Fighting Plecos & Canister Filters

[urville]

man last night i put in this algae chip right. and my rubber swims up immediatly going to town on it. within seconds my bristle nose swims over and starts nudging. soon nudging becomes aggressive pushing and almost like he trying to "suck" him to death. and the rubber was totally passive, but kept trying to get back to the chip. then it becomes this tornado of action and swimming resulting in my rubber way up in the back corner and the bristle happily snogging the whole chip down.
never seen this before and thought it was hilarious if they do it again i'll try to snap some pics.

you know i always thought canister filters were for saltwater only. Apparently that may not be so. does or can anyone compare these to HOB filters either bag or wheel? opinions are appreciated.
ian

 

[mitche8359]

I've never had an HOB filter since I got back into the hobby 11 years ago. Strictly a canister enthusiast. Won't change cause I don't like seeing mechanics. I still want to get an inline heater to remove another bulky item from the tank.

 

[lmw80]

if you have 2 plecos in the tank, you can put in an algae disk for each of them, that way they don't have to fight over it.

Canister filters are used a lot for larger tanks and heavily planted tanks. I have never had a canister, I use a biowheel HOB, which I love for my 20 gallon. I am sure someone will chime in who has experience with both.

 

[Madame_X]

When I moved my pitbull from my 12 gallon tank into my 29, my rubber lip started picking on him. They have little nudge matches all the time on the glass.

It is kinda funny, but I sorta feel bad for my little pitbull. He doesn't seem as happy as he was in the 12 but after I put the brichardis in there, he had to be moved to a safer environment. I'm considering moving him to my 30 gallon tank but I'm not sure if my bristlenose would push him around. She doesn't get on the glass all that much and she leaves the otos alone (unless they try to get her algae wafer), but she's much bigger than the rubber lip so I don't know if it would just be a worse situation.

I have cannister filters on both of my planted tanks. Can't imagine using anything else...

 

[urville]

these two are the same size. it's weird. and ibreak the chips in half so they were fighting over nothing. but i notice they act like they cant see the schips. they get close and then suck around trying to find it. i guess i could see that since the configuration of their heads probably makes seeing directly in fron of themselves hard. but.... weirdos.... hehehehe

hmmm... so in conjunstion with the canister question has anyone tried using the same water and one sump with a canister across multiple tanks. the LFS here does this, just wondering, i mean i assume its a bad idea since one tank gets sick they all do. i'm just wondering if anyone has had success at this in the home.

ian

 

[Menagerie]

Even with 7 tanks, I would not do a sump across al my tanks. Mostly because my tanks are spread out among various rooms. Plus the threat of disease and my fish prefer different pH from each other.

 

[Idealconcepts]

Urville – I use a Peguin 125 on my 20gal grow out tank and works great because the tank is empty except for a heater, air-stones, and an occasional divider. I do use two Rena XP’3’s (each with a foam pre-filter to keep the sand out) on my 135Gal and I clean the XP3’s every 3 or 4 months, I could probably go 5 or 6 months before cleaning. The 135 is pretty heavily stocked with approximately 26 African Malawi Cichlids and about 10 other assorted fish but the two Rena XP3s keep the water crystal clear and are quieter than the two air wands I have in the tank. I would prefer to use a canister on any tank over 40gals where one can be used and I would recommend the Rena XPs. I’ve heard nothing but good things about the Rena XPs and have also heard a lot of good things about the Ehiems (SP) but they generally cost more than the XPs. There is a product review section at the follow website that I believe has user reviews on canister filters and other filters. http://cichlid-forum.com/index.php

 

[Guest]

Another vote against a sump filter for multiple tanks. Filtering muliple tanks, with various needs, on one filter leaves to much room for spreading desease or bachteria to other tanks.

This is'nt your local "daisy chain" pet store. Filter each individual tank seperately.

 

[urville]

oh no need to worry i would never use a community sump. just an outloud thought.

 

[vega]

Lfs using sum for multiple tank because its cheaper to operate. Those multi tank sum also will use UV. But norm the main show case tank will have its own filter system.

 

[bluedragon]

Once you use a canister you will never go back.