Canister Filter Article

ToeJam

ToeJam

MMORPG ADDICT!!
Jan 9, 2009
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Tacoma,WA
http://modernreefkeeping.com/?p=83

Pretty much info for those who ask about the use of them. I still don't recommend them to anyone, BUT with proper cleaning often they wont become nitrate factories. They do become that if you are not diligently cleaning them.

I for one sometimes skip water changes....just get lazy.... it would be a problem for me. Having a good skimmer and using RO water...I am happily headache free ...and i used to have all the screw ups of nooby users.

I learned the hard way not by a book...then i bought the books lol...and realized how stupid i was....anyway...off topic about me being stupid here.

Hope this article enlightens those wanting to know more.
 
Any filtration system can become a nitrate factory if not properly maintained. However people do clean wet/dry and canister filters less often than they should due to thinking they don't need it.

I think it totally unreasonable to say one type is more prone to it than another. I feel that article supports my position on that. It is a good article none the less.

I hope more people read it and learn it can enhance your reef or FOWLR if properly maintained.
 
Regular partial water changes and diligent canister cleaning are part of aquarium keeping routine. The aquarium is like a living organism that needs to get rid of its accumulated waste. Otherwise, you can attach it to a dialysis machine.
 
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The idea of a article on canister filters should be reviewed, or better yet, edited. For do note, I too used canister filters, for the most part in my early days in the hobby, there was nothing else. Not even sumps were in at the time or skimmers. the first skimmer that I recall was to rest inside the tank and funny as it is, they are still around today.

But this article on canister filters had more then 60 viewers with only two comments. Now canister filters do have their limited usage, and I mean limited. Like they do not do well at all on larger reef tanks for one hobbyist found this out the hard way. pet Smart sold this one guy the idea that he could manage a 240 gal reef tank with two canister filters. But right from the start he had no success what-so-ever. he bought a few times a type of butterfly fish and they always died in a few days.

The idea for one to use a canister filter on 65 gal tanks or smaller, your time in maintenance will be consume alot to maintain this tank, with large weekly water changes. But for the most part, one comment here early on hit it right on the nose, hobbyist often become lazy and things begin to fail almost immediately.

But the idea thought on the article itself, proves nothing in the true sense for one sure thing is a fact, you always will do better with a sump and best skimmer you can buy. Just like im to have when I start my 240 gal SPS reef tank, im doing as well a 40 gal breeder QT, and it too will have a sump and best skimmer I can get for it.

As far the article itself, its just one persons opinion and nothing more for know this that you would get more responses from other members on the discussions of sump size and skimmer then a article for canister filters. Just the same, canisters do have their limited usage and often for smaller marine tanks, but it somewhat gets more difficult when its a reef tank or better yet, SPS tank with clams.

Again, on the idea of any article, I know some years ago one author wrote an article on the H.Dragon Moray Eel from a few weeks field study and he made his conclusion that you couldn't house any more then one dragon eel in any tank and he was correct that none of the eels were sharing the same lair. The fact is, if his field research was a longer program, he would learn that the juvenile species of this eel will and do share in the same lairs, that when they reach their early adult stages, they from this point no longer share in the same lair within their own species.

The fact in knowing all this is because I housed and maintained a pair of H.Dragon Moray Eels for more the 14 years and when they reached their young adult life, they began to be on opposites side of the tank. So anyone cab really write an article, but do they know the knowledge personally or simple making their assumptions and that is just what it is. Also, most who write books on eels, never kept any eels of their own, all except for one I know who does keep eels and his name is Marco who lives in Germany.

There is a lot more I can say on this,, but im out of time, my grandchildren are driving me a bit crazy right now, LOL

Buddy
 
The frequent maintenance requirements of a canister on marine tanks is enough to make me avoid them all together.
 
Yesterday, I wasn't able to get to add some things to my thoughts on this subject of canister filters due to my Grandchildren being a bunch of pests. In any event, I not remember the year that a Japanese marine hobbyist and researcher, what if he was in Marine Biologist, I not knew of this for sure. But this person studied the idea of a having a sump on a reef tank, and by this point in time, skimmers were several years in the hobby.

I seen the effects of a canister filters back then, like on a 90 gal tank, I had two canisters and again, back then they weren't as affective as they are today, I even found myself with the need to add a third canister. The effective results differ from a F/O tank to a reef tank. I in later years learn that over seas the marine hobbyists were more successful in their advancements in filtration systems, but i couldn't find out just then about the complete details of what methods they were using.

Not forget one thing here, we had no Internet back then, and books on the hobby was just about neel until the late 60`s or early 70`s, but books then still were limited on their information, the weren't complete helpful on full data as today. I seen to many start a tank and quitted just as fast. Freshwater aquariums was more of the thing at the time, not as many were willing to attempt marine tanks. But as the years went on, aquarium equipment grown through the years and things were looking a bit easier then at the start. Our only way of leaning of correcting any problems was from others who were doing the same thing as yourself and self taught.
Like even today so many still go the cheapest way in their filtration method and that is of the use of a canister filter, and later as always, most of this hobbyist end up adding a HOB skimmer, in which both the canisters filter and skimmer are causing you to have salt creep down the back of their tanks. This alone through time become an annoying problem you have to admit.

Just the same, sumps add work in the maintenance of ones tank as well, still its by far the better method in adding to ones tank water volume and a far better skimmer then you can find in any HOB models.

My comments on the idea of canister filtration is simply my own opinion on the subject :)

Buddy
 
I agree about Sumps + Skimmer being the better method. My maintenance consists of taking out water now. Every 6 months I clean the skimmer pump and power heads.

I spend less time cleaning today vs back when I started. Glad to.. One can see a big difference in maintaining good parameters between water change schedule if you use a good water source and very good skimmer.

That reef octopus skimmer was the best purchase I made....So glad I tossed that piece of junk Super skimmer.

Next project beginning end of this year a 200g reef tank =p. This time I am ready to do it right.
 
Slappy*McFish said:
The frequent maintenance requirements of a canister on marine tanks is enough to make me avoid them all together.
Click to expand...

Totally slappy.... my wife had one on the 29g biocube once...cleaning that thing every week got on my nerves. Breaking it down....cleaning it thoroughly....just hated it.

It's pretty nice to get to the point we are at now. Change water done! Lazy marine reef tank guy I am.
 
I have ran (and still do run) an external on my 180 litre tank.

I don't have a sump and the external is utlised in 2 ways:

It is used to run filter floss, seachem purigen and carbon
It feeds my UV unit and my phosphate reactor

External can be used to good effect if, as mentioned above, they are treat correctly.

Mine gets detached, emptied, swilled out with RO, floss changed for new, carbon changed every 2 weeks and purigen changed every 2 months and then refilled with fresh salt water.

Takes me between 5 - 10 minutes to do this.

It has no effect on my no3/po4.

Nitrate has shown as 0 on a salifert kit for at least a year and po4 measures at 0.008 on a D&D Merck test kit.

The main time they become an issue are if they are not cleaned weekly and sponges/bio balls/ceramic rings/live rock rubble are used as media.

For those without sumps they can be a very useful peice of kit. Yes a sump is better (mainly for hiding equipment etc) but a tank can be ran successfully with an external.
 
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