Live rock in Cannister
- Thread starter Davycc
- Start date
its efficent flow, but do you understand how most canisters work? water inlet in the bottom then exit threw the top, with a volume in the canister that is good sized it would give detritus time to settle in rock crevices, unless you plan on cleaning it out pretty often you would get the nitrate factory effect. id skip it and go with a sump, its not as hard to setup and plumb if thats what is steering you towards the canister, some people have used canisters, some have failed some have succeded. im not going to say not to do it but you would be making things harder on yourself.
Davycc
New member
Cheers thanks for the answer. Was going with the canister for a couple of reasons. 1. I already have it (just moved from FWT and 2. I can just about fit the canister into the space I have so a sump is out unfortunately. I may be able to squeeze in a HOB fuge but it wouldn't be massive and I am wondering if it would be worth doing.
platypusklr
New member
I tried this with a fluval fx5 on my first saltwater experience (55 sumpless). Did the floss disks in the top and used very mature rubble in all 3 baskets. It worked great for a couple weeks, however when the bioload hit critical mass, it went very bad very fast! I would still run a skimmer, even if its a well designed HOB model.
Davycc
New member
Cheers
think I'll run the canister for flow purposes only, fit an HOB and see if a skimmers needed down the line.
Good luck with the build when you get going.
I use two fluval older canister filters: one to hold granulated activated carbon(BAC) plumbed into the main system, the other on a 65 gallon soft coral tank to hold GAC , GFO an a little polyfilter.
They provide a nice area with flow and some good water movement.
When you add surfaces via media ,ceramic beads, bioballs ,rubble ,etc o; ammonia oxidizing bacteria colonize the surfaces in the high flow high oxygen water, This is a very good way to reduce ammonia to nitrate.
However, the nitrate(NO3) goes into the water column since there is very limited opportunity for anaerobic denitrification( bacteria absent free oxygen take it from the NO3 reducing it to N , which binds with N forming N2 gas which bubbles out of the tank) to occur given the flow and oxygen in the canisiter.Anerobic dentrifying bacterial activity requires surfaces in areas where the oxygen is depleted like sand beds and the porous areas of live rock in the tank not exposed to the high flow in a canister filter.So,IME, it's better to skip any media in a canister filter and let the ammonia be oxidized on surfaces in the tank that are proximate to low flow ,low oxygen areas in the substrate or rock pores.
The rubble will also gatehr detritus( decaying material) and require frequent cleaning; not really suitable as a refugium.
They provide a nice area with flow and some good water movement.
When you add surfaces via media ,ceramic beads, bioballs ,rubble ,etc o; ammonia oxidizing bacteria colonize the surfaces in the high flow high oxygen water, This is a very good way to reduce ammonia to nitrate.
However, the nitrate(NO3) goes into the water column since there is very limited opportunity for anaerobic denitrification( bacteria absent free oxygen take it from the NO3 reducing it to N , which binds with N forming N2 gas which bubbles out of the tank) to occur given the flow and oxygen in the canisiter.Anerobic dentrifying bacterial activity requires surfaces in areas where the oxygen is depleted like sand beds and the porous areas of live rock in the tank not exposed to the high flow in a canister filter.So,IME, it's better to skip any media in a canister filter and let the ammonia be oxidized on surfaces in the tank that are proximate to low flow ,low oxygen areas in the substrate or rock pores.
The rubble will also gatehr detritus( decaying material) and require frequent cleaning; not really suitable as a refugium.
uncleL
New member
I have 2 HOT Magnums on my 90g with crushed coral/BIO filters??
CStrickland
New member
Some have good luck running it for a while after a water change. Especially if you are blowing crud out of your rocks and vac'ing your sand when you do it, running a filter for an hour after can polish stuff right up but it's not long enough to raise nitrates. Or if you don't have any other place to run carbon if warfare breaks out, it's a nice thing to keep around.
