New canister filter, keep the carbon?

Ok, I just ordered my new canister filter for my 55 gal reef tank. I've recently started to add corals so I thought it would be a good idea to upgrade the filter equipment, I'll be running the fluval 306 canister along with my aquaclear 70 HOB and I'm wondering if should keep the carbon and the zero-carb in the filter set up or should I take it out? I've heard and read a lot of things that say carbon will take out a lot of beneificial stuff out of the tank and I don't want to mess it up.

 

Not too sure, but generally canister filters are a no no due to being detritus traps. But I would replace the carbon with some chemipure and clean out the sponges bi weekly to keep nitrates down.

 

Carbon use is fine, just change it every two weeks or so. It fills up and becomes biological filtration instead of chemical. Clean you filters well every two weeks of the can become detritus traps and nitrate generators.

 

Canister filter receive an unjust bad rap from alot of people as being nitrate factories, deterius traps, etc. Truth of the matter is that those problems come from a lack of user maintenance. People set them up and forget to check on them for months on end. If you dont take care of them then sure things happen. Its a mechanical filter, and jsut like anything mechanical if you dont take care of it and things will go wrong. There is nothing wrong with a mechanical/canister filer and using it for carbon or chemi-pure is a great added piece of filtration.

 

agreed...had a big'ol Fluval on my 55 gal...maint. is paromont...and the jewel of them, IMO is that you CAN change the media to fit your needs...and BTW.."CARBON GOOD"......GAC it ! ;D
...I had two trays carbon and two trays stone..clean twice a week...and btw, be sure you bag your carbon..oppps LOL.

 

I'll be honest I'm not a big fan of canister filters ..when I started in this salt water hobby I had a fluval and lost a ton of fish..I hope u have better luck but someone told me before I did it the key to this hobby is money spent wisely...just feel a wet dry is the better way to go....I hope u have better luck than I did

 

Ive been using a fluval 305. Ive had good luck with so far.[/IMG]

 

Agreed with all above that like em,I use a JBJ Reaction 4 stage with UV on my 55g,they're great filtration,but like anything they need routine maintenance to keep them optimal.I run coarse media sponge,polishing media,carbon and gfo in mine.I clean the media and rinse out the filter canister,gfo and carbon in used water change water every two weeks and replace carbon and gfo once a month or so.

 

yup : )

 

Thats like saying Powerheads are a no no because they create current :



If your filter captures the detritus, its doing it's job!

YOUR job is to clean the filter every 2-3 weeks. I can easily tell when to clean mine by it's output current.

I have a successful reef tank arguably overstocked too, and 60pnds of live-rock, and an Eheim Ecco Filter for 80 gal (on my 55g tank) are my primary methods of filtration (50% water changes every 3 weeks or so).


That said, one must understand HOW a filter in general works.

Carbon is used frequently as it has many 'receptors' on it. Think of every compound like a Lego. Carbon has the most little lego connectors over most any other 'piece'. This means that Carbon can 'connect to/grab' many pollutant 'legos' as they float by.

But once that Carbon Lego Piece is fully 'connected' it cannot accept any more, and is just a 'dead weight'. That's why you have to change your carbon.

I actually don't use carbon often because it can 'bond' with beneficial things as well.


Besides Carbon and the like which chemically bonds to pollutants, Filter's are good for mechanically separated pollutants (a fine net to catch any particle passing by) , and also 'Bio-filtration' ( extra nooks and crannies in 'bioballs'/'rock rubble'/'whatever' for beneficial bacteria to breed - the same theory that makes Live Rock attractive for water health)

I think a good filter is a cornerstone of a moderate sized tank... more important than a protein skimmer IMO.