Canister Filter ?

Is a canister filter with carbon medium a must have , nice to have or don't use at all ? I have read that you don't want to remove all the particles in the water that these take out :-/ ? Thanks for the help in advance .

 

IMO its not a must have
allthough it does have its benifits if u change it weekly?

i personally dont use it in my canisters

 

The only reason to use a cannister filter with a saltwater tank is as a place to house carbon, or add live rock as another area to increase surface volume and another way of increasing water flow, other than that I don't like using them with saltwater tanks.
Carbon will remove both good and bad things from your water! It would benefit you and your inhabitants by using it periodically to remove negative acting compounds such as dissolved organics.
Their are ways of getting around the rapidly depeleted good components evident with using carbon and that would be to do a weekly water change and dose traces such as calcium, iodine, liquid vitamin supplements and strontium more so than if you didn't use carbon. Bioload also plays a part as does the types of fish, corals and inverts!!!!

 

Found this post my doing a search, as I had a similar question. I currently run a canister (see sig) with Eheim Substrat Pro, a course filter pad, and a carbon pad.

Is this ok? Should I remove the Substrat Pro or just sell the canister filter all together and stay with just a Skimmer?