The whole canister filter debate....

[Altohombre]

Ok so I am running an Eheim 2213 Canister filter (it comes with a premade media set inside the canister) in my 46g with 60 lbs live rock and 60lbs live sand.

I hear all the talk about having to clean the canister every week and how it can cause high nitrates and what not. Right now every time I check my nitrates it is about 20 and I want this to lower. Now I had it checked at my LFS at the end of my cycle and the kid who checked it swore that it was at 0, which made me scratch my head because we use the same test kit. Since then it still tests at 20 on my kit and I have done about 3 5g water changes since then which has been 2.5 weeks.

Now as for the debate, is my tank able to run on its own with the 60lb live rock and 2.5 inch live sand bottom without using a filter? I also have an AquaC Remora running. Unfortunately I don't have a sump or refugium or any kind of overflow device that I can think of that may be needed for my tank to run on its own because I have no space for it. Should I keep running my canister filter and cleaning it often?

 

[reeffreak]

You don't need to run the canister full time.Use it one week a month to polish the water.Carbon,phosphate remover,floss etc.I heard people putting live rock rubble in there canister for added bio-filtration.

 

[cthegame]

Yes, skimmer w/ live rock will suffice. I would not even bother with the canister.

 

[Bifferwine]

I agree with what others have said. Live rock and a skimmer will be enough. The canister is not necessary.

 

[Bifferwine]

PS -- on my old tank I was having nitrate problems (I...ahem...tend to overstock with fish...), and I removed my canister altogether, and that cut the nitrates down by 20.

 

[RAYRAY]

What About The Bio-wheels, If I Remove It From My Emperor 280 Will It Reduce My Nitrates Which Range From 20ppm Down To 5 Or 7 Ppm ??? And If I Remove It Will I Have A Parameter Spike Since Its Been Running From The Begining ????

 

[UnderwaterWorld]

i would think so, I have heard that the bio-wheels can become nitrate factories

 

[kimoy]

you might have a bad/expired test kit.

 

[yote]

Kimoys thinking along the same line as me about your test kit.
Plus I'd ditch the canister to.

 

[yote]

What About The Bio-wheels, If I Remove It From My Emperor 280 Will It Reduce My Nitrates Which Range From 20ppm Down To 5 Or 7 Ppm ??? And If I Remove It Will I Have A Parameter Spike Since Its Been Running From The Begining ????

My nitrates went away when I got rid my bio-wheels.Not says your will or wont,but they can cause em to run high.

 

[RAYRAY]

yote, if i remove the wheel do you think i will have a bacteria bloom ???? that will cause my water to go all out of wack ???

 

[yote]

Its possible.But I dont think it would cause enough of a problem to kill anything.Water might cloud up some.

 

[reeffreak]

What About The Bio-wheels, If I Remove It From My Emperor 280 Will It Reduce My Nitrates Which Range From 20ppm Down To 5 Or 7 Ppm ??? And If I Remove It Will I Have A Parameter Spike Since Its Been Running From The Begining ????

You have plenty of live rock now so you don't need the bio-wheels.However,you only recently added more live rock.I say give the new rock a month to seed then remove the wheels.It could help reducing your nitrate levels.

 

[Altohombre]

I feel like my canister filter is pulling out a nice amount of leftover food and dirt. If I move rocks or turkey blaster some rocks clean I don't want all the bad stuff to just collect on the sand. I would rather some of it go into the canister filter.

If I do decide to take out the canister media, I may end up doing the live rock inside the canister idea and just use it for added water flow.

Is it also bad that I have a small media bag full of black carbon that I put in the return portion of my AquaC Remora pre skimmer box? I figured that the extra addition of a carbon to help keep the water clean would be ok.

 

[reeffreak]

Alto,there's nothing wrong with running the canister.People get lazy and don't clean them often enough.Thats when people start having problems.