Heaters and Filters

[itsgracia]

So I'm thinking of changing my heater and filter to the fluval e series heater and the fluval canister filter. What do you guys think? And I just thought about it right now but if I change the filter...wouldn't that disrupt my already cycled tank?

 

[meegosh]

Why are you switching heaters and filters? Are they not adequate enough for your tank? I personally have never used anything made by Fluval (no reason, just never bought anything). I use Marineland Stealth heaters and AquaClear HOB filters. Just my preference.

And yes, if you change filters you might experience a mini cycle. You can avoid this by running both filters for a month or two and then remove the old one.

 

[itsgracia]

actually i have nothing against my filter...its doing the job so far but i do only have 6 tiny Zebra Danios in there. But my heater i just dont like the fact that there is no number on the setting (does that sound stupid?). I have a 100W heater that came with the kit from walmart. Other than that, i just really want a more efficient and reliable equipment. I don't know maybe I'm just paranoid or just plain too new to these equipments...I am getting so addicted to my tank it's pretty ridiculous LOL!

 

[Crepe]

I have a fluval 305 (260gph) running on a 20 gallon at full blast, no throttling. It does a fine job. I keep panty hose wrapped around the intake's basket guard because I have really tiny fish. It's a good filter. Very quiet. If you're worried about cycles. Just take your HOB's media and cram it into the media trays of the fluval.

I would also pick up a bit of silicone grease at the home depot and slather the gasket and the aqualock's o-rings in it. I don't trust things that don't screw on.

 

[BigJim]

I'm have a Fluval E100 and I'm not a fan. It's unnecessarily large and complicated and it won't heat my 20H up to 76 degrees. It hovers around 72 degrees. To be fair, the 20H is under a window and I got the heater NIB off eBay, but the box looked like it had been stored underwater. However, I have a Hydor Theo 100W heater in my 29g that is 12 inches away from the 20H and I have no problems with maintaining 75 degrees.

 

[itsgracia]

How about the marineland stealth?

 

[itsgracia]

Got the Stealth today and I have to say this heater is most definitely shatter proof. I am loving the number dial instead of guessing and waiting with the old one. I just put it in there earlier so we shall see how it performs. For filter I was thinking of adding a Fluval 205 with my aqua-tech 20-40 and just run it together but I thought about the hosing and having too many things stuck to the back of the aquarium. Anyway my new question is, since I'm trying to achieve really good filtration in my system, I'm thinking about the 305 or even the 405 (that's not overkill is it?) and run it with the HOB filter for about a month and then eventually just have the Fluval. I read lots of good stuff about it but I want to make sure this is best. Im too overwhelmed with the whole sump thing and it seems that's it's only a biological filtration. Ok I'm starting to confuse myself here. Oh yeah 29 gal FW with only Zebra Danios (6) in there for now but will eventually have sone tetras, platies.

 

[amesdrew]

I have the same heater. I think it does a pretty nice job maintaining a temperature. Haven't had an issue yet.