Canister Maintenece

I've read around various forums about canister filters and it seems to be about 50/50 whether they are good or bad. The common notch I'm seeing about them is people note that tend to harvest a lot nitrates.

I began reading more into these post and came to the conclusion that it sounds like a nitrate problem can be easily control by regularly cleaning the the unit. Or could you just load Denitirate into one of the media trays? Am I over simplify a complex problem?

The reason why I'm concerned about this is that I have a friend of mines dad that has a business in liquidations and he has a Fluval 305 that came in on a palette that he offered to sell me for $50. It seems to be a great deal considering how much they sell brand new. Right now I'm using a Penguin 200 on a 29 gallon, so I figured this filter would be better. He's also offering to sell me a Coralife Skimmer 65 for $40.

 

I don't want to have to clean the unit every week, but I'm fine with cleaning it monthly when I do water changes. I couldn't find specifics on how often one could expect to have to do this to control the nitrates. Do you know if this Denitrate stuff works well in canisters?

 

Hello tron, first, buy both of them! Great prices, you can't beat it. I have the skimmer you mentioned, a little finicky, but once you get the hang of it, it is a good skimmer. If you have any problems PM me and i will help you work out the quirks. Second, I used a Fluval 405, but I have a 55 gal. so for your 29 gal. the 305 is good. A couple of things about the filter. I would only go 3 weeks on the cleaning cycle because you have a smaller tank. After every 6 weeks or every other filter clean, you have to take the hoses off from the filter and use one of those brushes with the long flex wire to clean the hoses and flush them good to get the detritus build up out. No one told me and I didn't see anything in the set up directions and after about 3 mos. I noticed the flow was cut in half coming out of the "out flow" and that is when logic kicked in and decided to clean them and WOW tuns of gunk came out.
To help cut down on the crud build up in the tank and minimize your cleaning, buy a product by Tropical science called; Marine-clean. I use it and it is all natural bacteria and enzymes that break down detritus and other unwanted "stuff". Good product. Happy reef keeping!

 

Ok, I pulled the trigger on this and went to his warehouse and got the goods. I was just reading the back of the box on the skimmer and saw that it needs a minimum of 6" clearance between the aquarium and the wall. Crap! I know I don't have that much space to hang to skimmer off the back of the tank. It was a steal so somehow I've got figure out how to make this work.

 

i use mine on a fish only tank not a reef

 

Hey tron, you can have it on the side. Post a pic of your tank.

 

I use two canisters a fluval 205 and a ehiem ecco 45. They are on a 75 gal and I have sponge and chemipure in them. They work very well, and I clean them monthly. They are running at all times. Great to have.

 

Here's a picture of my tank 2 days after set up. It's been up for 6 weeks now. The only thing that is different is that I've put away the Penguin and have the Fluval on the back. I did manage to get the tank moved far enough away from the wall to hang the skimmer off the back. The problem I now have is that I can't put the hood back on while the skimmer is attached. The hood will probably have to go and be replaced with better lighting, but right now the budget doesn't allow for that. I can take new picture tonight when I get home.