Proper canister filter maintenance

[oscarmeir]

I know this is a debated issue on this forum, but frankly I'm getting a bit confused by all the opinions here, so please be nice and help me out of this mess!

I turned my 90 gallon freshwater into SW about 3 months ago. Tank and all equipment were obviously scrubbed down with freshwater. I have about 45kg of live rock and 20kg of live sand in there. (anyone able to venture a guess how much water that leaves me?)I let it cycle for a month, all parameters fell to zero and began stocking. Over the past two months I added 3 Ocellaris Clownfish, 4 Orchid Dottyback, 1 BiColor dwarf angel, and an engineer goby who I haven't seen since the day I put him in. I also have a few assorted corals.

Here's the situation; lately my Nitrates have been up, and I suspect I made a beginners mistake. As I do not have room currently for a sump I've been using my Eheim 2227 and Atman EF2 both filled with ceramic media, sponges and floss. Additionally I'm running a Reef Octopus BH2000 skimmer and two power-heads, strong ones, I forget exactly the fph.

Now I've been doing 10 percent weekly water changes but recently my Nitrates have been climbing, actually soaring might be a better term, at last check they were at about 40ppm. Ammonia and Nitrites are at zero thankfully.

Here's my questions:
Am I right in assuming the canisters are probably the source of my troubles?
As a sump is currently out of question, are the canisters causing more harm than good?
If there is a point in using the Canisters what would the ideal media be, and how often need it be changed.

Any input is appreciated.
Thanks!

[thegrun]

Yes, it is likely that if you are not cleaning/swapping out your filters every 3-4 days they are the source of your nitrates. With as much rock as you have in the system I would also take out the ceramic media as you have plenty of rock for the bacteria to colonize and the rings tend to trap detritus. If you are going to keep the sponge filters and floss you have to clean them regularly, if that is too much work ditch them altogether. You could still run the canister filters for water movement, although they are not efficient for that purpose. You might keep one on line and use carbon, swap the other for an in tank powerhead.

[HUNTER1]

I ran canister on my 40g with no sump and skimmer without nitrate problem. I cleaned the canister once every two weeks, I also had carbon gfo and Purigen in it.

[oscarmeir]

Yes, it is likely that if you are not cleaning/swapping out your filters every 3-4 days they are the source of your nitrates. With as much rock as you have in the system I would also take out the ceramic media as you have plenty of rock for the bacteria to colonize and the rings tend to trap detritus. If you are going to keep the sponge filters and floss you have to clean them regularly, if that is too much work ditch them altogether. You could still run the canister filters for water movement, although they are not efficient for that purpose. You might keep one on line and use carbon, swap the other for an in tank powerhead.

3-4 days!!! Ooops!
Is there a point to run them with just sponges and floss and carbon? cleaning weekly?
When you say to switch one for a power head does that mean 3 heads all together?
Thanks

[thegrun]

I do like to run carbon if you are keeping corals, it reduces the chemicals they produce trying to fight each other off. If you don't have a reactor you can use one of the canisters for carbon filtration. You don't list the types of coral you are keeping, but in general you should have at least 30 times your DT size in flow per hour total (2,700 GPH). That flow can be a combination of powerheads, return pump or in your case canister filters. So if you decide to remove one of your canister filters, you need additional powerhead flow to compensate for the canister filter no longer providing water movement. The flow is best coming from at least two different locations which helps stir things up so you can use two, three or four powerheads to provide your flow.

[oscarmeir]

Ok thanks!

[Art13]

I did the same as you and i'm running a canister but i only put in charcoal and a biological medium, i'm currently using matrix that i just swapped out my bio balls that came with the eheim for. i found the floss to be a bit much to clean and doesn't do much for me.

[orteh22]

If you do not have a sump, where did you place your skimmer?

[Art13]

I have a hang on back model.

[oscarmeir]

OK same here. Got a Reef Octopus BH-2000
So I guess my question now is - bear with me here - with all the live rock in the tank, and a good hang on skimmer - the reef octopus is rated for more than my 90 gallon, and if i have good circulation - and as my lfs claims - I can put a sack of carbon in the return part of my skimmer, so... Do i really need the canisters at all?

And again I don't get it. What would a sump do for me aside for adding volume and hiding equipment? Is there an additional form of filteration that I'm missing without it?

Please don't tell me what worked for you, I'm glad ya'all defy nature, I'm trying to understand the science behind the equipment and then I'll be making a somewhat educated decision.

Thanks again.

oh and in response to Thegrun I have
A nice Zoa Colony,
Elegance Coral
one branching hammer
a green Hammer
one Frogspawn Coral
a green haddons carpet
a bubble tip anemone

[DerekFF]

You don't NEED the canister, but without it you have no mechanical filtration.

I'd ditch the floss and go with filter pads/sponge and bio media in the canister. If you ditch the canister you have nothing left in your tank for particulate filter and it will all stay and decompose in your tank. If you don't clean your canister often it doesn't make a difference what you do since its(detritus and particulates) still "in your tank" so to say by being in an uncleaned canister that flows it back into the tank. I'd just use the canister for mechanical filtration since you have lots of rock. I clean my canister every Friday or Saturday when I do my water change.

Also sumps don't offer anything more than you mentioned other than oxygen exchange. But some tanks have more than enough with the surface agitation and skimmer anyways. That's about the only other benefit other than ease of cleaning. Additional water volume=stability=greater reef keeper margins of error.

[Art13]

If you have enough biological filtration within your tank and a skimmer along with a low bio load in the tank, i don't see a problem removing the canister, i only use mine as I am not trusting enough of my tank yet to handle the full bio load of it. A sump is more or less about the same as a canister, but you will have more area in it for filtration and also usually a spot for the skimmer. Most people will opt for a refugium once they do reading on both. A refiguim is i believe a better nutrient exporter as well as keeping colonies of pods in them, macro algae will remove the nitrates and phosphates naturally, and yes, it adds more volume to the tank and that can be helpful in keeping your parameters and nutrients in line. the way to look at it is one person has a 30 gallon tank, the other person has a 45 gallon tank, both with the same livestock, but the 45 gallon will have a slower rate of increase in say nitrate than a 30 gallon due to the amount of water it can be dispersed in. same can go the other way with say calcium, a 45 gallon will have more available than a 30 so it will be depleted less. I hope this helps out. One more benefit of a refugium, you can cycle the light for it on at night to stabalize the oxygen level in the tank, as it tends to go down with the lights out, and that will help keep ph in balance.