Canister Filters

[Interested]

Hi all, I have 2 questions on canister filters. I have 2 Fluval 404's.

1. Should the water inside the canister be dumped during normal maintenance (or maybe less frequently). I do water changes once per week.

2. I thought I was running them empty but I opened one up yesterday to add some carbon and found that my wife had added some ceramic blocks a couple of weeks prior. Is this adding an extra layer of filtration to my live rocks, or is it hurting?

I currently have about 140 lbs of LR and whenever the wallet is willing, will get up to about 200 lbs.

Thanks!

 

[EL Diablo]

I have a Fluval 404 and I dump the water in the Filter out. The water has only been in the filter for as long as it's been shut off. no benefit in keeping it unless you want to use it to prime the Filter, I prime with a few cups of tank water.

I clean the filter once every month, I change the Carbon and
I change one side of the foam filter and leave the other side as is until the next change.

IMO you dont need the ceramic blocks

I do a water change every 3 weeks. I cut down from every 2 weeks and everything has been going great for over 4 months.

 

[MarkLehr]

Not only do you not need ceramic blocks, but they are in fact lowering your water quality. The live rock is more sufficient at processing ammonia with less resulting Nitrate output. Your ceramic blocks are directly adding Nitrate to the system as they break down ammonia/nitrite.

 

[RocketSeason]

get rid of the ceramic blocks. just run with the carbon. You can dump the water out if you want, but I keep mine in to help start up the unit after I am done cleaning.

I love my canister filter. it works great!

 

[Interested]

Thanks all. I will remove the blocks at next water change. I think I'm also going to dump my water. I can re-prime with premixed water.

 

[tee78]

Hello. I was told to remove the ceramic a little at a time, because you don't want to make a sudden change to your bio-load.

 

[JohnNLuc]

tee78 this is true but something as small as a bag of the blocks fluval gives you to put in the trays would have little to no effect on a 135G tank. Especially with the 120# of live rock he has.

 

[seaham358]

Agree with John on this..... What is there a cup of these things.... Not a major issue in a large tank. Good luck with the tank..

 

[Interested]

Only one of the trays in each filter has the blocks. I am not anticipating a major issue. For sure though, if something goes wrong you all can bet I'll document it here.