Canister Filter - To Be Or Not To Be?

I've got a Fluval FX5 on my 90 gallon and it is just a straight nitrate factory. It is also really hard to clean. If I have a bunch of LR and a fuge with a Marineland 100 Skimmer will I be okay to ditch the FX5? Also would you recommend a really DSB? BTW I am redoing my whole tank right now and it crashed last week

 

patrick

sounds like a good plan, but the way you go about it depends on a number of things

because if you just unplug and take away, you may then be removing the majority of your biological filtering capacity and thus cause a secondary spike on nutrient levels

whats in your tank
how much rock do you have in there - an image would be great
how much water flow, movement do you have

what media is in the FX 5?

depending on bio load
removing 1/3rd of the contents of the FX 5
test for 2 weeks
then remove another 1/3rd of the contents
test for a further 2 weeks

if no issue, no ammonia/ Nitrite shows
then at that stage you could remove the filter - or remove the last of the media and instead use the device to run Carbon, Purigen, GFO etc - chemical filtration media

if you do remove the filter, you need to consider water movement and add a power head or wavemake to compensate for the flow you have sacrificed

thats how I would go about it if it where mine anyway

Steve