbs of fiji rock, almost 700 gph in flow (this one was set up for three years without incident, and will be the bimac tank at the new house)...20 gallon sump, Rio pumps, 1" of sand on the bottom.

2 50 gallons, 50 lbs + of mixed rock, 400/350 gph flow, no sump (mixed fish tanks), 2" of sand on bottom.

37 high tank, 40 lbs of fiji rock, 200 gph, 10 gallon sump, 1/2" of sand...this will hopefully be the little cuttle tank in the new place.

We are going to adding on a 125 gallon tank too, but it is a plant tank for Piglet (my bichir)

I use a rainbow lifeguard portable system for the bottom vaccing weekly...has worked out really well for me !!

 

[DHyslop]

Tanks are all down right now...

That is a lot of flow, indeed! Good luck with the move. The tanks turned out to be the least painful part of my cross-country move this fall. Just this week I noticed I have a small conchoidal fracture on an edge of my 30, presumably from the move. Its been holding OK for a few months, but we're going to replace it this weekend to be safe.

Dan

 

[cthulhu77]

Ouch! Nothing more fun than coming home to a house full of smelly salt water soaked carpet !!!