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NFC: Re: Getting there



Hi Nickel and welcome aboard.
 
There are merits to both kinds of filters.  Consider carefully the natural environment of the fishes you plan to keep when making your decision.
 
Power filters tend to have very high flow rates, and not much surface area for filtration.  They are great for smaller tanks (55 gallons and under) especially for recreating an environment with a lot of flow.
 
Cannister filters have a lot of surface area for biological and mechanical filtration, but usually fairly low flow rates (I stress the word "usually", as there are exceptions).
 
If I were keeping fishes from a fast flowing stream, I'd lean towards power filters.  The maintenance schedule will have to be a little more rigorous but the tank will be more natural with the faster moving water.
 
If I were keeping pond fish I'd lean more towards a cannister filter which will maintain a calm clear aquarium.
 
The aquaclear 300 has a great benefit in that the filter media has much greater surface area than the pads used by most power filters.  On the downside, the maintenance is messier.  Also sometimes the filter media is hard to find.  I'm using Whisper 5 and Whisper 4 power filters everywhere, mostly because of the easy maintenance and readily available media.
 
Eheim makes some nice cannister filters but it has been years since I've used one.  Fluval is another manufacturer in this area that is worth looking into.  Maintenance used to be a real mess with cannisters but the newer designs I've seen are really nice.  Make sure to get shutoff valves for your intake and return lines.  The newer Eheim's store their media in a nice easily removable basket that you can carry to the laundry basin and hose down.

Chris Hedemark - Hillsborough, NC
http://yonderway.com
----- Original Message -----
From: nickel55
To: nfc at actwin_com
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 9:55 PM
Subject: NFC: Getting there

I guess it was about a year ago when I found the NFC site, while I was searching the net for something on native fish, thinking I would like to some day soon set up an aquarium. I have'nt yet become a member because I figured I'd wait until I at least had a tank, well as of Christmas, I now have a 38 gal tank with hood and stand.
Everyone on the list has been very helpful with my many questions and I now have my choices down to two,for which type of filters I will use. If I go with a power filter I'll buy the Aqua Clear 300, but I am starting to lean towards a canister filter and my choice there would be the Eheim Plus 2213.
So it looks like I'm getting there and soon to be a member of the NFC. A "rookie fish head" in the making. Just thought this would be a little change from all the " poitical stuff "
                                                                               nickel
 
 

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