Will a buffering agent work as well in a canister filter?

[xander]

back story is i usually use coral sand to buffer my pH, GH and KH at around 7.5, 120 and 30ppm respectively but have recently removed it as i will be very busy starting in November and will not have the time to maintain a 360gallon tank with sand/substrate.

my question is, if i get another eheim 2260 canister filter and fill it with larger coral chips, will it work? or do the chips need a slow flowrate/lots of time to interact with the water?

also, asides from chemicals/additives, do you guys have any suggestions as to how i can buffer my pH and hardness levels?

 

[twilight zone]

I have a few large freshwater tanks running on different types of filtration. The one with substrate and wet/dry stays the most clear. I put the crush coral in the sump. It is a little work to vac the gravel once in a while but if you don't have plecos chewing on the driftwoods, it's much cleaner. It is very important to clean the prefilter or micro bags on a regular basis. I have another large tank without substrate that gets cloudy much faster then the one with the substrate. There is a wet/dry on that tank too. The substrate tends to trap/settle the particles better. The crush coral is in the sump also. My other tank which is on a fluval canister is also very clear. That tank have substrate and crush coral mixed in. That tank is a pleco tank with lots of driftwood. There is at least 25 decent size plecos in there. I never tried putting crush coral in the canister because I feel it may introduce too much calcium in the water. I maybe wrong but I know the crush coral in the tank do needs to be add once in a while because it dissolves. One guy i know use to use it in a canister filter to run it temporarily to bring up the PH. How I do it with the canister filter is that if I change water, I do not clean the filter on that day. I clean the filter maybe a few days later so the bacteria have a chance to work the new water. All the tanks I feed once a day moderately. All tanks have an air pump running just in case one system fails and it saved my fishes at least once or twice. Good Luck.

 

[aclockworkorange]

I have crushed coral in my canisters on my CA Cichlid tanks. Works just fine.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

Get some crushed corals, place them in a laundry bag and just dump it into the tank?
Remeber to cut off the metal zip and use a cable tie

 

[xander]

I have crushed coral in my canisters on my CA Cichlid tanks. Works just fine.

what substrate do you use?