Canister Filtration?

[Just Toby]

Anyone?

As much surface agitation as possible, the more the better, if you have the canister running then the surface agitation is free of charge so use it. Yes use the spray bar.

 

[motoro magic]

Use the spray bar and air stone it wont hurt your ray, also i would leave carbon out and replace with more ceramic rings this will give your filter more surface area for benificial bacterea. Hope this helps.

 

[TimTheBadass]

I have one of those filters. I bought some pond filter sponge and cut it to fit the baskets. I had sponge in the bottom basket then filled the remaining three with ceramic rings. You want the best bio filtration possible with any ray so save the bio balls and carbon for another time and fill it with ceramics.

 

[earthstudent]

I really do not like canisters. I have used several brands and simply do not like them over a wet/dry sump. I have had them leak and they are not as easy to maintenance as a sump IMHO. I much prefer a wet/dry bio tower and sump. I also like the idea of a bio barrel but have no hands on experience quite yet.

Like noted above, you want the best bio filtration possible with rays and a canister is simply not that. Available oxygen is just not as good compared to a wet/dry or bio barrel. If you go with a canister (they CAN work just fine) than I would make sure you oxygenate the water as good as you can, so the BB in the canister has as much oxygen available as possible. You can have gallons and gallons of ceramic in a canister, but if there is not enough oxygen to facilitate the BB, than all that media is of little use.

All 4 of the tanks at my house use a wet/dry bio tower and sump and I can maintenance all of them (which only involves changing the mechanical filter, I don't even have to turn anything off or shut anything down) in less than 10 minutes. If anyone can tell me they can maintenance 4 canister filters in that time than I would be impressed.