Canister Filter Taken Offline - Opinions Please

[Old Glory]

I was recently advised to remove all of my mechanical filtration; ie canisters and Emperor filters and add the Aquaclear to run carbon. I just want to be sure I can do this and not upset my system. I removed the Emperor last week and the Eheim last night. I am afriad of removing the bacteria from the system causing an overload and ammonia spike. Any thoughts or opinions?

The idea was to remove the mechanical filtration and encourage the growth of pods and other good critters and reduce nitrate. I just want to be sure the rock can handle the load. Tank has been running for 9 months. I have battled Ich, Slime, Cyno, and hair algae. It is finally starting to look good. (knock wood).

Thanks!

Tank Stats:
90 gallon Reef Ready
30 gallon sump
80-85 lbs Live Rock
Eheim 1260 Return
Reef Octopus 1000 SSS Skimmer
Eheim Pro 3 Canister
Marineland 220 Canister with GFO and Carbon
Marineland Emperor 400
4 Koralia Pumps
ATO Top Off use only RO/DI water
Aquaclear 30 with a bag of carbon in sump
4 Bulb T5 with Led Moon lights 2 ATI Blue +; 1 ATI ABS; 1 Coral + Lights on 10 hours (Switching to an ATI Dimmable Sunpower 6xT5 next week)

Water Change 22-28 gallons weekly (just switched to Red Sea mix)
Just started adding Reef Builder and Reef advantage to maintain calcium and Alk

Livestock:
Hippo
Yellow Tang
Harlequin Tusk
Bi-color Angel
Flame Angel
Flame Hawk
2 Lyre Tail Anthias
2 Clowns
5 Chromis
1 Mel. Wrasse
1 RBTA


Orange Torch
Small Green Hammer
Small Orange Frog
Med Green Frog
Red and Green Blasto Frag
Aussie War Coral Frag
Blue Tip Elegance
Small Acan Frag
Small Green Bird's Nest Frag
Small Orange Digi Frag
Small Joe the Coral Frag
Green Toad Stool
Brown Toadstool
Assorted Mushrooms
Rasta Zoa
Bam Bams
Dragon Eyes
Green Trumpet head
Pink Zenia

 

[Reefmedic79]

You may be Ok, I'd say your bording on an overstocked tank if you haven't reached that point already, especially for a 9 month old tank.

Keep a close eye on your water params for the next couple weeks. You can continue using the canisters just rinse the media out everytime you do a waterchange and that should help prevent any potential Nitrate spikes, or use it empty just to increase your water volume.

 

[SKurj]

I'd go slow ... start by removing some media from the cannisters every few weeks.

 

[Palting]

You already took the 3 cannisters off-line, all within 1 week? It takes a while for the rocks to take over from the cannister biomedia, usually several weeks. You may get lucky and have everything go well, but maybe not. Keep a close eye on ammonia, maybe even get an ammonia alarm sticker.

 

[TimeConsumer]

I wouldn't eliminate mechanical filtration entirely. Filter socks are a great resource for water polishing. But your LR should keep the bio load handled just fine, as long as your canister filters weren't using biomedia.

 

[Old Glory]

I took one canister and the HOB off line. The canister did have biomedia but I added 5 lbs of live rock to my sump today.

Will keep an eye on my Ammonia levels.

Thanks!