Canister or No Canister

waltmag41

New Member
Hey all.....been a while since I last posted. Tank had it's 1yr anniversary a few weeks ago and all has been going great....until today when my canister started to leak. I think the issue is easily solvable (replace/lube gasket) but I have been wondering for some time if it's actually even needed. Tank info is as follows

60 gal
Eshopps HOB skimmer
Sunsun canister
60 lbs of live rock
2 hydor powerheads

Livestock:
2x green chromis
2x ocarellis (so??) clowns
2x PJ cardinals
1 yellow tang
Various inverts

Parameters
NH3 & NO2....0ppm
NO3....25ish ppm
SG.... 1.025
pH....8.2
dkH....8-9

I have been using the canister as a reactor for some time now with phosguard,carbon and purigen in the hopes of reducing the nitrate....can I ditch the canister or is it worth keeping for what I've been utilizing it for?
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
Generally canister filters are at best OK on a SW reef. Unless you clean them about once a week, they become nitrate factories. Note how your nitrate level is a bit high. In your case the chamical media is likely also acting as mechanical media and trapping a lot of dirt.

Now if money was no object, I'd say get yourself an overflow and sump and a return pump and switch to that. Then get some media reactors and feed them from the return pump. This would work well but be very expensive.

The best thing you can do here is continue to use the canister and make sure it and it's media is cleaned often. If your not already doing it may help to add some mechanical media so most of the dirt gets trapped them.

Now I see one other potential issue. You have a yellow tang. These are big dirty fish and may be a big contributor to your nitrate issue.
 
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waltmag41

New Member
Tang is a new addition (Mother's Day gift for my wife). Nitrates have been at this level for the life of the tank. I do weekly 15-20% water changes (sometimes miss a week but never go longer then 2 weeks) but I clean canister and skimmer weekly. I had mechanical filtration in the canister but NO3 levels rose to over 50ppm which is the reason I switched to all chemical. I agree that sump, etc would be ideal but don't have room with current stand for one....it is something that I am hoping to transition to at some point but not quite yet.
 

mr_tap_water

Well-Known Member
Hi there if the canisters have always worked for you I think you should just get another one otherwise where are you going to put all that media that you have, and if you just stop using the media you have could end up with more problems. And this is just my opinion I believe canisters are not nitrate fractures, if used correctly ,I used two on my system and is heavily stocked with fish and clean once a month and my No3 is 5,
You just need to get the right No3 remover for it to work completely the product purigen is obviously not working for you as a No3 remover. And need to find a another product that does.


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