Canister filter questions?

[PSims113]

Before I start, I know most will tell me to ditch the canister and go HOB (or sump if possible). Let's avoid that convo for now.

Those of you who have done canisters on 30-40g tanks - how often were you cleaning it? What was/is your regular maintainance routine with one?

I have an empty 37g tank and a Fluvial 307 canister filter, and getting ready to start my first sw tank. I want to know as closely as possible what I'm looking at upkeep wise before I decide to ditch it and go another route. I know all tanks are different, just curious what others have done!

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Before I start, I know most will tell me to ditch the canist

Nope. I run a Eheim Cannister filter with my 65G with no protein skimmer. Going strong a year and a half in. I battled GHA successfully...im growing LPS wonderfully and I stock 5 small fish happily. Here's what helped me:

1. Take things slow.
2. Test water with good products.
3. Get good lighting.
4. Keep a good husbandry pattern.

 

[PSims113]

Nope. I run a Eheim Cannister filter with my 65G with no protein skimmer. Going strong a year and a half in. I battled GHA successfully...im growing LPS wonderfully and I stock 5 small fish happily. Here's what helped me:

1. Take things slow.
2. Test water with good products.
3. Get good lighting.
4. Keep a good husbandry pattern.

Can you tell me what your maintenance looks like?

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Running fx4 on a 90 gal bowfront.

Cleaning the filter every Saturday morning has done great by me. I don't let seaweed float around and get sucked up into the intake. That stuff sucks to get off of the sponges inside.

 

[kzenoni]

We have the fluval fx6 on a 200 gallon. Everything is doing great. We have lps, softies, and a few sps, anemones, etc. Several fish, puffer, snowflake eel. We do a water change every 2 weeks and clean the pump then. So far everything is doing great.

 

[blasterman]

Cannisters are fine as long as you keep them clean. You do not want bacteria setting up shop in them and want your biological filter staying in the tank. You do this by cleaning the media with hot water or changing it weekly. When I've used cannisters in the past I stuff them full of poly floss which is cheap. No HOB filter I've used can polish water anywhere close to a cannister stuffed full of generic poly floss fluff.

Most reef keepers have sumps and either use a sock, or increasingly roller mats which makes cannisters obsolete. Dont get me started on bio media used in cannisters. Totally illogical to common sense.

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Can you tell me what your maintenance looks like?

I stopped using floss and sponges as they are often referred to "nitrate factories". I keep my ceramic, Matrix biologic media, then carbon (all bagged in filter bags). I change water by 20% every 2 weeks.

Every 6 months I perform a LARGE water change that consists of 30% day 1, 30% day 4, 30% day 7.

Every month (lately 2 months) I will wash out the pipes with a pipe cleaner.

I perform rinses on my media every month (if I had filter floss you should be changing that every 2 days.

I change carbon every 6 weeks.

And of course. I keep an eye on the tank as a whole ongoing.

I try to stay away from "chemicals" to aid in the solution for nuisance algae and such. I did resort to Vibrant for a GHA issue. But looking back, I wish I just would have bought a conch.

I have a conch which is an excellent sand sifter. A few hermit crabs, and tonns of snails.

I feed once a day for the fish. I feed reef roids once a week, sometimes 2 weeks. I feed amino to the tank the same but on alternate days than the roids.

And I test my parameters. Right now I'm starting to have to dose Dkh and Mg so I'm getting into the habit of figuring out a daily dose.

If you're new to the hobby, patience is key. When I started my tank I had NOTHING in thetank for 6 weeks. My live sand and Dr. Tim's helped cycle the tank.

By week 6 I added a few hermits and snails...by week 8 1 fish. Didn't add any corals until like 6 months...then more fish...then more corals.

Rob