Cannister Filtration is only bad if you don't clean it regularly. The tagline should read "Cannister Filtration isn't for LAZY Reefers". I use a Fluval 407 on my 55g mixed reef tank, and have no issues. Water parameters are very stable, and water is crystal clear. My Fluval has 4 trays inside it. Two trays have biomedia, one has chemical media, and the other has a combination of phosphate pads and floss. Water is always crystal clear. I do a 10% water change every weekend and clean out the filter as well. I have the routine down pat and it really only takes me about 20 minutes. The reason I chose cannister filtration was due to space constraints, and because they are just so quiet (I honestly can't even hear it most of the time).
I have a Fluval 406 connected to my 300ltr reef tank, with fish and corals, no room for a sump, so had to go with the canister filter, started off with a 306 but moved to a 406 about 9 months ago, flow is great and my water is always crystal clear. 👍
Hi I'm the guy you were talking to, and yeah bro, my water be hittin. Sorry I ain't answer you. I hope you is well. :) I am super the guy you were talking to, street. :)
Not even 2nd but anyway.... I have my canister filled solely and completely with Biohome Media briquettes and Seachem Matrix using a pre filter booster housing 2 grades of foam, some filter floss and a polyfilter pad cut to shape and size to remove most of the particulates before they enter the canister. This i clean every week, replacing floss weekly and the others as required. The actual canister gets cleaned once every 3 months as a result of the pre filter keeping it reasonably clean and free of "gunk". My reef tank is over 2 years old and while it has had it's issues, none of them can be attributed to the canister filter. HOWEVER, while i would be the first person to say yes they work fine, i will also say that I WISH I HAD A SUMP!
Any filter will and can produce nitrates! I have learned how to keep my water parameters good with using canister filters I could not tell you one thing about a sump system because I don’t know how to set them up or what size tubes to use for drainage and so forth I have learned how to jive with my system the way it runs as is and that is what part of this hobby is, learning to find balance or what works for you. Now doing what I do keeps you busy and fit I do not use any Neptune equipment just drain and haul buckets and I have 7 tanks to care for as well as six members of the rodent family after my full time job. With all that I still have free time so how involved you are with your aquarium is key I leave room for laziness because after all I am human and have my days where I say shit can wait. Some people just want to watch pretty things but do not want to work for the prize! You get out what you put into this hobby throwing money at it to be super lazy gets you nowhere!
@@SarkastikKirb I just bought a used 36 gallon bowfront with stand and 45 lbs of rock and tons of xtras for100.00 almost new. I mainly got it for basically free rock! Its not quite big enough to plumb so I thought of using this temporarily and selling later on.. It has marineland 220 canister . I have an aqua clear 30 for my 10 gallon. No corals yet. Its doing wonderly with my nano wavemaker but ph is about 7.9. I hope i can sustain corals. I havnt a bit of algae and change water every 10 days but plan on 1 x week when I get corals. Would this not flow directly on top like aqua clear for the oxenagation? I never thought of that fact. I know I filled my tank to the top and had no wavemaker hooked up and my fish died. Hardly no flow and that was before I learned about oxygenation. Should i just sell this tank, and keep rock and get a bigger plumbed tank, or is it going to be okay like my 10 gallon has been. I Have no plans to hang a protein skimmer of back. To messy looking
@@karennation3580 I would recommend a Aquamaxx HF-M Hang on Back Sump. As long as you keep youur bioload low to medium, which you should, it'll be perfect for your needs. It has a Protein skimmer built into it, i've been running it for a month now, and it makes my life much easier not having to carry my heavy as hell canister filter.
One great way to use them besides are a main filtration system depending on tank/aquarium size. Is that you can use them cleaning the tank with them while water changes Grab most of all the dirt and detritus and so on. When I do that I use pillow stuffing aka ployfil in my canister filter. Catches literally all the smaller particles and keeps the water clean while taking that out and refreshing it with new water while going on. Easy peasy not mess and no fusses. My clients love it when I use it that way and for some just have sumps and I do it the same way
I do too; maybe even between water changes if I see a need. I use it with floss. It's just a vacuum cleaner to suck up what I can't get with the small "run-time" of a water change on a 40gal tank ! I just run it with the return back into the tank.
I've been useing a canister filter ( fluvial 306) for 3 years on a fluvial roma 240 with fish and corals and running great but always been thinking about running sump etc or even a refergium along side canister filter.
how do you run a refugium along side a canister? Love to do that. Do you mean a hob refugium. Ilove the canister is hidden below cabinet, beats a hob, but my 36 gallon bowfront is just to small to plumb, so thought of running temporarily with a marine land 220, since I got it plus rock, stand and so many xtras for 100 bucks. Real nice looking bowfornt!
It's sorta pointless though. I mean, the whole job of a refugium is to remove nitrate but if you have sufficient aerobic biological filtration, it's not necessary. The point of a canister is for simplicity's sake. Unfortunately, you end up spending more money on chemical filtration & sponges. In the case of the sump, it's more complicated, but you end up saving money because of the protein skimmer. The only point of a refugium is for eliminating nitrates via plants. The only other benefit is to have a breeding ground for copepods. The way I see it, it's one or the other.
@@shechshire Deffo. Invest the money and maintenance time wisely. You can keep all the clutter in or out of the display. Personally, i don't even like magnetic algae scrubbers in one corner. Different strokes...
Karen Nation make your own out of an old hang on filter like a Marineland or fluval. I made my own I have a denitrate sponge, denitrate media and chateo in it. They show how to make one on UA-cam. I also have my pen plaxx 1500 canister filter it runs smooth no issues. You save a lot of money and maintenance is cheap. They sell a whole 3 big piece of de nitrate foam for $6, chateo for $10, and denitrate media for $5. You will also need a little grow light.
I run two canister filters on my 120 gallon reef. I use a FX4 and FX6, the FX4 is a prefilter for my FX6 which is filled with Marine Pure Bio Media. Been running this system for 2.5 years. However I do have a hang on back skimmer AquaMaxx ConeS which is a beast of a protein skimmer. My tank was never drilled for a sump, reason for canister filters. I run polyfiter in my prefilter setup along with the normal foam filters.
I have a Red Sea S-Max 500 (135g total system). The tank has a medium to heavy bioload. The sump, skimmer, UV and mechanical filtration are doing a pretty good job along with regular maintenance, my water params are spot on and softies, LPS and SPS are thriving. However my OCD kicks in because I would like the water to be a bit more polished and crystal clear. So I bought an Eheim canister to help boost polishing. I’m not solely relying on it for my filtration, so I’m guessing this setup should be fine for my reef tank...but I do realize I will need to clean weekly I’m guessing if not every other week.
I haven’t had any high nitrates in running one pen plax 1500 on my 36 gal reef with a mini sump I made out of my old fluval filter. I don’t have a skimmer either I kind of want one though.
@@tomg5405 chaeto macro algae in my mini sump I made, chemi clear blue and de nitrate sponge. In my canister filter I have bio media plastic rings, bio sponge and a bunch of filter floss.
oF course you can use a canister or an HOB and still be successful. I use a AC 110 and marineland 350 and it works just fine. Along with a uv pump and seaclone 100. Corals are doing well. There just is a lot of stuff on top but doesnt bother me.
Invest the money and maintenance time wisely. You can keep all the clutter in or out of the display. Personally, i don't even like magnetic algae scrubbers in one corner. Different strokes...
My setup is a 40G long with a sump/refugium. I know a first (or nearly) reaction will be something along the lines of "insufficient water flow to keep detritus suspended" but I had a tank crash, and I suspect too much phosphate and nutrients. One problem I had in maintenance was a 40G tank doesn't have much water to spare trying siphon clean the sand. I'm going to use a canister filter as a "vacuum cleaner" to work the sand and return the water to the tank. That way I can do heavy cleaning or spot cleaning as needed between water changes and focus on less mess during the water changes.
I used canerster filter system well it's simple and my only choice at the time. I love working with it and my Aquarium. Mine I can drain it or water change. . And added plants I don't go by the book like everyone else
I always heard rock was biofilter! I have an aqua clear hob and I ended up taking out the biomedia and just left a little seachem. I have purigan and polyfilter and chemi blue elite either or carbon and its worked just fine on my 10 gallon. I have no corals yet though. my parameters are perfect so far and no alage at all! If you kept this quite clean there should be no problem with WC every week. There are literally 100,s of youtubes with nano without sumps and skimmers and most use aquaclear! What would be any different using this on a 36gallon bowfront, just temporally until I get my dream tank with sump and skimmer.? Is this more risky or worse than a hob and no skimmer? What about carbon? i have heard no mention of carbon?
Opinions needed: I just bought a rimless 30 gallon and it my first salt setup since college 18yrs ago and believe it or not, using the live rock from back then and HOB filter for a 60gal that I've had in storage. My question is if I eventually want to run corals and anemones, and cannot do a sump: 1) is my HOB just fine as it has a filter that can handle double its size for a 60g 2) should I run the HOB and a small skimmer 3) should I just use HOB, fine a cheap canister or HOB for $25 on Craigslist with just mechanical foam for bacteria only? Thanks
I would say run the HOB and a skimmer. What makes a skimmer better than mechanical filter is that it collects stuff in your tank before it has a chance to turn into nitrate and corals cant handle nitrates as much as fish can.
@@alexsulewski2497 Thanks! I actually am now running the skimmer for a 100g and an Aqua Clear HOB for a 70g. I actually got rid of the rimless despite my really liking it due to the fact that I didn't have a stand and didn't look right. I got a 36g bowfront and stand made for it and looks more appropriate. One day I'll invest in a larger rimless when the time is right as space isn't my friend at the moment.
Seriously, your biological filtration is EVERYTHING in the tanks including glass, substrate, rock etc.... Once established the Tank is the biological filter. Now the Mechanical issue, load the Canister up with what you need or want (Chemipure, Carbon, GFO, etc the list is endless) and finally the "difficulty in cleaning" Really? I know people who spend untold hours cleaning their sump, I know people who are lazy and never clean it. Cleaning is on the person not the sump or canister, but truthfully doing bi-weekly water changes and filter work on 4 tanks is about an hour if i blow through it but typically 2.5 because I enjoy working in each tank and the filters are part of it... So bottom line Sump or Canister, its all on the person as to difficulty in cleaning.
A sump that runs the correct way doesnt really have to be cleaned but once a year as long as you change out your filter socks or floss etc now some people I've seen build there sump like an idiot and the water just go's directly in to be skimmed and they let the skimmer do the initial filtering wich also works but those are the people that are always cleaning there sump and those are also the people that go through a very expensive skimmer every 3 or 4 years
I had an Eheim on my little 55gallon tank and it was growing like crazy..Cleaned it once every three months. Sad to say my upgrade to 180 reef ready tank looks like crap compared to my old 55gallon tank. And I did not even have a protein skimmer on the 55. Had it for like 2 or 3 years.
I've had worse luck keeping fish. Every coral thrived with my canister filter. You just need to keep up with maintenance and stay on to of your parameters (alc. Calcium and mag.), so that you can maintain a stable ph.
So what if you had two canisters in series and had the first one with mechanical and and carbon and then have the second filled it bio. Or maybe 2 baskets of bio and 1 more mechanical. Seems like that should work great and the bio canister wouldn't need to be clean as often as the mechanical one.
There seems to be alot of youtubers that basically say "forget canisters for filtration" but when I talk to friends and others locally they all say cans are fine for reef tank filtration as long as they are cleaned monthly. The thing with that is that most say sumps need monthly maintenance as well. So if I'm doing monthly maintenance what's the difference? I dont want to destroy my tank by trying to drill it if I dont have to.
I’m in your boat, got a breeder tank and I’m in love with saltwater fish and reefs. Got the canister but no one on UA-cam has a good video on how they use theirs. Makes me worry but I know I’m not the only person out there who just went with what they had rather then spending $$$ and turning everything into a science project. I’d love a sump but I didn’t even know they existed until after I bought most my equipment
My nano has a built in sump. With that said, it is a small sump so I don't have much room. I needed more room to run macro algae so I simply put a HOB filter for macro and copepods with a light on it, an airstone, and it is lit during the night when the main display lights are off. Easiest, cheapest, and IMHO, best way to add a refuge to a nano.
It looks like we were running Red Sea Reef LED 90's. We didn't have any fish species that were known to jump so we didn't have a top on this tank at the time.
Do you think I could have the canister filter output jet hooked up to a sump so I don't have to drill and I don't have to use a hang on the back overflowbox the 55 gallon tank I have is made of all tempered glass
@@BulkReefSupply I don't see how there could be a leak its pretty much the same thing as having an external pump suck water out of the tank into the sump then I can just have a return pump that pumps the water in at about the same speed its getting sucked out and it still seems safer then a HOB overflow box and I really want a sump but like I said the tank I have is all tempered glass ill experiment this idea with a smaller tank like a 20 gallon if there's any leaks I'll let someone know and thank you for replying
I just took my canister out, first I haven’t being able to lower my nitrates and keep seeing that canisters are nitrates factory, I have two aquaclear 50 HOB filters one with chaeto and the other as filter, a small skimmer and yesterday I went and bought another aquaclear 30 in total I have two filters and one refugium, I see people having only one HOB filter and are successful my tank is a 29 gallons will se how works with out canister
All filters are nitrate factories with the wrong maintenance, when they are set up wrong and dont hold enough biological media. When you swap out a cannister for a hob. And everything else remains the same. Your nitrates wont be lower. For every filter goes you need media that can house anaerobic bacteria for nitrates to be broken down to nitrogen. And you need enough to have a full cycle.
I have a HOB on a 10 gallon. It flows directly into water and combined with a wavemaker I get plenty oxygenation. I was going to use a 36 bowfront with a marineland 220 canister temporarily, for fish and corals. got it for 100 bucks, stand 45 lbs rock,lots of xtras Will this create current and oxygenation on top of water? How would I make that happen. I don t know if I should just sell and keep rock. I will make my money back plus more then I can get a tank big enough to be worth the hassel of plumbing to a sump/ Are HOB overflows still risky for flooding. My hubby has never drilled a tank, kind of scares me and him. Maybe smarter to find a used one already plumbed! I really love this little bowfront though and wouldn't mind using with canister for a while until my baby tang I plan on gets bigger! LOL
Hi. Anyone can help me please give me the best advice. I have freshwater fish tank and want to change it to saltwater tank.what is the best way to do it?! Using two canister filters or one canister filter with a protein skimmer or anything else?? I would appreciate if anyone can help me. Please
What else should you be running with only a canister filter. Any help would be great as I want to convert my tropical tank to saltwater. ANY helpful info would be great
I use an Aquaclear 110 and a marineland 350 penguin for my 75 gallon. If you do not use the carbon then you might need to use a UV sterilizer to prevent water from turning green.
You can absolutely use canister filters on reef aquariums. It's all about bio-load. With todays technology in chemical & biological media, old rules are irrelevant. You need the correct size canister with sufficient chemical filtration like chemi-pure blue. You'll also need a sufficient amount of anaerobic bacteria with bio-media like matrix, bio-home, or bricks. Monthly cleaning has to be on point though.
I've been running a fluval fx6 on my 100g reef tank because it does not have a sump. I have 200g tank with a sump so I don't really see the need. The 100g also has a protein skimmer, and the combination works great. I also change the filter media one layer at a time so i don't upset the bio filtration. So week 1, the top layer, then week 2 the second layer, then week 3 the bottom layer. They definitely have their place in reef keeping.
HOB work well on nanos so I dont see why a canister wouldnt if kept clean and do water changes frequently! I am going to go ahead with this deal I got going with a 36 inch bowfront with a canister almost new with rock and heater and so uch stuff and stand for 100.00! It will do until I can upgrade to my dream tank with sump and skimmer! Now I just got to get an rodi unit so I can afford the water changes...lol
Reef tanks do amazing with canisters, you actually end up over filtering while using the canister.
No one has room or money for a sump now adays.
Cannister Filtration is only bad if you don't clean it regularly. The tagline should read "Cannister Filtration isn't for LAZY Reefers". I use a Fluval 407 on my 55g mixed reef tank, and have no issues. Water parameters are very stable, and water is crystal clear. My Fluval has 4 trays inside it. Two trays have biomedia, one has chemical media, and the other has a combination of phosphate pads and floss. Water is always crystal clear. I do a 10% water change every weekend and clean out the filter as well. I have the routine down pat and it really only takes me about 20 minutes. The reason I chose cannister filtration was due to space constraints, and because they are just so quiet (I honestly can't even hear it most of the time).
I have a Fluval 406 connected to my 300ltr reef tank, with fish and corals, no room for a sump, so had to go with the canister filter, started off with a 306 but moved to a 406 about 9 months ago, flow is great and my water is always crystal clear. 👍
Alf St do you have chemical filtration?
How your parameters reading? Its is great?
You don't miss a skimmer?
Hi I'm the guy you were talking to, and yeah bro, my water be hittin. Sorry I ain't answer you. I hope you is well. :) I am super the guy you were talking to, street. :)
Like everything else, good maintenance practice is the key to success. Water changes and filter maintenance are key items.
Not even 2nd but anyway.... I have my canister filled solely and completely with Biohome Media briquettes and Seachem Matrix using a pre filter booster housing 2 grades of foam, some filter floss and a polyfilter pad cut to shape and size to remove most of the particulates before they enter the canister. This i clean every week, replacing floss weekly and the others as required. The actual canister gets cleaned once every 3 months as a result of the pre filter keeping it reasonably clean and free of "gunk". My reef tank is over 2 years old and while it has had it's issues, none of them can be attributed to the canister filter. HOWEVER, while i would be the first person to say yes they work fine, i will also say that I WISH I HAD A SUMP!
DrOfWelshMagic I have that exact same set up ! On a 250 litre
Any filter will and can produce nitrates! I have learned how to keep my water parameters good with using canister filters I could not tell you one thing about a sump system because I don’t know how to set them up or what size tubes to use for drainage and so forth I have learned how to jive with my system the way it runs as is and that is what part of this hobby is, learning to find balance or what works for you. Now doing what I do keeps you busy and fit I do not use any Neptune equipment just drain and haul buckets and I have 7 tanks to care for as well as six members of the rodent family after my full time job. With all that I still have free time so how involved you are with your aquarium is key I leave room for laziness because after all I am human and have my days where I say shit can wait. Some people just want to watch pretty things but do not want to work for the prize! You get out what you put into this hobby throwing money at it to be super lazy gets you nowhere!
I have two Fluval FX6 running in my marineland 120 gal reef tank so far everyone is okay. Before this i had a 40 gallon mix reef with Aquaclear 110.
What did you do for providing oxygen in your water? Did you use a air pump?
@@SarkastikKirb I just bought a used 36 gallon bowfront with stand and 45 lbs of rock and tons of xtras for100.00 almost new. I mainly got it for basically free rock! Its not quite big enough to plumb so I thought of using this temporarily and selling later on.. It has marineland 220 canister . I have an aqua clear 30 for my 10 gallon. No corals yet. Its doing wonderly with my nano wavemaker but ph is about 7.9. I hope i can sustain corals. I havnt a bit of algae and change water every 10 days but plan on 1 x week when I get corals. Would this not flow directly on top like aqua clear for the oxenagation? I never thought of that fact. I know I filled my tank to the top and had no wavemaker hooked up and my fish died. Hardly no flow and that was before I learned about oxygenation. Should i just sell this tank, and keep rock and get a bigger plumbed tank, or is it going to be okay like my 10 gallon has been. I Have no plans to hang a protein skimmer of back. To messy looking
@@karennation3580 I would recommend a Aquamaxx HF-M Hang on Back Sump. As long as you keep youur bioload low to medium, which you should, it'll be perfect for your needs. It has a Protein skimmer built into it, i've been running it for a month now, and it makes my life much easier not having to carry my heavy as hell canister filter.
I have 2 on my 55g reef an everything is great 🤷♂️
One great way to use them besides are a main filtration system depending on tank/aquarium size. Is that you can use them cleaning the tank with them while water changes
Grab most of all the dirt and detritus and so on. When I do that I use pillow stuffing aka ployfil in my canister filter. Catches literally all the smaller particles and keeps the water clean while taking that out and refreshing it with new water while going on. Easy peasy not mess and no fusses. My clients love it when I use it that way and for some just have sumps and I do it the same way
I do too; maybe even between water changes if I see a need. I use it with floss. It's just a vacuum cleaner to suck up what I can't get with the small "run-time" of a water change on a 40gal tank ! I just run it with the return back into the tank.
Sand would get sucked into the propeller of the canister filter.
I've been useing a canister filter ( fluvial 306) for 3 years on a fluvial roma 240 with fish and corals and running great but always been thinking about running sump etc or even a refergium along side canister filter.
how do you run a refugium along side a canister? Love to do that. Do you mean a hob refugium. Ilove the canister is hidden below cabinet, beats a hob, but my 36 gallon bowfront is just to small to plumb, so thought of running temporarily with a marine land 220, since I got it plus rock, stand and so many xtras for 100 bucks. Real nice looking bowfornt!
It's sorta pointless though. I mean, the whole job of a refugium is to remove nitrate but if you have sufficient aerobic biological filtration, it's not necessary. The point of a canister is for simplicity's sake. Unfortunately, you end up spending more money on chemical filtration & sponges.
In the case of the sump, it's more complicated, but you end up saving money because of the protein skimmer. The only point of a refugium is for eliminating nitrates via plants. The only other benefit is to have a breeding ground for copepods.
The way I see it, it's one or the other.
@@shechshire Deffo. Invest the money and maintenance time wisely. You can keep all the clutter in or out of the display. Personally, i don't even like magnetic algae scrubbers in one corner. Different strokes...
Karen Nation make your own out of an old hang on filter like a Marineland or fluval. I made my own I have a denitrate sponge, denitrate media and chateo in it. They show how to make one on UA-cam. I also have my pen plaxx 1500 canister filter it runs smooth no issues. You save a lot of money and maintenance is cheap. They sell a whole 3 big piece of de nitrate foam for $6, chateo for $10, and denitrate media for $5. You will also need a little grow light.
I run two canister filters on my 120 gallon reef. I use a FX4 and FX6, the FX4 is a prefilter for my FX6 which is filled with Marine Pure Bio Media. Been running this system for 2.5 years. However I do have a hang on back skimmer AquaMaxx ConeS which is a beast of a protein skimmer. My tank was never drilled for a sump, reason for canister filters. I run polyfiter in my prefilter setup along with the normal foam filters.
That awesome. I might remove the sponges from basket and replace them with Marine Pure Bio media
Hi
I have a Red Sea S-Max 500 (135g total system). The tank has a medium to heavy bioload. The sump, skimmer, UV and mechanical filtration are doing a pretty good job along with regular maintenance, my water params are spot on and softies, LPS and SPS are thriving. However my OCD kicks in because I would like the water to be a bit more polished and crystal clear. So I bought an Eheim canister to help boost polishing. I’m not solely relying on it for my filtration, so I’m guessing this setup should be fine for my reef tank...but I do realize I will need to clean weekly I’m guessing if not every other week.
every week cleane ((((
I run 2 canister filters on my 500 litre , I don’t like sumps also I’m not running a skimmer either
I haven’t had any high nitrates in running one pen plax 1500 on my 36 gal reef with a mini sump I made out of my old fluval filter. I don’t have a skimmer either I kind of want one though.
What you have inside
@@yearight1800 what you have inside?
@@tomg5405 chaeto macro algae in my mini sump I made, chemi clear blue and de nitrate sponge. In my canister filter I have bio media plastic rings, bio sponge and a bunch of filter floss.
@@yearight1800 can you share the picture for your mini sump
oF course you can use a canister or an HOB and still be successful. I use a AC 110 and marineland 350 and it works just fine. Along with a uv pump and seaclone 100. Corals are doing well. There just is a lot of stuff on top but doesnt bother me.
Thanks for commenting and tuning in!
Invest the money and maintenance time wisely. You can keep all the clutter in or out of the display. Personally, i don't even like magnetic algae scrubbers in one corner. Different strokes...
My setup is a 40G long with a sump/refugium. I know a first (or nearly) reaction will be something along the lines of "insufficient water flow to keep detritus suspended" but I had a tank crash, and I suspect too much phosphate and nutrients. One problem I had in maintenance was a 40G tank doesn't have much water to spare trying siphon clean the sand. I'm going to use a canister filter as a "vacuum cleaner" to work the sand and return the water to the tank. That way I can do heavy cleaning or spot cleaning as needed between water changes and focus on less mess during the water changes.
i havnt cleaned my canister in over a year i just do waterchanges LOL all my LPS nd shrooms are doing so good!!
I used canerster filter system well it's simple and my only choice at the time. I love working with it and my Aquarium. Mine I can drain it or water change. . And added plants I don't go by the book like everyone else
Cleaning the canister filter does not actually seem to be much trouble to be honest.
I always heard rock was biofilter! I have an aqua clear hob and I ended up taking out the biomedia and just left a little seachem. I have purigan and polyfilter and chemi blue elite either or carbon and its worked just fine on my 10 gallon. I have no corals yet though. my parameters are perfect so far and no alage at all! If you kept this quite clean there should be no problem with WC every week. There are literally 100,s of youtubes with nano without sumps and skimmers and most use aquaclear! What would be any different using this on a 36gallon bowfront, just temporally until I get my dream tank with sump and skimmer.? Is this more risky or worse than a hob and no skimmer?
What about carbon? i have heard no mention of carbon?
Opinions needed: I just bought a rimless 30 gallon and it my first salt setup since college 18yrs ago and believe it or not, using the live rock from back then and HOB filter for a 60gal that I've had in storage. My question is if I eventually want to run corals and anemones, and cannot do a sump:
1) is my HOB just fine as it has a filter that can handle double its size for a 60g
2) should I run the HOB and a small skimmer
3) should I just use HOB, fine a cheap canister or HOB for $25 on Craigslist with just mechanical foam for bacteria only?
Thanks
I would say run the HOB and a skimmer. What makes a skimmer better than mechanical filter is that it collects stuff in your tank before it has a chance to turn into nitrate and corals cant handle nitrates as much as fish can.
@@alexsulewski2497 Thanks! I actually am now running the skimmer for a 100g and an Aqua Clear HOB for a 70g. I actually got rid of the rimless despite my really liking it due to the fact that I didn't have a stand and didn't look right. I got a 36g bowfront and stand made for it and looks more appropriate. One day I'll invest in a larger rimless when the time is right as space isn't my friend at the moment.
@@TheYoungerSemiOldMan anyway to disguise a hob skimmer from showing from the front? Looks alittle tacky and messy IMO but love t have one!
Live sand and rock is the main filter not a sump.
I agree 50%
Seriously, your biological filtration is EVERYTHING in the tanks including glass, substrate, rock etc.... Once established the Tank is the biological filter. Now the Mechanical issue, load the Canister up with what you need or want (Chemipure, Carbon, GFO, etc the list is endless) and finally the "difficulty in cleaning" Really? I know people who spend untold hours cleaning their sump, I know people who are lazy and never clean it. Cleaning is on the person not the sump or canister, but truthfully doing bi-weekly water changes and filter work on 4 tanks is about an hour if i blow through it but typically 2.5 because I enjoy working in each tank and the filters are part of it...
So bottom line Sump or Canister, its all on the person as to difficulty in cleaning.
A sump that runs the correct way doesnt really have to be cleaned but once a year as long as you change out your filter socks or floss etc now some people I've seen build there sump like an idiot and the water just go's directly in to be skimmed and they let the skimmer do the initial filtering wich also works but those are the people that are always cleaning there sump and those are also the people that go through a very expensive skimmer every 3 or 4 years
can a fluval 407 work for a 40 gallon tank with corals and stocked with 2 clown fish and 2 kupang damselfish
Wondering same thing
Would it be okay to run one on a fluval evo 13.5? Want the best filtration for my nano but the little sump just isn’t enough
I had an Eheim on my little 55gallon tank and it was growing like crazy..Cleaned it once every three months. Sad to say my upgrade to 180 reef ready tank looks like crap compared to my old 55gallon tank. And I did not even have a protein skimmer on the 55. Had it for like 2 or 3 years.
i have a 32 cube,so should i just get a canister for a reef tank,or a sump
this will be my first tank and im building it slow,so far i just have the tank
paulsom110684 how’s the tank going? I’m just starting mine, first time doing salt but and I’m feeling ready.
What Media you had inside?
I've had worse luck keeping fish. Every coral thrived with my canister filter. You just need to keep up with maintenance and stay on to of your parameters (alc. Calcium and mag.), so that you can maintain a stable ph.
So what if you had two canisters in series and had the first one with mechanical and and carbon and then have the second filled it bio. Or maybe 2 baskets of bio and 1 more mechanical. Seems like that should work great and the bio canister wouldn't need to be clean as often as the mechanical one.
There seems to be alot of youtubers that basically say "forget canisters for filtration" but when I talk to friends and others locally they all say cans are fine for reef tank filtration as long as they are cleaned monthly. The thing with that is that most say sumps need monthly maintenance as well. So if I'm doing monthly maintenance what's the difference? I dont want to destroy my tank by trying to drill it if I dont have to.
I’m in your boat, got a breeder tank and I’m in love with saltwater fish and reefs. Got the canister but no one on UA-cam has a good video on how they use theirs. Makes me worry but I know I’m not the only person out there who just went with what they had rather then spending $$$ and turning everything into a science project. I’d love a sump but I didn’t even know they existed until after I bought most my equipment
My nano has a built in sump. With that said, it is a small sump so I don't have much room. I needed more room to run macro algae so I simply put a HOB filter for macro and copepods with a light on it, an airstone, and it is lit during the night when the main display lights are off. Easiest, cheapest, and IMHO, best way to add a refuge to a nano.
What lights are you running and why don’t you have a top for your tank ?
It looks like we were running Red Sea Reef LED 90's. We didn't have any fish species that were known to jump so we didn't have a top on this tank at the time.
Do you think I could have the canister filter output jet hooked up to a sump so I don't have to drill and I don't have to use a hang on the back overflowbox the 55 gallon tank I have is made of all tempered glass
We would not recommend directing the canister filter through a sump as if there was a leak, it could cause many potential problems.
@@BulkReefSupply I don't see how there could be a leak its pretty much the same thing as having an external pump suck water out of the tank into the sump then I can just have a return pump that pumps the water in at about the same speed its getting sucked out and it still seems safer then a HOB overflow box and I really want a sump but like I said the tank I have is all tempered glass ill experiment this idea with a smaller tank like a 20 gallon if there's any leaks I'll let someone know and thank you for replying
I just took my canister out, first I haven’t being able to lower my nitrates and keep seeing that canisters are nitrates factory, I have two aquaclear 50 HOB filters one with chaeto and the other as filter, a small skimmer and yesterday I went and bought another aquaclear 30 in total I have two filters and one refugium, I see people having only one HOB filter and are successful my tank is a 29 gallons will se how works with out canister
Sounds like a plan! Don't hesitate to reach out to us with any questions.
All filters are nitrate factories with the wrong maintenance, when they are set up wrong and dont hold enough biological media.
When you swap out a cannister for a hob.
And everything else remains the same.
Your nitrates wont be lower.
For every filter goes you need media that can house anaerobic bacteria for nitrates to be broken down to nitrogen.
And you need enough to have a full cycle.
I just get an aqua clear 110 with sponge, I add polo filter , chemipure blue and carbon, and ceramic you think that will work?
what canisterfilter would you suggest for a 60cm tank with 2 clownfish a goby and some easy to grow corals?
Hello! Any of the smaller Eheim canister filters would work well depending on the volume of the tank.
I have a HOB on a 10 gallon. It flows directly into water and combined with a wavemaker I get plenty oxygenation. I was going to use a 36 bowfront with a marineland 220 canister temporarily, for fish and corals. got it for 100 bucks, stand 45 lbs rock,lots of xtras Will this create current and oxygenation on top of water? How would I make that happen. I don t know if I should just sell and keep rock. I will make my money back plus more then I can get a tank big enough to be worth the hassel of plumbing to a sump/ Are HOB overflows still risky for flooding. My hubby has never drilled a tank, kind of scares me and him. Maybe smarter to find a used one already plumbed! I really love this little bowfront though and wouldn't mind using with canister for a while until my baby tang I plan on gets bigger! LOL
how are you integrate canister filter on AIO tank - like the Innovative Marine Peninsula 20 long?
Hi. Anyone can help me please give me the best advice. I have freshwater fish tank and want to change it to saltwater tank.what is the best way to do it?! Using two canister filters or one canister filter with a protein skimmer or anything else?? I would appreciate if anyone can help me. Please
Not first.
What else should you be running with only a canister filter. Any help would be great as I want to convert my tropical tank to saltwater. ANY helpful info would be great
A skimmer
Ditch the skimmer info ...running without
my canister haver a 5 slot for add midias
Top! 😁
Would anyone use an aquaclear 110 in a reef setup? Sponge and filter floss? Or is that a waste of time too?
I use an aqua clear 30 for my 10 gallon! No problems. perfect parameters..no coral yet though, s0 thats maybe why
I use an Aquaclear 110 and a marineland 350 penguin for my 75 gallon. If you do not use the carbon then you might need to use a UV sterilizer to prevent water from turning green.
I use a fluval canister with a inline ehiem uv and my reef is thriving..
What do you fill your canister with?
Small canister filter as a carbon reactor
im sorry all i heard isyou putting down canisters , not what would help a canisters
You can absolutely use canister filters on reef aquariums. It's all about bio-load. With todays technology in chemical & biological media, old rules are irrelevant. You need the correct size canister with sufficient chemical filtration like chemi-pure blue. You'll also need a sufficient amount of anaerobic bacteria with bio-media like matrix, bio-home, or bricks. Monthly cleaning has to be on point though.
Just get a bigger boat !!!
You are giving biased misinformation on some points buddy.
Wrong on all accounts
First👌
Who cares?
I've been running a fluval fx6 on my 100g reef tank because it does not have a sump. I have 200g tank with a sump so I don't really see the need. The 100g also has a protein skimmer, and the combination works great. I also change the filter media one layer at a time so i don't upset the bio filtration. So week 1, the top layer, then week 2 the second layer, then week 3 the bottom layer. They definitely have their place in reef keeping.
Robert Iadanza thanks for the information. For tanks with good amounts of live rock would the biofiltration in the canister still be a concern?
Yes just never rely on them for bio filtration that’s stupid. That’s what rocks and sand are for
exactly!
HOB work well on nanos so I dont see why a canister wouldnt if kept clean and do water changes frequently! I am going to go ahead with this deal I got going with a 36 inch bowfront with a canister almost new with rock and heater and so uch stuff and stand for 100.00! It will do until I can upgrade to my dream tank with sump and skimmer! Now I just got to get an rodi unit so I can afford the water changes...lol
Mouth full of cotton? Mumble mumble.