Wet Dry VS. Canister Filters

[Pepe]

I have been doing some research on a larger planted freshwater tank with driftwood(75gal or so) for tetras and a few angels. It seems that most people use canister filters here. Any opinions about the relative effectiveness of canister vs wet dry filters? I get the impression that wet dry filters do a better job at biological filtration. Any experience with these?

 

[legendaryfrog]

If you're not into DIY, then a canister is the way to go. T

Wet/dry's on the other hand give you an unrivaled amount of biofiltration which in turn keeps your Am/nI/nA down.

 

[jere1558]

I am interested in this also. Any help here?

 

[legendaryfrog]

On my tanks i use a wet/dry for biofiltration and a canister for mechanical filtration.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

wet/dry systems are great for bigger tanks. if your going to go with higher lighting tank and add co2 wet/dry isnt very good because it gas out the co2. so it really depends on what you want to do.

 

[jm1212]

canisters are good for planted tanks because they allow for less gas exchange.

wet dry filters, on the other hand, allow of ALOT of gas exchange, but they also have awsome ammounts of biological filtration.

 

[Rallysman]

so it really depends on what you want to do.

Bingo.

My favorite thing about wet/dry filters is the ease of maintenance. All that you have to do to them is periodically change the pre-filter, which takes about 1 minute and you can leave the filter running.

 

[Brett]

Yeah a wet/dry will degas your tank especially if you are not using co2 injection.

I had this happen to me, several years ago, using the Ehiem 2227 wet/dry canister. Most of my plants wilted, and I learned something new the hard way.
Excellent filtration though, I use the 2227 on my bluegill tank now with a 2048 internal and I have been able to grow some very large anubias in there.

 

[Star_Rider]

actually a wet dry may gas off more CO2..but there is another school of thought re CO2 and off gassing. in an enclosed system (wet /dry) you may not off gass as much CO2 ..the water passes thru trapped CO2 in the tank..the key is to have that part of the sump where the water passes in an enclosed section..the water passes thru baffles with high low walls then a tiny water fall to the return.
but in general you can lose a lot of CO2 with a wet/dry sump.

 

[Pepe]

Thanks, I like the idea of using more biological filtration and the easy maintenance, but, I like plants. Brett, I read some about anubias, they seem to be slow growing and so I wonder if that is why they do well in lower CO2 conditions. Is the internal used to increase mechanical filtration? Anyone else have plants in a tank with a wet dry filter? I don't need super plants so if I could get them to live and grow slowly and still look good that would be good. Right now I have a marineland biowheel type filter on the ten gallon. but I take it there is a much greater gas exchange in a wet/dry setup. The plants grow almost too fast with that.