Can I eliminate my canister filter …

[TN_Huskymama]

Can I eliminate my canister filter if I have a hang on refugium and a protein skimmer?
50 gallon tank. 6 months old.

 

[sixty_reefer]

You could if you wanted, any particular reason why?

 

[TN_Huskymama]

You could if you wanted, any particular reason why?

It’s a pain cleaning out the filter every 5 days to be honest. I dont have the right setup for a sump system yet.

 

[sixty_reefer]

It’s a pain cleaning out the filter every 5 days to be honest. I dont have the right setup for a sump system yet.

Have you tough in running only biological media in it? Having a canister is also an advantage if you need to run carbon or gfo. If I had to use one I’d just remove all the sponges and fill it with siporax or similar media, would work just as efficient as a sump.

 

[Backreefing]

You should have some sort of filter. 1 hang on back ,or 2 canister ,or something in a sump .
Just to remove ditritis from the water . And it helps keep the aquarium clear to .

 

[Peace River]

Can I eliminate my canister filter if I have a hang on refugium and a protein skimmer?
50 gallon tank. 6 months old.

If you are already cleaning out your canister filter every 5 days then it sounds like you are primarily using the canister as a mechanical filter and not as a biological filter. Presumably you have live rock that is handling much of the biological load. One alternative for your canister is to buy pillow stuffing from a local craft store to use as the media in your canister and then just replace the media when you clean the filter once a week.

 

[Chuckh]

I use a canister just for gfo or carbon. No filters so just change the gfo when needed. Works great on my 110 reef.

 

[TN_Huskymama]

If you are already cleaning out your canister filter every 5 days then it sounds like you are primarily using the canister as a mechanical filter and not as a biological filter. Presumably you have live rock that is handling much of the biological load. One alternative for your canister is to buy pillow stuffing from a local craft store to use as the media in your canister and then just replace the media when you clean the filter once a week.

I have biocubes in it along with carbon and bio floss.
I also have live sand and live rock in my tank.

 

[Peace River]

I have biocubes in it along with carbon and bio floss.
I also have live sand and live rock in my tank.

Depending on how much live rock that you have in your tank you may be able to do without the biocubes in the canister filter. The carbon is a part of the chemical filtration process and can be helpful (at least occasionally) and the biofloss is a good mechanical filtration solution (but can be expensive if you replace it every week). As I mentioned earlier a bag of polyfill is very inexpensive and some people used it in place of the biofloss and then also add the carbon as needed.