Should I remove my filter?

[Bensadork]

I have a 46g bowfront. It has about 50 pounds of live rock and 80 pounds of live deep sand bed. I am running an Orbit LED reef light with remote and timer and all that. I had one powerhead blowing 750 gpm i believe. I just couldn't get the right flow pattern i desired so I removed it and added 2 350 gpm powerheads on either side of the tank. That's giving me the flow I want. I have an Eshopps PSK100H HOB protein skimmer. I have an aquatop canister filter with a built-in UV sterilyzer. I have had no major problems with my tank so far and all of my softie corals seem to be doing just fine and growing and being healthy as they should. I did lose a goneopora a while back, but thats another story. My tank does sit directly between 2 windows but never gets hit with any direct sunlight. I find myself battling green hair algae and cyano. It's nowhere near overtaking my tank, but I am getting tired of seeing brown or red sand and the little clumps of green hair algae. I have pondered for a while about turning the canister filter off. Just taking it out of the equation completely. The only thing in my canister filter is some sponge pads for picking up debris and some chemipure carbon. What do you guys recommend I do? All of my parameters are always stable and I dont do SPS corals. All I really have or want is some zoas, a hammer coral, and a RBTA for my clowns. I want to just turn the filter off for a little while and see if that cures my problem? I am also curious as to will my system get affected if I take the filter out of the equation which means taking the carbon bag out of the equation as well. I am up for any and all suggestions except buying another expensive piece of equipment which the extra prego wifey will not allow lol. Also, if I were to turn off my canister filter, would it cause anything to crash and how long would it be before things got stable again? I know thats a loaded question because of so many variables. I am just trying to look for a low-cost common sense approach to how to deal with my algae issues.

 

[CodyRVA]

Canister filters work great if you know how to use them. I just tore down my 46 bowfront, canister, and I had all types of corals, including sps. I never ran carbon in my canister, I would get a separate reactor and run a carbon/gfo mix, get the BRS mini, its not too pricey. I also ran 2, 1 inch, medium fine pads with two felt pads on top, all in the bottom tray. The rest of the trays had sintered glass filter media. Check this guys video, he explains it well... I also posted the link to the sintered glass media I used.

https://greatwaveeng.com/shop/media/biohome-standard-media/

 

[Bensadork]

That was a very informative video. So, if this is exactly how you had your canister set up, how often did you clean out the pads on the bottom and how did you clean out the glass media? Did you not ever wash off the media because of the bacteria and only rinse out the pads? I am just wondering how to keep the detritus from getting stuck in between those "rocks" and cleaning it effectively while getting rid of harmful detritus and retaining the good bacteria. The way I have mine set up now is I have a course and a fine pad on the bottom, the middle has a fine pad and a carbon bag, top just has another fine pad. Should i just put all my pads in the bottom and run a good media at the top 2 like in the video? I checked out that link and a couple pounds is only 15 bucks so that isnt too bad.

 

[Wiz]

That is a great vid. :-) still not a fan of cans. But if I ever try one again that setup makes alot of sense. and its not how I had it. Maybe why it was junk.

 

[CodyRVA]

That was a very informative video. So, if this is exactly how you had your canister set up, how often did you clean out the pads on the bottom and how did you clean out the glass media? Did you not ever wash off the media because of the bacteria and only rinse out the pads? I am just wondering how to keep the detritus from getting stuck in between those "rocks" and cleaning it effectively while getting rid of harmful detritus and retaining the good bacteria. The way I have mine set up now is I have a course and a fine pad on the bottom, the middle has a fine pad and a carbon bag, top just has another fine pad. Should i just put all my pads in the bottom and run a good media at the top 2 like in the video? I checked out that link and a couple pounds is only 15 bucks so that isnt too bad.

I cleaned it every two weeks. I replaced the felt pads completely, don't buy expensive felt from fish stores, go to joann fabrics, ac moore, etc and buy a yard of high grade felt, make sure its felt too, nothing else. The other pads i would rinse with hot water until thoroughly cleaned. I replaced these every few months. Never wash off the media, you'll lose bacteria and that defeats the entire purpose. The idea is to run your filter pads in the bottom, canisters suck water bottom up through the trays; so you want your pads in the bottom to block and collect all of the detritus, waste, etc. This keeps your filter media, the sintered glass, from getting clogged up and dirty, promotes bacteria growth. In regards to a small reactor like the BRS mini, i ran half a cup of high grade carbon, and a quarter cup of GFO. Canisters are useless for running carbon.

 

[Salty1962]

As long as you clean the filter pads out frequently you should be ok. If you don't they become nitrate farms feeding algae and cyano.

 

[Bensadork]

Yeah, Ive been cleaning the entire canister out every couple of weeks, filling it back up with new water everytime. I kind of use it as a way to do a small water change in between my regular water changes. My tank is 46g and every time I fill my canister back up it uses about 3.5 gals to fill it all the way back up. I just disassemble everything out of the canister and rinse my pads out under super hot water and clean all of the baskets with a toothbrush and I have never seen an abundance of nasty anytime I've ever cleaned out the canister. I have been using pads that I bought from the LFS made specifically for the canister, but its very nice to know I can reduce cost and get my own supply of material elsewhere. I did a lot of reading up on canisters in a reef tank because I figured it was the only real way to get my tank started and established as I didn't want to use hob biowheels. I do have 2 extra penguin 200 biowheel filters from when I had my freshwater setup. The only reason at all I went with the canister as opposed to a sump was because of a lack of space in my stand and the surrounding area. I have room to the side of the tank of course but the wifey did not want an ugly second tank full of water sitting right next to the display tank right in the middle of the living room floor like that. She, unfortunately, does not share my enthusiasm. I have a small 10g wal mart tank tucked away in a closet that would fit under my stand, but then I would have to get all new equipment made for a sump instead of HOB and I just cant do that right now. Especially since I would not drill my tank and would need more pumps and all that jazz.

 

[Bensadork]

I do think I should invest in a BRS mini since you say canisters do not do well for carbon dosing. I think that's very doable, I just don't want to have to drop a few hundred more dollars into my system on something that may or may not help me out. This hobby is definitely a trial and error hobby considering how many different ways there are to set up tanks. It's so tricky, too, because one person may have their stuff set up a certain way and it works perfectly for years while someone else may follow all of the same steps to the smallest detail and end up with a handful of problems.

 

[CodyRVA]

I would personally stay away from biowheels, but to each their own. The mini is definitely worth it, and its not that expensive. I changed my media bi weekly, half cup carbon, quarter cup GFO. The GFO will also help to lock up silicates and in turn should reduce or completely resolve your issues. Get that canister setup right and you should be golden.