Thinking of changing to a canister filter

I have a 37 gallon FOWLR tank with 55 lbs of live rock a protein skimmer and a Marineland 200 HOB filter.

The BIO wheel made a bothersome splashing noise that drove me up a wall, not to mention the salt creep, so I removed it, and other than that I can't see where its doing me much good at filtering the water with just a hand full of charcoal and porous filter media.

I was thinking that after reading an interesting weblog by Joe Jworskion on “Does a Reef Tank Need Carbon?” That I would be better off using a Fluval 205 External Canister Filter using a prefilter media and fill the rest of it with carbon.

I’d like to hear from anyone that's crossed that bridge before me on what your experience was.

 

Hophead

used a few cannister filters over the years and my prefference now days is to use them for chemical filtration media , when Im not employing a sump
carbon is a good option, as would GFO be, if you dont have a sump and thus reactor

you will need to clean the pre filter weekly, and also rinse the mesh pouch with the caron in , otherwise waste gets trapped there and reduces the effectiveness of the media and can also contribute to nitrate issues later

Steve

 

BTW Steve,I had several tortoises as a child and although I never placed them on a record player I found the hampsters seemed to enjoy it! Just keep the stylis clear of the turntable and don't exceed the 45rpm setting or the cetrifugal force makes them fly off,which I did enjoy but the hampsters did not.Hope this helps,Dave