Why did it die
- Thread starter Macenzi
- Start date
;-) "like to think that". but knowing that this canister has never been opened for cleaning.
?
granted, still can be other factors. there almost always are. deaths are like examining car wrecks.
a chain of events. even when a fish jumps out.
I often forget to close openings, & just glad nothing jumped. I should know & do better too, but get distracted.
This OP can't clean his canister. man, eliminate that factor! even if it didn't cause this death.
From what I read, I am pretty sure the canister is the problem. Canister is the most mis used device because people think that with its large filter media, it doesn't need to be cleaned often and turn it into a septic storage tank. Canister disaster happened more often than people realized, because the evidence is gone when the water is tested after the wipe out. I blame it on the manufacturers to over market canisters with glamourous pictures and claims, and not providing enough warnings. HOBs and wet and dry are much safer systems as they are open to the atmostphere and can never go anearobic.
I'm not going to go into all HOB's, but an AC110 could indeed go anaerobic. As it's shipped with the spongy mechanical filter and ceramic bio media, when it's set up the mechanical portion is under water even when the power is shut off. If you let it sit long enough like that and then turn the filter back on, that stagnant nasty water that sat in the mechanical filter (if the mechanical media is old and nasty enough) could have gone anaerobic and it'll all get dumped into the tank when the power comes back on.
+1
I use canisters primarily for biological filtration. If something is up in the tank I might clean them more frequently, but usually I keep it to every 4-6 months and have had no issues. Power being out for 14 hours could be a long time if the tank is crowded, heavily planted (plants consume oxygen in the dark), hasn't had a water change recently, etc. Moreover, water continues to flow through a canister filter when it is off - not enough to get good surface disruption, but so long as your intake and output are SUBMERGED (i.e., your spray bar is NOT out of the water but UNDER IT) you get a natural siphon. Not enough to oxygenate a tank, but definitely enough to keep your filter from getting all kinds of gross. Another basic for canister filter maintenance, especially in planted aquariums, is a sponge pre-filter. Keeps the sludge OUT of your canister and extends the life of the impeller.
I know a lot of people go for super clean aquariums, UV sterilizers, etc., but honestly, in a lot of cases, less is more. Just overheard the tank maintenance people at the Annapolis Mall (the idiots from Tanked set up 2 aquariums there) talking about having to turn the UV sterilizers off because they destroyed the developing biological filtration even though they kept the tanks free of algae.
It's really hard to know what went on without knowing how many fish are in the tank, sizes, types, planted or not, inverts, etc...
It is possible your canister didn't really come back on after 12-14 hours - some of them take time to start back up if you're not there to help. That is the biggest PITA about canisters, in my opinion, getting them back up and running after performing maintenance.
my eheims have no probs or pause at all. I get more annoyance from HOB impellers after maintenance.
You shouldn't use AC as an example because AC is an unconventional HOB that functions more like a hang on back canister and the manufacturer proudly markets it as so. But it is still an open system because the lid is not air tight like a canister, and oxygen can still infiltrate into the submerged foam. In contrast, a canister is completely air tight or else it will leak like a fountain. The volume of the foam, after all, is still small compare with the volume of a canister, so even if a power outage prevents it from fully oxygenated, its tiny volume can't generate enough toxic gas to harm the fish. Moreover, you cannot be lazy and procrastinate cleaning an AC because a clogged up foarm will pop up and make a mess. Personally, I do not like AC because of its unconventional design that works too much like a canister.
Manaufacturers have been marketing canisters as great biological filter. Nonsense! You need good oxigenation to become a good biological filter. A closed system prevent good oxygenation, and a canister actuallly subtracts oxygen from the flow than adds to it. A dirty caniser will compete with the fish tank for oxygen, and this is why it is dangerous in a power outage. The best biological filter is wet and dry system, because the entire system is open to the atmostphere. Conventional HOBs have little to no biological filtration capacity because of the limited media volume, but it promotes biological filtration inside the tank by water movement.
I had a power cut got 36 hours, both my canisters are maintained monthly, and nothing died when the power came back on.
I have backup battery powered air stones and seeded sponge filters to carry me through the outage etc
Sent from my One using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
I have backup battery powered air stones and seeded sponge filters to carry me through the outage etc
Sent from my One using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
