Canister filter on RSM?

[possitive k]

Hello everyone, after several years of beeing out of the hobby, I have recently purchased a RSM 130. My question to everyone is......

Is anyone using a canister style filter? Pros, cons? Suggestions..........
The tank I got has been basically gutted and just has a tunze skimmer in the back.

Thanks

[mrhasan]

One con that I have heard is that, if not cleaned properly and regularly, they can become "Nitrate Inc."

[msjboy]

hope you have a tunze 9002 ( or other small skimmer that fits) that fits in the back of the sump with the media basket. .. if you want to set up a more elaborate setup, buy an overflow and connect it down to a sump in the red sea max's stand ( be warned, the hinges will rust and be quite moist in the area unless you put in a fan ).... check out reefsanctuary.com for the rsm130 thread on people's builds...lifereef.com for sump ideas; you can even just buy or make a 10 gallon sump setup, or ones like the 10 gallon Aqueon Proflex sump. I don't think many people use the cannister type filtration systems anymore for marine tanks.

msjboy

[subman]

I was looking to use a canister as a bio pellet reactor on my sons rsm. Just got lazy so its just sitting in my fish room lol.

[canadianbudz604]

The canister will work fine as long as you keep it clean. Provides decent flow and no hob filter taking up space. It will become a nitrate factory if you don't maintain it, but it's not that hard to clean. There is lots of nice successful tanks that use canister filters

[possitive k]

Cool, thanks for all the info. I would eventually like to set up a real nice sump.
By clean it......what do you mean, take it appart and scrub it down and change all the filter media like once a month? Or just keep changing the filter media every so often?

Thanks again.

[Coralgurl]

I run a canister filter and clean it out with each water change (a complete scrub of the inside every 2 weeks) and clean and change the media monthly. This has been working fine up until recently, but I did change the filtering media and wonder if this is contributing. I need to buy the stuff I was using before and see what happens. As long as you maintain them, they are great!

[denny_CC]

if you want to add a sump just drill it , ive turned quite a few rsm's into full functioning tanks for sumps. the back panel is drillable;)

cheers

denny

concept aquatics

[viperfish]

Eshopps makes a sump that fits it perfectly.

[fragbox.ca]

Iv been using a canister filter on my nano tank for years and does a great job
I clean it weekly though

[Baker]

I use a canister because when I bought my tank I had no idea what I was doing. I have had my 55gal running on a fluval 406 and I have only taken it out once in 3 1/2 months that its been running. I just took trays out, cleaned foam and left old fluval media in there. There was alot of junk in there. I used old tank water to clean the foam and rinse out canister. This tank is starting to really clean up. That being said, if my cabinet would fit a sump then I would go to sump.

[1986CJ7]

I had 2 canisters with ceramic and floss, chemi pure in the small 12 gal cube. Problem is with kids you have no idea how many times he managed to convince "mommy" the fish are hungry :lol: no matter what you tell mommy.

Power went out one night for 6 hours and all fish & inverts perished. No more canisters for me. Upgraded to a 29gal, next step is skimmer next to media basket and later on as a winter project I'll build a sump - anywhere from 75-100gal, yes you read right, budget depending- so that the water column is stable and I am able to add more rock, inverts, cheato ...large skimmer and all the other goodies that limit the cube.

Why not go bigger you say ...it's my son's tank. I'd probably have my bones broken if I took it apart.