Getting there slowly - a few more questions

[Charlie]

Got the 46 bow up and running. It will be a FOWLER tank initially.

Water declorinated
Instant Ocean salt added - Hygrometer reading 1.021
40lbs of agra-live Fiji sand added without rinsing
Temp adjusted to 79 deg
AquaClear 300 running with sponge, Chemi-pure & bio media
Dropped in large shrimp yesterday
Placed 10lbs LR with heavy purple coraline coverage into tank

Just received a used Eheim 2227 Wet/Dry which I bought on Ebay. Filter was loaded (both trays) with Eheim substrate, apparently used for some period but now clean and dry.

I tested the filter with a big bucket of tap water. Here is what I noticed: The filter will discharge at a fairly slow rate for several minutes. Then a tall float will rise and cause the pump to pump FASSST for about 10 seconds. Float drops and pump runs rather slow for several minutes again.

Few questions:

1. Is this the way the Eheim 2227 Wet/dry is supposed to work?
2. Should I use the original substrate or buy all new media?
3. Should I use only substrate in the two baskets or should I be using sponges, carbon or anything else in the Eheim/
4. How often will I need to open the Eheim for routine maintenance?

Appreciate you help - Charlie

 

[melosu58]

Moving this to appropiate forum.

 

[tecwzrd]

Welcome to AA

Do you have any fish/inverts yet? (please don’t until tank is cycled) 10 lbs of lr is not enough to cycle your 46 gal tank. I’d either add 60+ lbs of uncured lr or a couple of cocktail shrimp to start it.

I’m not sure if your canister is working correctly but IME if your flow is not steady you could have air getting in there from an improper seal. I’d recheck all your seals to make sure the canister is closed correctly.

Any media stored within the canister will slowly trap waste and build up no3. Cleaning/replacing media weekly will help to reduce it but having 1.5+ lbs of lr per gal along with a quality skimmer would provide all the biological filtration needed.

If you’re not prepared for that kind of investment at this point ($300+ for the lr & $150+ for the skimmer) then your canister will be needed for biological filtration and the media should be kept in the trays. When cleaning media/sponges make sure you rinse in your old SW when you do a PWC. Rinsing in FW will kill off beneficial bacteria.

 

[Charlie]

Tecwiz,

No inverts or fish. Just one headless large, raw shrimp lying on the bottom. Cycle hasn't started yet.

This will be a FO tank with minimal LR, maybe 10lbs or so. Just received the Corallife skimmer. It will be installed soon.

I bought Bio-Spira but haven't used it yet. Some aquarists don't seem to have much faith in it. I don't know, but it seemed to work well in my cichlid tank.

 

[bonnie3188]

I am using the same cannister filter on my 75g.

This might help you...

1. The slow constant flow then real fast flow for a short period is the correct function of this cannister filter. You can hear it fill up then when it gets to a certain level it will empty, then fill up again. This is the way it's been designed and it sort of doubles as a wave maker by doing this.

2. Given that its dried, this could be a good opportunity to replace the 'substrat' that comes with the cannister filter. i mean nothing will be alive on it if its dry, so you may as well. but thats just my opinion

3. The LFS said to just use the recommended media, i think this is actually vital to the cannister filters performance, so i'm not sure if other forms of media will be better.

4. Don't take my advice on this because i think it seems untrue, but the owner of my LFS said that it only needs to be cleaned every 6 months or so. He could be right because he does use these filters on a few of the shops tanks.

Hope that helps a bit

 

[tecwzrd]

Sorry, missed that you dropped in the shrimp.

Sounds like your OK on the canister per bonnie's comment. Makes sense since it’s advertised as a wet/dry canister and not just a canister. It would have to drain and refill in order for the media to act like a wet/dry sump would.

I wouldn’t trust cleaning every 6 months though since the waste build up would be pretty extreme even after a month of running. Make sure you keep your Aquaclear 300 clean of waste as well.

The Coralife skimmer will help and putting pre-filter sponges on your intakes which you could rinse off every couple of days would help prevent waste from getting trapped within the canister and Aquaclear.

Even with the HOB and canister I’d still get another power head or two to increase your water movement.

If keeping this tank FO then I’d try to keep your no3 levels at/below 20 ppm though light stocking/feeding and frequent pwc.

Do you know what kind of stock you want?

I’ve used Bio-Spira and my tank still took about 3 weeks to fully cycle but if you can’t return it then it wouldn’t hurt to add to the tank.