Tropical Fish Forums

[ant1]

does anyone have any experience of aqua 1 canister filters,I am running an aquis 550 in a 108x45x45cm aquarium and it seems to need cleaning every week or so.this seems a little too often for my liking and was wondering if it is inadequate for the size of tank.

[diademhill]

It is rated for a 100 litre tank with small fish.
Your tank is about 220 litres and what fish do you have & what media in the filter?

[ant1]

ah I see,the tank was effectively nuked as I had a snail problem and I ve left it for a while to make sure there are no more snails,the filter has ceramic media,one coarse sponge and carbon in there with a fine sponge.there are only 6 black widow tetras,2 pristela tetras and a peppered corey in there but like I say I clean it out regularly rinsing everything with aquarium water.I guess a larger filter is in order would a fluval 4 be up to the job as I'm totally redoing the tank anyway.

[diademhill]

Canister filters don't need rinsing regularly -just rinse the prefilter once a month with that stocking.
A fluval 4 would be fine but running both filters would be better.

[ant1]

I thought it a bit odd that a cannister filter needed rinsing so often hence the question.I do have an internal filter and power heads kicking around but they intrude into the space the fish have.after reading through the forums I'm thinking of going the sump filter route but does'nt that require a cut out on the tank for overflow?.


but on the other hand there are a range of small pond filters available that encorporate internal uv sterilizers along with interchangeable media and sponges that could be mounted above the tank with a small-ish pump in the tank.

good/bad idea?.

[diademhill]

Hardly worth using a sump for such a small tank and there are no suitable pond filters.

You could put a UV in the line from the external & use the finternal too or you could buy a bigger canister.

How are you cleaning the tank?

[ant1]

well there's no media or decoration for a start as the snails got in to every crevice and were removed.weekly water changes and rinsing the filter when when the flow drops are the regime at the moment.

the filter for the pond I have is no more than twice the size of my cannister for the tank and keeps the water crystal clear but it is mainly wildlife orientated and is pretty small.I'd say about three times larger than my tank.

a small pump and the next model down from my pond filter would probably do the trick with a healthy dose of my filter media would do the job.the only other thing would be to buy a shed load more ceramic nodules and bob should be my aunty.

[diademhill]

Have you been cleaning the substrate or tank bottom when changing the water?

Pond filters are noisy indoors.