possibilities for new filter

ok so i have a crappy canister filter and im guessing thats whats putting the nitrates into my water and causing algae blooms basically because i cant think of anything else. i use RO/DI water i have new lights i manually remove algae i use an algae starving product i just put in a small refugium tonight and i dont know why the hell i still have GHA. ARGGGG!!!! so back to the hole filter thing i want to switch out my filter anyone have any good filters that arent canisters that are around 200$??

 

Yep, buy $200 worth of live rock. Best filter you can buy. What skimmer do you have?

 

no skimmer

 

There's your answer right there. A good skimmer will out do a can any day. If you have bio-media in your canister be sure to remove it a little bit at a time though.

 

This is my take.... W/D filter are very good at breaking waste down to nitrates. Canister filters are not "nitrate factories nor are W/Ds.... What happens is bacteria will grow where ever the food is. W/Ds and canisters use mechanical filters to trap detitus and bacteria will colonize this and break it down.

Nitrates only come from the food you put in the tank. That food source is ate by everything eventually becoming waste. So you will only have the nitrate level you put in. Canisters and W/Ds do not "produce" any more nitrates than what the tank produces.

Here is the problem, the oxygen loving bacteria break down waste to nitrates and release that to the water column. The only way to remove them is with water changes or algae, but that might not be enough. What you need is sand beds and live rock. The problem is all the bacteria uses oxygen to break down waste, but because they live in the filter, they alwats have oxygen (and so does the live rock).

The only other way to get rid of nitrates in oxygen hating bacteria. What happens in live rock is the pores are so deep, oxygen loving bacteria break down waste to nitrate, they also deplete all the oxygen. Then deeper in the oxygen hating bacteria grow and break down the nitrates. Sand beds do the same thing. Both reduce nitrates by providing oxygen depleted zones.

So... the only thing you can do is to change the canister filter weekly to keep it from going biological. Gets exspensive. You will be mechanically filtering waste out before it breaks down. That will allow your LR to do it's job.

The other thing is ditch the canister and get a skimmer. A skimmer will remove solid and disolved waste before it breaks down, then you just clean it out. And again your live rock will start to do it's job. Does that make sense.

 

ya thanks alot i will invest in a skimmer now k+ any suggestions on a good HOB skimmer?

 

bump

 

I have a Reef Octopus bh-1000. It works great, Aqua c is another on I see a lot of good reviews on.

 

is that in like the 200$ price range?

 

Yup, this is where I got mine, and they are a sponsor of 3reef. $159.00

Reef Octopus BH 1000 Hang on Back Protein Skimmer by CoralVue - AquaCave