Pond Filter vs Canister Filter

[CMP168]

Good morning all,

I'll currently in the process of setting up a drilled 270 (84x24x31) and as much as I'd love to do a sump the weight constraints of the tank location won't allow me to put another 1200 pounds of weight on floor. Long story short this will be the forever home for my Fahaka Puffer that is currently about 5-6 inches in a 100 gallon AIO. The tank currently has 2 corner overflows and 2 holes each for intake and return. I've been racking my brain for different filter ides that won't add a ton of additional weight. I've always had good luck with the Fluval FX6s but I'm not sure I want to spend $800+ on 2 of them to only be turning over the tank several times an hour. That brings me to either a higher flow rate canister(I have yet to find one) or alternative filtration. From a few hours of research, pressurized pond filters have a massive GPH and paired with the right pump it looks like for around $300-$400 I can turn the tank over at least 8 times an hour. My current idea is to T both the intakes and returns so they can all be run by a single means of filtration. My main questions to be addressed is with the right media would this work the same way or better than a canister filter? What would be the downsides to doing this setup? The last question I have is that these pond filters are always shown with a pump pulling water into the intake rather than the return since the intended use would be to simply push the water back into the pond. If everything is plumbed correctly wouldn't a pump on the return create a vacuum that would pull water through the filter and push it back through the returns? Any insight or experience in doing this would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[Fishman Dave]

Many canisters require priming and my understanding is that this is because the vacuum they would create in a return situation or indeed on the very end of a return for a home design, is not sufficient to “suck” the water through. I use the canister filter with the pump in tank to push the water through pond pressurised canisters. With the 3 way t in place to be able to also use this to a) isolate the canister for cleaning or b) bypass the canister for water changes.
If you had some kind of high hood, or enclosed area above the tank another alternative could be pump in tank to a box filter above the tank which was almost empty of water all the time ie trickle style with returns at the very bottom so as not to hold water. The correct design would require much less maintenance than, and would never clog like, a canister would.

Again though requires pump in tank

However if you do chose the correct pump it should be possible to locate the pump lower than the tank but in line ie.fed by gravity and use the t to first prime the pump “would require you to suck on the pipe!”and then as long as the intake of water is always there and the pipe to canister never empty, you would never need to prime again.

 

[Disturbed.)]

If plumbed correctly, sure you can hook a large pond filter to the existing plumbing and have the pump attached after the pressurized filter. You'll have some trial and error with the overflow heights to ensure you don't pull air into the canister.
I've got a sunsun 1600 pond filter as the UV prefilter on my 300 but it's pumped from the sump back up to the display and try as I might couldn't get the thing inside my stand
You could always go with a smaller sump if weight is a concern that's still better than most canisters.
There is also the go big or go home approach of sistering floor joists and installing support beams under big tanks. I'm having to do that again right now because we are moving tanks around