Aaron Posted June 8, 2004 Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 ok so time has come to buy a canister filter have been looking around @ a few shops now i really like the eheim professional series but not the price and from what i'v read on the fourms i wont be going for a fluval so what else is there? havent seent the Aqua ones around yet but heard their good, where are they? Also what are the brands to stay away from probably looking @ spending round $300-400 (also note that the substarte in the tank will be sand so there must be parts available if i need them)............................... Ok now im gonna Hijack my own post and talk About another subject, i want to use a sump but wasn't sure how the water gets to the sump in the first place? do i need another canister filter or do i use a pump?and does the canister filter go from the sump to the tank or vice versa probably just use a 60ltr fish bin from payless plastics what do you reckon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted June 8, 2004 Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 eheim, eheim, eheim. cost is not an issue. if you go cheap now, you'll spend it when you replace your "kamakooza brothaz filterz" brand in 6 months time water to sump = gravity fed via overflow is safest method. if you pump water out, then you gotta have something else to pump it back in and thats when u need to start ensuring the same water volume/hour. even two identical pumps wont necessarily provide exactly the same volume! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henry Posted June 9, 2004 Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 There is a lot of information available on sump/trickle filter set ups on the internet.. search on google. As mentioned above, gravity is the safest method of getting water into the sump, as flow will stop during a power cut without draining or over filling the tank. Outflow can be achieved by drilling the side of the tank at the water line, drilling the bottom of the tank and inserting a drain pipe to sit at the water level, or using a siphon trap that ensures carries water over the side of the tank and ensures the siphon isnt broken if the power is disrupted. Plans for siphon traps are available on the internet. If you have a good quality pump returning water to your tank at a sufficient rate of flow, you should be able to build your own filter set up for a fraction of the cost of buying an external filter, and have heaps more media area.. you just need to design the sump so that water flowing from the tank trickles or passes through sponge, filter wool and biological media before gathering in the sump. This can be acheived by stacking containers or trays with perferated bottoms, or by forcing the water to flow through media in the sump. The only important consideration is spreading the water out evenly through the material so no 'dead' areas are created. Heaters, chemical filtration/buffers, C02 reactors and test equipment can all be in the sump and out of the tank. Adding a pre-filter sponge on your tank outflow (that can be cleaned out regularly) will allow the filter setup to go even longer between servicing. You can also set a slow fresh water drip into your tank or filter, and plumb an outflow into your sump that effectively changes the water continuosly. By setting the weekly inflow at 25% of the tank/sump total capacity, you eliminate the need for a separate weekly water change, and protect against evaporation water loss. I am yet to implement these FANTASTIC :lol: ideas in my own setup, but have done quite a lot of reading about sumps and trickle filters.. there are heaps of articles and plans out there. Henry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kim Posted June 9, 2004 Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 i was an ehiem lover but then i got in the Aqua ones , i have had them for 6 yrs now and they go well, only thing wrong with them is the taps and they are fixing that. i havent had one back you (touch wood) aqua ones are also knowen as via aquas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midas Posted June 10, 2004 Report Share Posted June 10, 2004 Not sure if this is what you were planning but I doubt if you would be able to use a canister filter to pump water from the sump back to the tank, unless the sump was above the water level. Otherwise the flow from the filter would be much reduced (or may not even produce any flow at all) as canister filters are designed so that they return water to the same height at which they take it from, they do not make good pumps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted June 10, 2004 Report Share Posted June 10, 2004 You could grab an inexpensive powerhead and use it as a booster pump. SOmething like a Via Aqua VA1300 is pretty cheap and would be working at a negative head so you should get good a little better than either the powerhead or cannister are rated at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted June 14, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2004 mmmm. thanx for the replies was looking the other day @ hollywood fish farm and saw some power heads there the other day so i might look into that! Also the had Aqua one canister filters there for $124.95 ......dam cant rember the turnover/flow rate though pretty sure it was 1000lph anyways i also asked about sumps and they said they could build me one for $130 which was about 80 or 100ltrs might give tough tank another try aswell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kim Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 Aaron they are 1000l/h we are all selling them cheep at the moment mine are a bit cheeper than hollywoods but not by much, they are a change over in filters so we all got them cheep and are selling them cheep well shocks last! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 1000 litre an he at no head. Via Aqua are just another 'cheap' branded pump, like many others out there, and I am speaking from experance. Buy the ehiem, you will never regret it, it will work forever. My experance with Fluval is also favourable, I consider the fluval to be a reasonable option, I use one. You can't really use the canister filter as a pump from a sump to the tank, they are not powerfull enough and are designed to work in a 'closed loop' manner, using them to pump head pressure is not going to give results. You could follow Iras advice and use a powerhead to 'boost' the flow, not sure how well this would work, but its reaks of 'ghetto' to me. I am sure there are a dozen other ghetto things you could do with celloptape, blue tack, power heads, a pair of siccors and some pipe cleaners. I would reccomend against it. Sumps are great, but I don't think they are a good idea for freshwater. The overflow system doesn't work as well as it could, and there are issues with 'comb size' because often the fish are smaller. Also there is algae problems and a few other issues. Sumps in freshwater are best left to the experts, or to people running several tanks with the same water paramaters. Buy that ehiem or fluval. Pies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kim Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 i was ehiem all the way but the via aquas are good i have had one running for over 6yrs now and no problems , i have had fluval and the new ones are not as good as the old ones , i have had alot of the fluvals back. ehiem are good filters but they just dont have the flow for some of the big tanks around now, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Just avoid the wet/dry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted June 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 cool thanx for your thoughts ppl you just made i decision that much harder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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