Switching out the canister

[Beverly]

Canisters or HOB filters with floss or foam are only nitrate factories if they are seldom or poorly cleaned. I clean the foam in my HOB filter a couple of times a week and I don't have algae problems of any kind. I also run a bare bottom tank and siphon out the crud during weekly water changes. It's my firm belief that tanks in general are nitrate and phosphate factories and the only way to keep them clean is by doing frequent and thorough maintenance on them. Crud build up in any part of a reef system ALWAYS equals algae and/or excess nutrients.

[Nano]

Originally Posted by Beverly

Canisters or HOB filters with floss or foam are only nitrate factories if they are seldom or poorly cleaned. I clean the foam in my HOB filter a couple of times a week and I don't have algae problems of any kind. I also run a bare bottom tank and siphon out the crud during weekly water changes. It's my firm belief that tanks in general are nitrate and phosphate factories and the only way to keep them clean is by doing frequent and thorough maintenance on them. Crud build up in any part of a reef system ALWAYS equals algae and/or excess nutrients.

nicely said! when I top of my cichlids weekly, I take the foam out of my filters and rinse the crap out until the water is clear, this can take a few minutes sometimes.

[jtbadco]

Very true, Beverly. What i meant about them being a problem is that it is harder to clean floss or foam in a canister. I took the foam and floss out of my HOB's when I filled them with LR.

Any thoughts on my original question?

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by jtbadco

Very true, Beverly. What i meant about them being a problem is that it is harder to clean floss or foam in a canister. I took the foam and floss out of my HOB's when I filled them with LR.

Any thoughts on my original question?

Yeah, a canister seems harder to keep clean than a HOB. I have never used a canister, nor have I used Biomax - just foam so I don't really have an answer to your question. But I do like using foam. It traps detritus so it can easily be removed/exported from a system. LR will provide more surface area for bio-filtration but you can't really take it out and clean the crud out of it. Do you vigorously rinse your biomax frequently?

[Nano]

In my AC70 I cut the filter foam in half lenthwise, so I can use the other half at a later date, then put the carbon in and then instead of biomax I use LR. same idea I suppose, and this allows me to rinse the foam often, while still trapping detritus.

[claymax]

you could always use an AC as a fuge too the mod is pretty easy i think

[MarkoD]

Originally Posted by nanomano

nicely said! when I top of my cichlids weekly, I take the foam out of my filters and rinse the crap out until the water is clear, this can take a few minutes sometimes.

You're not suppose to wash out freshwater sponges. You're basically killing all the bacteria

Since there's no live rock in a freshwater tank, the sponge is the primary biological filtration.

[jtbadco]

That's not always true MarkoD.

I have lots of FW tanks and while the bacteria do grow and thrive on/in the sponge,...I don't use them as the main source of biological filtration. I have my filters stuffed full of bio-max which provides more than sufficient surface area for the bacteria to grow.

I use the sponges more for mechanical filtration along with filter floss, especially because all my FW tanks are planted. I rinse out my sponges and floss weekly to remove all the crap. There has never been any problem with parameters.
If sponges are all that you use for biological filtration then you only want to rinse them in tank water.

Anyways,...back to topic.

As I see it I will be losing the extra water volume by removing the Fluval in favor of more LR and increased flow (340 Gph to 425 Gph) but that seems to be the only downside.

[Nano]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

You're not suppose to wash out freshwater sponges. You're basically killing all the bacteria

Since there's no live rock in a freshwater tank, the sponge is the primary biological filtration.

I have 3 types of foam in my canister, I only rinse out one piece at a time. Sorry I guess I left that out

[Leah]

Great video! I think I would leave well enough alone. Tank is amazing! How long have you had the Mandarin pair?