Boston Aquarium Society Message Board

I now have a few rasboras, cory cats, one zebra snail, and an albino cory cat, some java fern, java moss, all thanks to Amy!

Is there a consensus on sizing a canister filter (flow volume gph)? For planted tanks, I have seen everything from 5x to 10x water changes/hr in the tank. Obviously, the higher rates of circulation are going to push you into a larger filter and cost bracket. I would like to hear what you have for a canister filter for your planted tank and any suggestions.

My HOB filter is making a lot of impeller noise and am considering replacing it with an Eheim Classic when it is time. For the 40 gallon tall tank I have, the 2215 should suffice in theory, but the 2217 may be a better investment. Thoughts?

Thanks.

I'm not that familiar with cannisters. I prefer HOBs or sumps because I found the one cannister I tried to be a royal pain when it came maintenance time. Leaving that aside, 10x seems almost ridiculous for a planted tank. I can see it if you have a pile of active cichlids, but that's a whole different picture.
With the added help in absorbing nitrates that the plants will give you, 5x should be OK unless you start to support a lot of fish.
Hopefully some folks who are more up to date with cannisters will chime in.

--- Dave a.k.a.

_________________
There are 10 kinds of people - Those who understand binary
And those who don't

i've been a huge recent fan of the INTERNAL fluvals. I cannot use HOB filters because of the humidity they generate. I was about to go with an Eheim canister and I found out about the Fluval internals. I have a U1 in a 10 gallon, U4 in a 55, and a U3 in a 65. (Yeah, should probably reverse those two! Someday...)

Virtually no power, no noise, and not ugly since you can hide them mostly with plants. Oh, and no priming the pump to get it to work!!!!

The U3 and U4 seem awfully small for a heavily polluting tank but I don't keep those kinds of fish.

Good information above, thanks.

I had not considered internal filters, but perhaps later as a backup -- my plants are still too small to hide anything bigger than a few fry.

Paul, how much do you spend on the filter media? How often do you change them? Seems like it could add up quickly based on a quick perusal of a vendor website.

Dave, which is this canister that I should stay away from?

I spend nothing on filter media because I never change them. I've never understood why people buy new media. Just take it out and rinse it off. But, be careful, you don't want to rinse all your media at once. You'll kill off all your important bacteria. The Fluval U2, U3, and U4 make this easy since it has double media compartments, just pull out ONE and rinse it.

And just get some watersprite. With medium light it will grow like a weed and cover up anything you want it to. I need to pull out a big bags worth every 2 weeks or so. (Free watersprite if you come to Provincetown! Of course, it is cheaper to buy it at Skipton's instead of spending the gas money to Ptown...)

The cannister I tried was an old Fluval. I doubt if it can be compared to a new one, so I wouldn't go by my experience. If I could afford a new one, I might feel differently. I still think I'd prefer the ease of maintenance a good old Aquaclear provides.

--- Dave a.k.a. front-fan

_________________
There are 10 kinds of people - Those who understand binary
And those who don't

I was in this predicament just about a month ago and I looked at a lot of canister filters. I even considered building one of my own but it would have cost me almost as much as buying. I just got an Aquatop AT300 which is rated at 317gph. It has 3 compartments for mechanical, bio and chemical filtration but there is no set rule on how I should have set it up. I got it directly from the factory or distribution center in California. I got it for about half the cost of Fluval, Eheim, Marineland. It's rated for tanks up to 80 gallons my tank is a 48 gallon column tank. The same company has a smaller version (last years model for $49 with media). I know some people will bash these filters but to be honest none of my filters I bought from this company have given me any problems. Hope that helps.

Dave D.