penn plax filter

Hi guys.

So I have just set up my juwel 450 vision aquarium. I have added the above mentioned canister filter to increase filtration. Know fish just some plants and decorations. I have never used a canister yet so my apologize for asking so many questions.

Firstly, the canister does aprox 1500l per hour. I don’t know how much the juwel does as it came with the aquarium. The tank is about 450l give or take substrate and other stuff in their. So is this enough filtration? Secondly as this tank is in my office, I am not here in the evenings. If the power goes off, How does the canister react. I mean, I don’t want to come the next morning and find the monsoon floods in my office! I see the the canister is tightly sealed so I don’t think this will happen but, I am not sure.

Any help guys?

Thanks

 

Canisters need to filter at least 5 times your tanks volume per hour to be efficient and usually they do start up again if the power was out. also what medie does it have? if it has bio balls(plastic) id suggest you replace it and also put in some filter floss to help polish the water. hth

 

Hi.
Thanks for the response. It does not have any bio balls. It got different baskets stacked on top of each other some with sponges and some with floss. I found out that the juwel does 1000l and this does 1500l so with both running will this be enough? Got some seachem gravel at the bottom so when I filled it last night water was a bit cloudy. Only had the juwel filter running last night and water was much better this morning. Not 100% clear but ok. Connected the canister a few hours ago and seems to be doing its job. I will get some one to check the tank in a few hours to make sure on improvement as I do have a visual difficulty and I want to make sure that the water is getting crystal clear.

 

Yeah as long as you dont have plastic in there for biological fiiltration and got something like seachem matrix in there it should be fine, just stock slowly. but i would also recommend you do put something like matrix in the canister to help with bio filter if you only got floss and sponges in there, the sponges does allowfor colonies of bacteria but matrix and same kind of porous products tend to allow better colonization

 

Ok. I will do that. The juwel filter got some kind of rings in their but nothing in the canister. because I am keeping plants, I removed the carbon. Hope I did the correct thing here. Should I do water changes even though the cloudiness is going away?

 

@dash - Invest in a miracle product called Seachem Purigen and some activated carbon. Your tank will be crystal clear in no time. Worst case, you could add Seachem Clarity which binds particles together to be removed by mechanical methods.

 

Why did you remove the carbon? It's good for 3 months I think (could be 6). You only need to remove it if you are medicating your tank.

 

Thanks guys.
I do have the activated carbin but, like a fool I did not put it in to the filters as I thought that it will remove nutrients from the water that the plants require. Are you saying that it is ok to use it? I will go look for those products. A little difficult to find them in Durban. If any one knows then please let me know. Thanks guys again for taking the time to give me your advice.

 

I only use the carbon after i have used medicine in my tanks, this is a debatable topic amongst keepers but i think its useless unless you want to remove meds

 

Carbon and planted tanks do not go well. Since you will be dosing ferts, its effectiveness will be decreased by adding the activated carbon. Many on the forum advised against this when i started up my tank.

Purigen and matrix are available at northlands. you might want to get some Aquavitro Alpha while you are there.

 

@TankMaster and @oupoot When you talk about carbon, do you mean the charcoal? (I'm learning here, so excuse the questions ). And I know Purigen removes tannins from the water; does it remove the same impurities as the carbon would, but without disrupting the nutrients (needed for the plants) in the water?

 

charcoal as the black stuff you put in your filter? yes thats carbon