Canister Filter ?'s

[TReef04]

i just wondered what everyone thought about things. are they good reef filters? would it be beneficial to have one as the primary source of filtration? what are some advantages and disadvantages to them?

thanks guys, ANY input would help.

[B-Willz]

I personaly would never use one. If you do not change the media constantly, they become nitrate factories. I would not use one as a secondary filter let alone the primary. JMO

[Misled]

You can use it for running carbon or phosphate media in place of a reactor. Just remove the rest of the crap.

[jformani]

Can cause nitrates if you dont clean often and it will happen one day, you will get lazy about it. I would run one to polish off the water for a day or two and thats about it.

[TReef04]

ok thanks that helps, now, from hearing and reading i had some questions about nitrates. its good to have some but not too much right? or none at all? whats the harm in having to much? thanks, im kind of new to the reef chemistry side of things. thanks

[B-Willz]

Originally Posted by TReef04

ok thanks that helps, now, from hearing and reading i had some questions about nitrates. its good to have some but not too much right? or none at all? whats the harm in having to much? thanks, im kind of new to the reef chemistry side of things. thanks

Yes low to none is what you want. Access nitrates cause algae outbreaks, and will begin to kill things in the tank, corals and fish.

[TReef04]

ok got it. and you guys are saying nitrates will be made in the canister filter and brought into the tank? next question is what if you took everything out and just filled it with bioballs? has anyone done this?

[MCCOOL]

I use a Rena xp3 for my QT tank, and wouldn't have it any other way, it works great. I've never used one on a reef tank but assuming you cleaned it often enough, it would work well for carbon/GFO/etc, like Misled said.

[MCCOOL]

Do a search for "bioballs", they have been discussed to death haha. They certainly have their place, but won't help much for a reef tank.

[cloak]

Bioballs in a cannister filter will behave the same way a piece of live rock would, only without the denitrification capabilities. It can work on a reef tank, no problem at all, it's just that it's more efficient to just use the live rock alone. A setup like that would probably be better suited for a quarantine tank.

[Romewhip]

I use live rock and a canister filter- on a small tank only. I clean out the canister regularly, and I run a tank of all soft corals so I don't want a protein skimmer. I don't have too much bio media in the canister, and I use ceramic media instead of bio balls along with carbon, GFO, and sponges. I don't really recommend it to everyone, but they can work.

[abrian]

I use a Fluval 405 for carbon and GFO on my 120 sps tank and don't have any problems. I am considering trying some NP pellets for solid carbon dosing in the left over chambers, but haven't seen a post from anyone trying it so am not sure it would work well or not. The pellets would be downstream of the carbon and GFO of course. Anyone trying the solid carbon dosing pellets in a canister filter?

[fishchef]

I have a Fluval FX5 on my 125 mixed reef as primary filtration along with a HOB skimmer. I run all the media, special pads you buy separately, Seachem Purigen, and Polyfilter. I do run a GFO reactor separately. It does take some monthly cleaning and I do partials regularly. My nitrates run 10/20 ppm and I have zero phosphates on a Hanna which could be .06, not bad. Its been set-up for over 2 years. It works and I'm no plumber which is why I didn't do a sump. Hope this helps.

[drew1]

I have magnum 350's running on two tanks and they're great. Yes, you have to change media regularly but it's really easy to do. It's actually less maintenance then some of my other tanks.