canisters

[Mondo]

how do they work?

are they noisy?

[Merrilyn]

Hi Mondo, welcome to the forum.

Canisters are great. They are simply a pump that pushes water through filtering medium, usually from coarse to fine; and then onto a form of media that is home to your bacteria colony that changes the ammonia from fish waste into nitrite and then finally into nitrate.

Your canister filter is therefore a mechanical filter, in other words is removes floating particles from the water, keeping it crystal clear, and also a biological filter, converting the waste into a harmless substance that can be removed by water changes.

Canister filters are rated by the amount of water they pump in an hour, for example, 1200 litres and hour, or 300 gallons an hour. Remember, in most cases those figures are ratings without any filter media in the canister. Adding filter floss etc will slow the rate down quite a bit.

Most canisters are quite silent.

HTH :P

[sonflowerjoela]

Hello, I've really enjoyed reading all the ???'s and answers. Is there one particular canister that is better than others? Or are they all pretty much the same? Also I was wondering how and where to find aquarium safe peat moss?

[SandyLynne]

Here is a link to a poll on canisters I posted a while ago, it may give you a little info.

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=68584&highlight=#68584

[sonflowerjoela]

Thank you SandyLynne for the response that was a very helpful site. I have another question. I've noticed I have replies to other posts I've made but I don't find them anywhere and they arent' in my email so where are they? Yes I'm a newb. LOL

[Merrilyn]

I've noticed I have replies to other posts I've made but I don't find them anywhere

A very warm welcome to the forum. And don't worry, we were all new once. How do you know you have replies to posts you've made? Are you finding that information somewhere?

To try to answer your question, replies to posts are usually made straight after your post, in the same area that you placed your question.

Are you perhaps talking about Personal Messages? Other members can send you messages, and they go into your private In Box where you can log in and read your messages and reply to them.

HTH

[sonflowerjoela]

where it shows my name as last person to post anything in mean discus I clicked my name and it showed i had made 3 posts and i had 3 responses to one and 5 to another. I got the one from SandyLynne and you just not the rest so i'm not sure where they are??? Thank you so much for your help though!!! :D

[Merrilyn]

Ahhh okay. I see what you mean. I just did the same thing.

What that shows is the number of replies in that whole thread, including the posts that were there before you even asked a question.

If you have a question about something, it's probably better to start a new topic, with your own title heading it.

That way you'll probably get lots more replies to your question, than if it's half way down the thread in someone else's post.

[sonflowerjoela]

Ok I get it now!

[Skulljug]

I am going to vote for Eheim!

They are more expensive but are total quality. I used to work at an aquarium on the weekends (My wife had just had a baby and we needed the extra $$$) I noticed we stocked spare parts for all the filters we sell except the ehiems - the reason being they just keep on going.

The real thing to compare is the amount and quality of the media. Eheims have stacks and it's great stuff! The 2217 contains 6 litres of bio media alone - The equivilent Aquaones and Fluvals have less than 2 litres (This is just an estimate as they do not advertise the amount - Eheim does for obvious reasons)

Just my humble opinion - but spend the extra $$$

[Del]

I second that - Eheim - I have had one for 2 years with no noise and no problems!

DEL

[Viper]

I third that ! - I've had my Eheim for 10 years now - still going as strong as the day I bought it!

[Marinemom]

Eheim all the way. You will not be sorry.

Marinemom