Need canister advice from canister owners

[yellow submarine]

What's the BEST canister to buy.... if I JUST want to have carbon media and bioballs and have all the FOAM removed.

(I dont want any foam in the canister because it just another thing I have to clean the gunk/crap out of and have to replace foam every 3-4months... no thanks, my reef will do just FINE without FOAM-filtering).

I have a 75gal reef, not drilled, completely encased, and no plans to change it. I have two SuperSkimmer at either end of the tank and those do very well.

I thinking of buying a canister because I want to add carbon media to reduce the SMELL of the reef thats in my main livingspace (greatroom) ... actually I dont smell anything unless I'm directly over the tank BUT the WIFE with the supersmeller nose can smell stuff when she first walks in the house. (but she can also smell someone smoking a cigarette 50+yards away from her).

I have my eye on either the Fluval 405 or the Fluval FX5.

Need opinions from actually owners of canisters.

[Hop]

I run eheims on all my FW tanks. OK, I only have one now, but back about 8 or ten years ago I had 2 55s, a 110 and a 125, all with eheim pros.

If I was budget minded I would go with the filstars.

Fluvals gave me a head ache years ago, but it looks like they have changed their design for the better.

[Fly Guy]

Two little fishies phosban reactors. Run your carbon or GFO very efficiently and cost $35 bucks.

If you plumb a 1/2" line with a ball valve off of your return pump to run them they dont even take a little pump to run them

[Loverotties]

I run it with a poly filter on and offAnd sometimes with Carbon,trate and/or phate remover.

[MIO]

Just Curious why do you want a canister?

[icebear]

Originally Posted by Hop

Fluvals gave me a head ache years ago, but it looks like they have changed their design for the better.

LOL, yeah, they have Self prime button and no more skinny O-ring to fall off

i have an old style that i use for circulation, just cause i have it and i spent that $$ on it... and though i run it empty i check into it every now and then, a thing i always dread....


anyway....

[ILLBKING]

I have a couple of Fluval's 404's older, they work great, I still use them on my sump sometimes just to do as you want to. I don't leave them hooked up, just run them every other week for a day or so.

[Kevin1000]

A rena filstar canister filter will work nicely for what you have in mind. I use one on my tank primarily for some surface aggitation and running phosban or whatever on occasion. One of the things I like about this setup is how easy it is to change filter media .. no mess (water), hassle etc, in/out in less than 2 minutes .. big improvement over several of the other canister filters I have had over the yrs. As I recall Petsmart still matches their online prices when you bring in a copy of the webpage ... s/b a major price reduction from the store price ... worth a look.

Hope this helps.

[dorian965]

good call kevin, i like my rena xp3. i use it for carbon and also have live rock in it. easy to change media and i always find a ton of pods in it.got mine from bigals for 100 bucks. petsmart would be the way to go. price matching is great!

[tdwyatt]

hmmmm...


If you have an old one, I can see using it to avoid spending any more money on somethng to help with your carbon filtration or a little extra circulation, but I don't think I'd consider getting a new one for a reef system, even for filtration to poliush the tank water. If you want somthing for carbon, get a reactor like the phosban reactor product: cheaper, easier to set up and change the carbon, and easer to adjust.

Did I mention cheaper?