new set up. sump not an option. canister or no canister?

fishbro25

New member
starting up a 36g bow front. i plan on having a few small fish, and basic coral to start out, zoas, mushrooms and so on. eventually get some lps.

i have an aquamaxx hob1 skimmer, 2 hydor koralia nano 425s. have 50lbs of dry rock on the way, plan on using most of that plus another 10-20lbs of live rock from my lfs. using ro/di water.

i have a brand new fluval 306.. ive read they can be a nitrate factory. is there anyway to run this without doing that? with just sponges? maybe carbon and some sort of phosphate or nitrate reactor or something? live rock rubble?

can i get away with not running a filter at all and just going with the wave makers and the skimmer? or should i just run the fluval and pray my nitrates don't sky rocket, and clean it weekly?

my stand doesn't leave me any room for a sump so its not an option =[
 
hmm. kk. thank you.

there are so many mixed reviews on these canister filters. i want to give it a shot and see what happens.

at the same time i really dont want the headache of having nitrate levels even with constant cleaning. id rather return it and put the $ towards a better ro/di system lol.
 
I had a Fluval 405 for several months before I upgraded to larger tank. I also had liverock and powerheads. I also had a wet/dry bioball sump. I also had a HOB skimmer hanging on the sump. LOL!! I covered all the bases :).

A cannister is defintely more maintenance than a liverock/powerhead/sump/skimmer system. You have to turn the cannister off, open it to take the sponge prefilters out, then rinse those prefilters in tap water, then assemble everything again. I did this with each weekly water change. Added a carbon change once a month. Never had a nitrate nor algae issue.
 
A cannister is defintely more maintenance than a liverock/powerhead/sump/skimmer system. You have to turn the cannister off, open it to take the sponge prefilters out, then rinse those prefilters in tap water, then assemble everything again. I did this with each weekly water change. Added a carbon change once a month. Never had a nitrate nor algae issue.

Agreed. I ran a canister for many years with no issues. Routine maintenece like Palting described will keep things in check.
 
thank you guys for your responses. hopefully i have the same luck.

what type of media did you run in your canister? and what level?
 
IIRC, the 504 had 8 trays. I had chemipure elite in the lowest 4, and ceramic media in the top 4.
 
I've seen a mod to a canister that you may find interesting. The post showed a canister with live rock rubble, chaeto and a heater in it to keep it out of the display. He drilled the lid to string pond lights for the chaeto and for the heater. He sealed the wires using silicone inside and out. I'd set it up to handle carbon and GFO. It would be a great big reactor. I'd still run the skimmer if it's not an eye sore.
 
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