Need new canister! Help me out

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Gruntking

Gruntking

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Feb 24, 2011
1,279
2
38
Miami
Yo guys what up?!!

Well checked my water parameters today and to my surprise my nitrate and nitrite were a bit high...

My tank is a 46 gallon bowfront with sand substrate, and my stock is a tiger oscar( 2 1/2"), 2 clown loaches (1 1/2"), and 2 geos (2"). As far as filtration all i have running now is a penguin 350 biowheel filter which produces very good flow...

I feel that the reason why my readings were high is because i dont have enough bio media, and frankly the biowheels are a POS.

I do 30-40% weekly water changes every tuesday and water stays crisp.

I was thinking of the eheim 2217, but have heard very mixed reviews about it... People are saying that the hoses are too short, instructions for setup are not clear etc... But ive heard eheim makes the best filters for biofiltration....

Another option would be Rena Xp3.. I already have one of these on a 75 and cant say enough about them, their great, but i would like to try something else..

Fluval Edge, have heard alot of problems with these...

Have also heard great things about the "Sun sun" knockoffs from ebay... My friend has one on a 55 and it even comes with a uv sterilizer.

Another option i guess would be to get an AC110 HOB But i dont know what the bio storage is like on those...

Im pretty much looking for a filter under $150 that will work for this tank, as well as work for a larger tank when i need to upgrade, thanks.
 
i read alot of good things about the ebay knock offs. some have usage times over three years without a problem. i think i will go that path next time myself.

dave
 
pick up 2 ac110s for around 150 on ebay, and throw the penguin 350 away lol... 2 ac110 will be plenty of bio for what you have
 
alotadollars;5039681; said:
pick up 2 ac110s for around 150 on ebay, and throw the penguin 350 away lol... 2 ac110 will be plenty of bio for what you have
Click to expand...

Good lord I would never pay that much for a HOB system...
 
What you have is a case of the, “I`m bored with my tank and want something new”.
If you want to use an elevated nitrite level as an excuse, fine by me, because we all know your bio media has nothing to do with nitrate..right?
I would suspect your testing materials if you have not seen any ammonia or nitrite previously.
Run a test on some bottled water, just to be sure you aren`t getting some false readings.
What`s your WC schedule like?
Have you done any serious cleaning in the tank/filter lately?
How often, and how much, do you feed?
Pretty hard to damage an established bacterial colony, but it can happen.
Nothing wrong with the Penguin filters, other than the cheap-o materials used for the impeller.
The bio wheels do a great job of getting 02 into the water, with whatever amount of bio activity they house.
Personally, I think your tank is under filtered.
Figure, on average, you are moving 250-300gph through your single filter.
With your fish load, you are asking allot from that single Penguin.
I agree you need more filtration, just not because of the reason you posted.
 
I have one those SunSun HW-303 canister filters and with the room of the media baskets that you can add any kind of bio media you want, you can't go wrong. They will not break your wallet either. Mine is the 375 gph model and it will work well in your tank. But I also love AC110 HOB filters too. So either one would do fine. But the canister filter has more media room though and is compact, imo.
 
I have the Eheim 2217, and even I as a woman could make sense out of the set-up. It is not rocket science! As for the hoses being short, they are, but in the grand scheme of things, buying 2 longer sections of hose is not going to break the bank....
 
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