Discus3anatic
12-07-2015, 11:49 PM
I have a Eheim 2217 canister on my 120g corner bowfront. Discus tank of course, and the tank does have gravel and plants. I also use two Top Fin internal 40 filters. One on each of the two back panels of glass. The water flows in a circular motion in my tank, and a HUGE chunk of the food i feed (beefheart, bloodworms and flakes) get sucked up in my internal filters which is how i want it as i use them only as mechanical. However this food and stuff also gets sucked up in my canister and while i know a canister does both mechanical and biological i mainly got this thing for biological filtration.
My two internal filters are nothing but sponges. The first sponge captures probably 50% of the debris and has a slight water bypass going around it (to keep flow from clogging up) and then there are two more sponges right before the water gets shot out back in the tank to capture the other 50% of the solids. I clean these two internals every 2 days when i do my water changes. And they are filthy with solids be it food, and lots of plant matter from my plants. I clean the canister filter only after about a week or two as its a big pain to clean.
Anyway i wont drag this on just wanted to give some info. I have a box of the same sponges my internals use as they are rectangle shaped and hollow on the inside so you can put charcoal inside or something.. But they fit perfectly over a filters inlet. I use them for powerheads on my other tanks so i dont get snails stuck on a powerhead inlet and die. And i noticed they grab alot of solids out of the water column.. so i Was thinking of using this over my eheims inlet to keep the large chunks of food and plant matter out of my canister.. This way i dont have to worry about the large matter that doesnt get eatin, fouling my water and also keeps me from having to clean my canister so much. I could just pull the sponge off every day or two like my internals and clean and put it back on.
Would this be viable or no ?
My two internal filters are nothing but sponges. The first sponge captures probably 50% of the debris and has a slight water bypass going around it (to keep flow from clogging up) and then there are two more sponges right before the water gets shot out back in the tank to capture the other 50% of the solids. I clean these two internals every 2 days when i do my water changes. And they are filthy with solids be it food, and lots of plant matter from my plants. I clean the canister filter only after about a week or two as its a big pain to clean.
Anyway i wont drag this on just wanted to give some info. I have a box of the same sponges my internals use as they are rectangle shaped and hollow on the inside so you can put charcoal inside or something.. But they fit perfectly over a filters inlet. I use them for powerheads on my other tanks so i dont get snails stuck on a powerhead inlet and die. And i noticed they grab alot of solids out of the water column.. so i Was thinking of using this over my eheims inlet to keep the large chunks of food and plant matter out of my canister.. This way i dont have to worry about the large matter that doesnt get eatin, fouling my water and also keeps me from having to clean my canister so much. I could just pull the sponge off every day or two like my internals and clean and put it back on.
Would this be viable or no ?