procustomsolar;4665348; said:
I currently have a 36x18x16 tank and have no fish in it. I have a tetra whisper 70ex on it right now and plan on adding a p. delhezi bichir and a bgk. Can someone please help me understand why a canister filter will/can help me better filter my tank and save money with my tank in the future? Also is this filter at 320gph efficient enough for what im planning on adding? The guy that I bought my tank from said to add carbon to these filters and that would help out allot. I was also reading on drsfosterandsmith that a powerhead might help my tank? I'm sorry if these questions seem dumb to you guys and gals, and im sure allot do please bear with me
. A heater that could heat this tank would also be helpful. Thanks again.
Welcome to MFK! Filtration is one of the favorite topics around here. I'll try to answer all your questions...
Cansiter filters--these filters sit outside your tank and draw water through them via a pump in a pressurized chamber through various filter medias. They are great methods of filtration, I use them on most of my tanks as the primary source of filtration, as do most other people (another method is running a sump, that is a bit more advanced, and probably not appealing for most smaller tanks and beginners). If it were my tank, I would ditch the whisper altogether (HATE that brand) and just run a large canister filter.
Carbon--chemical filtration that will absorb various things from the water. Useful for removing medication, and perhaps tannins (released from driftwood) and any bad smells (although you should first consider WHY your aquarium smells, as healthy tanks don't smell bad). NOT needed on a regular basis, most people don't run carbon at MFK. Another product worth looking at that I think is superior to carbon is called Purigen, but again it's not needed.
Powerheads--basically a pump in the tank that helps circulate water, does not filter on its own. These are helpful, especially in big tanks (they can help stir up the substrate.... they also are pretty much essential in saltwater setups), but probably not necessary in smaller freshwater setups. I like the koralia evolutions and the aquaclear powerheads (own them both, the aquaclears are more primitive, but last forever, koralias use very little power and have great flow).
Heaters--a HOT topic lately... many people have opinions on what's best, I like titanium heaters.
http://www.aquacave.com/searchresult.aspx?CategoryID=636 Other popular brands are Ebo Jager, Rena Smart heaters, etc.
Basically, I would go for a large canister filter and then decide what you want to supplement it with. The main brands you're going to want to look at are Fluval, Eheim, and Rena XP series. I would recommend between Fluval or Eheim... Eheims are a bit pricier, work well, hard to get parts for. Fluvals are cheaper, work well, easy to get parts for, but their smaller canisters do get some occasional bad reviews (their largest filter, the FX5, is a favorite of many here, including myself).
Do some more research and go from there.
