Filter Advice - 30 Gallon Tank

[jiffy]

I currently have a 30G Long tank setup with 4 Ps. Saulosi and a Marineland Biowheel HOB filter. I've been having trouble with the filter, likely caused by sand getting kicked into the intake. Also, the filter is noisy. Not only the sound of the water, but the sound of the propeller vibrations is quite loud. All this has led me to consider buying a canister filter.

If I am going to spend the money on a canister filter, I want to make sure I am making the right choice. If I ever decide to redo my tank, I will likely do a planted tank, which would work well with a cannister filter. On the other hand, with any luck my Saulosi will start breeding and the population of my tank will go up. When I had more fish I ran 2 HOBs for added surface agitation. I'm not sure if a canister would be a good match for say 12 Saulosi in a 30G.

Does that GPH of 10x tank capacity apply to canisters as well?

Cannisters I have been considering are the Rena XP2 and Marineland C220.

Any thoughts and/or recommendation on what filter to get would be appreciated.

 

[Lone Wolff]

I've got a Biowheel on my 55, and an OLD Whisper 2 on my 29Long.

The Biowheel is a lot noisier, but for mine, it's just the water. The impeller/motor is quiet enough.

If you want to go the cheap and quiet route, I'd recommend the Whisper HOB filters any day. Some don't like them, but mine has lasted forever, and is ultra quiet. It has adjustable flow knob and anywhere from max to min, it stays just as quiet.

I think the key to the Whisper HOB's is keeping a spare bio-bag frame, so that when I change filter cartridges each month or so, I leave the old one in the back of the filter for about a week or two while the new one is collecting bacteria. I think that helps prevent the mini-cycle that could occur when using a new cartridge. The cartridge frames themselves keep a bit of bacteria as well, so when replacing them, it's always good practice to try and keep that bacteria alive by never having a completely new frame by itself. As long as you've got the old one still in the water, you're good. Just my personal opinion, ymmv.

If you're already sold on the canister, disregard. But the Whisper2 (it's the Whisper40 now) has done good for me on that size tank for years. Very low maintenance as well.

 

[Orion]

No, the GPH doesn't apply to canisters as it applies to HOB filters. Canisters have less GPH, but they are much more efficient at what they do. You can probably have 10x the filter media in a single filter basket in an XP series canister filter than you can in a whisper HOB filter (not that you would want to pack it so tight all the time in a single basket). Plus the design of the canister forces pretty much 100% of the water to be filtered. Every filter type has it's place in the hobby, but IMHO as a general rule, canisters are the workhorse for FW.

I really like the XP series of canisters as well. I've got 2 XP3's running on my 75 gallon, and an XP1 in storage. To add to what Lone Wolf said, it is important not to disturb the bio media and with canisters this is couldn't be a simpler job. In my XP3's, I have 3 media baskets, I use the bottom 2 for mechanical media, and I keep sponges and filter floss in those, but in the top one I have bio balls and ceramic disks. When I clean them, I rinse the sponges in tap water, replace the filter floss, but leave the bio media basket sitting in tank water in the canister. This way all the important things get cleaned, and the good bacteria never get disturbed.

Canisters are a larger initial investment than HOB's, but for me the pay off in maintaince is a quick one and well worth it. I've not really heard anything about the marineland canisters one way or another.

EDIT- And the sand getting sucked into the filter might be caused by the intake being too close to the bottom. You might also consider getting a pre-filter sponge to put over the intake. This can really keep the sand from getting sucked up.