To ditch the canister filters or not?

[cginter]

I have a 125g fish only set up and will be moving next month. I currently have 4 tangs, clown trigger, Mac angel, dwarf lion and 2 damsels for livestock. For filtration I'm using 3 fluval 406's and I am running a 30g sump with bio balls and reef octopus skimmer rated for 150g. With a mag drive 9.5 for a return.

After I got Into the hobby and joined this forum, I found that most people were not to fond of canister filters as they become nitrate factory's if not regularly maintained. My question is.. Should I ditch the 406's and also what should be upgraded if needed to make the sump more useful.
Thanks

 

[robbrouse]

Live rock and a protein skimmer

 

[cginter]

Forgot to mention that I have about 120-140lbs of live rock. In the DT

 

[mike007]

With what you have i don't know why you would use the cannister filters. If this a reef tank i would ditch the bioballs also. It looks to me you have everything else to maintain the tank. Cannisters and bioballs will accumalate nitrates if not well maintained and then you will start having issues. Some people are using filter socks on there incoming water to sump but they also have to be cleaned as well.

 

[powers2001]

water changes.

 

[cginter]

With what you have i don't know why you would use the cannister filters. If this a reef tank i would ditch the bioballs also. It looks to me you have everything else to maintain the tank. Cannisters and bioballs will accumalate nitrates if not well maintained and then you will start having issues. Some people are using filter socks on there incoming water to sump but they also have to be cleaned as well.

When I first started I was only using canister filters. That's why they are still being used now. And the maintenance and replacing media every other month is why I would like to part from using them.

So should i slowly take away one canister at a time so i dont shock my system or would I be fine to just stop using all three at once? And if I take the bio balls out and replace them with live rock, do I need a light on the rock in my sump or can they be used without light?

 

[cginter]

Water changes are done monthly. 40g

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Live rock can be used without light. I'd think you could ditch the 3 canisters at once with no issues. If you want to replace them with something, replace them with media reactors. I'd do one carbon and one gfo...but that's more optional than necessary (it will help, but probably not something urgently needed) depending on your parameters.

 

[miyags]

If you take them off, you will need to buy powerheads to keep up with the flow you have,with your cannister filters or more. I still run a silent mag on my tank, and I have one I took off for hospital tank.(no cycling)

 

[Daniel@R2R]

If you take them off, you will need to buy powerheads to keep up with the flow you have,with your cannister filters or more. I still run a silent mag on my tank, and I have one I took off for hospital tank.(no cycling)

A very good point. One I hadn't even thought of.

 

[NanaReefer]

Yuppers look into buying at least 3 power heads to replace the loss of flow.

 

[gtbarsi]

Her is my $0.02...

I am using a canister filter as a reactor but you have to be careful. I removed all bio and mechanical filtration and just use the media baskets. Additionally I have it feeding from and returning to my sump's return pump compartment (all water should be clean at that point). I use filter socks as they are easy to swap out every couple of days and this insures that there is no detritus to get caught up in the canister filter that would make it a nitrate factory.

Provided you can get enough media in to one canister for your needs you could use one the way I am until you replace it with 1 or more media reactors.

As someone mentioned if you do not have good flow in the DT w/o the canister filters, you are going to need to address this, proper flow in the DT should be at least 10x the volume of the DT.

Get rid of the bio-balls, your live rock should be doing that job.

 

[cginter]

I do have a koralia magnum 8 on one side and two evo 1400's on the back wall for power heads/water movement. So that's covered.

and that's not a bad idea using the canisters to house jus media, jus in the sump. My main concern was that my nitrates are always high and I think the canisters are a huge contribute to this. So Im thinking I'm gonna ditch 2 of these canisters and build an ATS.

Thanks again for all the inputs and help.

 

[Animal Chin]

I ran a canister for 2.5 years and last month it got gunked up so I took it off. I was nervous but I left it off and so far I have no ill effects at all. No nitrates, no phosphates, tank is running exactly the same without it. I've decided to leave it off because I like not seeing the tubes in the tank.