Canister Filter Media

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
S

Stu

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 9, 2008
44
1
0
Geelong
I was reading a post about canister filters and it was recomended not to use bio balls. I have a canister filter with one tray of ceramic noodles, one tray of bio balls and one tray with just a layer of white filter wool. Both trays of with the noodles and bio balls have a piece of course foam over the top. Should i ditch the bio balls and get something else or is this setup ok do you think, it is a 1200lt per hour canister and it is filtering my 6ft x 14 x 18 tank. I do weekly water changes but the water does get a slight yellowish tinge after about 3 to 4 days. Do you think this is not enough filtration or wrong media etc etc.
Sorry for the litres per hour im in Australia not familiar with gallons.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated quite new to this hobby:)
 
I don't recommend bio balls in a canister. It will work, but it is not the best. I would fill the tray with ceramic or another bio media for canisters. Balls are great in an oxegenated use, like a W/D.
 
I use Magnum 350 canister filters, and use the prefilter sleeve (take care of the big stuff, and acts as bio), and inside the container I use a carbon/de-nitrate mix. Overall has worked wonders for both mechanical and bio.
 
As stated before, don't use bioballs, there are made for oxengenated filters such as wetdry's. ceramic rings is a great biomedia you can use. i fill my canister to the top with them.
 
i have eheim and xp3, i use ceramic rings and pot scrubbies and white and blue filter pads
 
i have pot scrubbies in mine as well. some people advise against using them but so far my ammonia has stayed at 0 since my tank cycled. use the eheim ehifsubstrat or fluval biomax for the most surface area
 
Regarding the yellow water - do you have driftwood in your tank? If so you will find the yellow is tannin leaching from the wood - this is harmless. If you want to get rid of the yellow use carbon in the filter or purigen.

Your filter is also barely adequate for the tank size, but would be ok if you are lightly stocked. If you are keeping a large number of fish (or several large messy fish) I'd recommend a second filter. On my 6x2x2 I have a 2800L/hr and a 1200L/hr for redundancy - if one packs up the other will keep things going ok until I can rectify the problem
 
wow thanks for the replys everyone has definately given me something to go on sounds like im getting rid of the balls and getting ceramic noodles!!!! Please keep the replys coming need all the info i can get
 
Would any know have some advice with running a Eheim Canister on an old dutch tank (72 Gallons) for Saltwater? I can't run a sump on this tank and figured that the new canisters would be easy to maintain. I keep getting mixed answers. Some have stated that the canisters dont provide enough oxygen and that it can not replace a protein skimmer. I want to have gobies, bennies, and live rock, mushrooms, etc in the tank but don't know if the canister would be able to handle the load. Also the lighting - I can only get 2 T5's in there - One 48 and one 36. Does anyone see a problem with coral as long as its nnot brain coral or something that needs a lot of wattage. Any help would be great!! Thanks everyone
 
Hi all, (New here),

I've recently bought an Eheim Ecco Canister Filter suited for up to an 80 GAL tank (although mines a 55), and it came with 3 HUGE boxes of eheim ehifsubstrat media.
When it came time to fill the media trays, all that's really in there, other than floss is this media, no activated carbon that I can remember.
Will this kinda of media suffice as both chemical and biological filtration?

The tank is well established, with t good poewrful bio wheels on it, i just thought that switching to a cannister would be a good idea (plus it was a steal at petco!).
Any advice?
-Scot
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom