Filter

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Filter
From: RTalukdar at mail_utexas.edu (Roni Talukdar)
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 18:07:22 -0600


>A wet/dry is not overkill for a plant tank. If you use a pre-filter on
>a wet/dry and use a small one or make one yourself, there should be no
>problem. The one concern I have with a canister filter is the
>possibility of loosing some water flow when plant material is pulled
>into the filter. I have this problem with power filters requiring me to
>clean the tubes on a regular basis. When maintaing plants you will
>always have some decay that you will miss. Old leaves die off and
>replaced by new ones as the plant grows. If you don't cut it off, it
>falls off and gets pulled into the filter. This can but not always
>reduce the flow of the filter. When using a canister you have to be
>careful because they can create too much flow and cause the loss of
>carbon dioxide if they produce any sort of bubbles.

Let me preface my comments by saying that I have a homemade wet/dry in my
100.  However, this is for a beginner who has never kept an aquarium before
and so making their own is out of the question.  Also, their total budget is
$400 and a wet/dry for $140ish is a bit much.  The problem I've had with my
wet/dry is that the flow rate is too great and causes a great deal of
surface agitation.  However, I noticed that almost everyone with a 55-70
gallon tank on this list seems to keep the canister filter with great
success.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

-Roni