Is it true?

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Ninjakiller08 said:
Is it true that canister filters cause hole in the head for cichlids and bio-wheel filters don't? I am using a canister filter for my oscar (without carbon) and the hole in the head doesn't seem to be healing. Could this be from the canister filter? I am using metro and feeding hikari cichlid gold and doing regular water changes with water conditioner and using aquarium salt with the water temp at 83 degrees for faster healing.
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Why would a canister filter promote hole-in-the-head disease? High water quality is essential to help prevent hole-in-the-head disease, so as long as you are cleaning your tank regularly and changing your filters, you should not have a problem. Also note the PH quality and water hardness because if the PH is high (excessively alkaline) and the water is hard, this tends to put more strain on New World cichlids because most of this type of cichlids are native to softer water, although not all of them. I hope this helps! :)


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ryansmith83 said:
Is your canister filter clean?

HITH comes from bad water quality. If you have extremely dirty filters that don't get regular maintenance, they could be contributing to poor water quality. All filters need regular maintenance.

I'd say it's a half-truth, but not because of the type of filter. It's more likely that some people only break their canisters down a few times a year and so they're probably full of sludge and uneaten food.
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I agree with you! Excellent post because canister filters would not contribute directly but if a person neglects cleaning maintenance then the potential for poor water quality can threaten the fish, so indirectly this could be somewhat accurate; ALTHOUGH this would be true regarding any filter, and not just canister filter types! ;)


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Matt, I do use the sheet-type of polyfill instead of the loose stuffing type. It's in a big bag with a pastel green label. Forget what it's called but it's a huge roll. I actually fold it over two or three times for a nice, thick layer of it in the tray of the wet-dry. It's filthy after a week but that is thanks to my chocolate pleco which puts out more crap than any of my cichlids combined. If I didn't have him, it'd probably be okay to clean it every two weeks... the trade off is that my glass and driftwood is always clean.

I haven't found a good prefilter for the FX5 either so I just don't use one. That means you have to break it down more often though. And that bad boy is heavy when it's full of water. No matter what I've tried, I cannot get it to drain itself before taking it out. The little spout on the bottom designed to drain it is useless IMO, most likely because the filter sits directly on the ground under my tank. If it were elevated that might be a different story.
 
This should be VERY simple. Test for nitrates, when its too much clean the filter nuff said


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I have a tank with a pair (I think) of royal plecos (Panaque) that poop more than I think the 50 tanks in my fishroom combined. I change the fluff (in a 3-drawer rubbermaid) on the dump filter on the tank every week. I get it at Michaels and usually use a 40-50% off coupon (so I can continue my Walmart boycott...since 2006 or so ;))...

I just use sponges and boxes on most of my tanks...

Matt

ryansmith83 said:
Matt, I do use the sheet-type of polyfill instead of the loose stuffing type. It's in a big bag with a pastel green label. Forget what it's called but it's a huge roll. I actually fold it over two or three times for a nice, thick layer of it in the tray of the wet-dry. It's filthy after a week but that is thanks to my chocolate pleco which puts out more crap than any of my cichlids combined. If I didn't have him, it'd probably be okay to clean it every two weeks... the trade off is that my glass and driftwood is always clean.

I haven't found a good prefilter for the FX5 either so I just don't use one. That means you have to break it down more often though. And that bad boy is heavy when it's full of water. No matter what I've tried, I cannot get it to drain itself before taking it out. The little spout on the bottom designed to drain it is useless IMO, most likely because the filter sits directly on the ground under my tank. If it were elevated that might be a different story.
Click to expand...
 
^ Yeah, totally off-topic, but I loathe Walmart. My cousin works at Michael's and she can get me a discount. I never thought about that.

I got some plastic mesh sheets from their knitting/sewing department to make tank dividers for male bettas and apparently it was treated with something because it killed all three of my bettas overnight. :( I guess that kind of put me off Michael's. Not their fault, I know...
 
Thank you for all the info guys. Every month when I just clean my filter, I just rinse everything and squeeze the "sponge like" thing. The media is all 2 years old as same as the filter. I am guessing this is bad.... How often should I change the media inside the filter?
 
+1 on the filter maintenance
 
wait did he say how big the tank was? and what the stock was? Just an Oscar?
 
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