So ive just been reading a little bit watching videos about hobs and stuff because im bored... and im confused about something.
Ive been in the aquarium hobby for 20 years now. Ive noticed in a established aquarium.. hobs and even canisters are pretty much useless for biological filtration. Lets start with hob filters.
Im watching videos reading comments.... I see people with say 2 or 3 of the larger hobs like the emperor 400 or aquaclear 110.. They got a little baggy or two of rings.. or they shove a few kitchen sponges in them and praise the biowheels thinking yep.. this handfull of rocks and 4 sponges truely keep my tank clear of ammonia and nitrite.. i even read that adding a sponge to the inlet will magicaly create aenerobic conditions in the filter itself and reduce nitrates.. lol
Forgive me for laughing...
There is simply no way a bag or two of rocks even with 300gph flowing through it will equal the amount of bioligical filtrion the sand bed rocks. Wood.. plants. Decoations can acheive in the tank... To test this many years ago i shut off my hobs... was really nice not hearing those filters anymore. And guess what.. no ammonia spikes in my fresh water tanks.
A canister is really no different... there might be a little spike with a canister removed but once the tank catchs up youll never need it again.
The only thing i like about hobs is their ability to pull detrious and dust out of the water column.. they are great for mechanical filtration.. much better then canisters you can get more flow per dollar and have much easier access you clean the filter pads.. and yep i use thr sink to clean them lol...
In a newer tank sure i can see the benefits or a brand new tank and putting a hobs with established media on.. sure thatll help alot.. but once thats done and the tank itself is mature... the whole omg never rinse or replace filters in tap water or ima stack 2 sponges a baggy of rings is silly
Use em for polishing.. and tossing in carbon or what not and thats all i find them useful for.
The point becomes even less in our reef tanks with 100 lbs of live rock in a 125g tank.. do ya think a handfull of matrix or lava rocks in that hob is doing anything lol ? Like i said detrious removal is A+ on em.. chemical filtration is great because its ease of removal and instalation ( if you have no sump like me) they alsp create alot of O2 if you got the penguin or emperor filters.. those biowheels sure trickle alot of watee.. but arr damn anoyying
Ive been in the aquarium hobby for 20 years now. Ive noticed in a established aquarium.. hobs and even canisters are pretty much useless for biological filtration. Lets start with hob filters.
Im watching videos reading comments.... I see people with say 2 or 3 of the larger hobs like the emperor 400 or aquaclear 110.. They got a little baggy or two of rings.. or they shove a few kitchen sponges in them and praise the biowheels thinking yep.. this handfull of rocks and 4 sponges truely keep my tank clear of ammonia and nitrite.. i even read that adding a sponge to the inlet will magicaly create aenerobic conditions in the filter itself and reduce nitrates.. lol
Forgive me for laughing...
There is simply no way a bag or two of rocks even with 300gph flowing through it will equal the amount of bioligical filtrion the sand bed rocks. Wood.. plants. Decoations can acheive in the tank... To test this many years ago i shut off my hobs... was really nice not hearing those filters anymore. And guess what.. no ammonia spikes in my fresh water tanks.
A canister is really no different... there might be a little spike with a canister removed but once the tank catchs up youll never need it again.
The only thing i like about hobs is their ability to pull detrious and dust out of the water column.. they are great for mechanical filtration.. much better then canisters you can get more flow per dollar and have much easier access you clean the filter pads.. and yep i use thr sink to clean them lol...
In a newer tank sure i can see the benefits or a brand new tank and putting a hobs with established media on.. sure thatll help alot.. but once thats done and the tank itself is mature... the whole omg never rinse or replace filters in tap water or ima stack 2 sponges a baggy of rings is silly
Use em for polishing.. and tossing in carbon or what not and thats all i find them useful for.
The point becomes even less in our reef tanks with 100 lbs of live rock in a 125g tank.. do ya think a handfull of matrix or lava rocks in that hob is doing anything lol ? Like i said detrious removal is A+ on em.. chemical filtration is great because its ease of removal and instalation ( if you have no sump like me) they alsp create alot of O2 if you got the penguin or emperor filters.. those biowheels sure trickle alot of watee.. but arr damn anoyying
