is a canister filter overkill for a 29g community tank?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

yankeeslover

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jan 4, 2012
Messages
107
i have never used a canister filter before..not sure what the positives are with one.. right now i have a cheap topfin 30 on my bundle tank.. as i was saying on a previous thread i was looking at a AC70 or whisper EX70 for a small 29 gallon community... now i also see a cheap aquatop cf-300 canister filter for only alittle more...how are these filters? what do i gain from a canister filter? I do not use my own media, i only use what i buy in store as i dont have time or means to make my own.... is a canister filter overkill? do they take up alot of room? i have a fish stand cabinet style, does it go on my floor or can i put it in the cabinet right underneat the tank and close the doors? im sorry, so new to filters
 
I have canisters on two of my tanks now, I've only only recently started using canisters but I don't think I'll be going back to HOB's any time soon, so as far as benefits go they basically give you the maximum biological filtration for the buck and as as many media options as you can think of depending on the style of the filter you can use sponges or floss for mechanical filtration and bio-balls or ceramic rings for biological there are a lot of choices, personally I have a Rena xp3 running a 90 gallon with 2 cories, 3 Celebes rainbows that were spawned in that tank,5 otocinclus, and @ 150 or so guppies that just keep multiplying canister keeps up just fine, the other tank I have with a canister is a 26 gallon bow front I just started up chistmas morning stocked so far with 3 threadfin rainbows each @ 1.5 inchs and I'm running a fluval 304 on that and it's centainly not to much flow. when I need to do maintenance I just uncouple the hoses and take the whole canister to the bathtub and do the cleaning there nice and easy, haven't had to do any maintenance on the fluval yet but the rena xp3 only needs attention once a month or less so they're really easy to deal with, hope this helps in your decision making process.

by the way I don't have any experience with the aquatops yet but a lot of the folks on here seem to love them, which is a pretty big vote of confidence IMO
 
oh and yes I keep min under the tank in the stand like so
 

Attachments

  • image-382887239.jpg
    image-382887239.jpg
    42.2 KB · Views: 181
  • image-2642517135.jpg
    image-2642517135.jpg
    42.2 KB · Views: 167
Filtration Equipment

i have never used a canister filter before..not sure what the positives are with one.. right now i have a cheap topfin 30 on my bundle tank.. as i was saying on a previous thread i was looking at a AC70 or whisper EX70 for a small 29 gallon community... now i also see a cheap aquatop cf-300 canister filter for only alittle more...how are these filters? what do i gain from a canister filter? I do not use my own media, i only use what i buy in store as i dont have time or means to make my own.... is a canister filter overkill? do they take up alot of room? i have a fish stand cabinet style, does it go on my floor or can i put it in the cabinet right underneat the tank and close the doors? im sorry, so new to filters

Hello yank...

IMO, the canister equipment is too pricey and the time needed to service it isn't necessary for a small tank or the average tank keeper. I have large, planted tanks and use the standard hang on the back (HOBs) and they work fine. They're very efficient and the price is reasonable. I've had some of the filters for close to 8 years and haven't replaced them.

I personally like the Aquaclear brand. An AC 50 will give your tank good filtration and that coupled with weekly water changes of half the tank water will keep water conditions very stable for your fish and plants.

B
 
I use a Fluval 305 on my 37 gallon tank. If I could afford it, ALL of my filters would go to canisters. No matter what brand you choose you just have to make sure to assemble it correctly or it will leak. Also, a bit of petroleum jelly on the seals helps keep them in place and prevents them from drying out.
 
yankeeslover said:
i have never used a canister filter before..not sure what the positives are with one.. right now i have a cheap topfin 30 on my bundle tank.. as i was saying on a previous thread i was looking at a AC70 or whisper EX70 for a small 29 gallon community... now i also see a cheap aquatop cf-300 canister filter for only alittle more...how are these filters? what do i gain from a canister filter? I do not use my own media, i only use what i buy in store as i dont have time or means to make my own.... is a canister filter overkill? do they take up alot of room? i have a fish stand cabinet style, does it go on my floor or can i put it in the cabinet right underneat the tank and close the doors? im sorry, so new to filters

I have 3 aquatop aka sun sun aka proaqua canisters. I have a 1500L/h that I've had for 9-10 months, a 1000L/h for a month and a 2000L/h (HW-404A) that I setup just this morning. Never had a problem with them. They filter well and you can only hear them if you listen really carefully. Depending in what size you get they have 3 or 4 baskets for media. I run (in direction of water flow) bottom sponge, middle floss and top bio media. I have a mixture of ceramic rings, bio balls and pot scrubbies. I run a 1000L/h canister on my 65L (17g) tank and I don't think it's overkill. :) All mine fit under the stands nicely. I prefer canisters over HOBs because they don't require as much maintenance (I clean mine once every 1-3 months), they fit a lot of media and don't clutter the inside/top of the tank.
 
LOVE canister filters. I even have one on a 10G ;) I've got mollies in there and they're poop machines so the canister provides perfect filtration for them.

IMO if you've got the cash for a canister, definitely grab one. They require such minimal maintenance and you can have such a wide variety of media in it.
 
LOVE canister filters. I even have one on a 10G ;) I've got mollies in there and they're poop machines so the canister provides perfect filtration for them.

IMO if you've got the cash for a canister, definitely grab one. They require such minimal maintenance and you can have such a wide variety of media in it.

Totally agree with you. I have a Rena XP3 on my Wifes 29g planted beta tank. You can never have too much filtration and there are many options when it comes to canisters.
 
Back
Top Bottom