prefilter intake for canister - top or bottom?

[beviking]

I see many of you have prefilters on your canister filters. Obviously this must be cleaned, so is the inlet taking water in near the top or near the bottom of the tank? Seems it would be easier to get at if it were near the top (duh!). If the filter is used for biological filtering, then the inlet hose can be just under the surface anyway...right?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

It is more effective to place the intake close to the bottom. The sponge should be rinsed at least once/week.

 

[Sumpin'fishy]

If your canister is for bio only, then I would still place the intake somewhere in the bottom third of the water column. This is more for circulating water than for cleaning dirt. Your pre-filter may get a bit more dirty down there, but you want to make sure you are circulating bottom water to the top, and so on. I'd keep it a few inches off the substrate, though.

 

[RTR]

All my canister intake prefilers are near or at the substrate - except the Eheim-manufatured prefilters, which are buried even with the substrate surface.

 

[JSchmidt]

Many of my intakes (prefiltered) are located near the substrate, but several are within the top one-third of the water column. These are primarily HOT Magnum intakes, and their prefilters seem to get just as dirty (or more) as do filters rated for even higher GPH.

Jim