A crazy idea?

[Cadiz.Jonathan]

Ok so got a 46 bow with canister filter which I know is not the best. But I have a 20 gal laying around as well what I was thinking is that maybe I can use the canister as a prefilter and turn the 20 gal into a sump with frag rack. So the canister will be filled with cotton and pour into the sump pass live rock and push back up to the tank. Good idea? Figured it would be a great filter

 

[KathyC]

As long as you are not trying to use the canister as the 'return pump', sure it would work.

That said - a couple of things about canister filters:
1-you need to keep it clean, plan on cleaning it out weekly
2- IF you ever lose power for an hour or more (or turn it off for that long and forget to turn it back on - you MUST dump the ENTIRE contents of it before turning your system back on.
Since there would be no flow thriugh the unit with the power off the bacteria inside of a canister filter dies VERY quickly and if you launch that dead bacteria into your DT, you WILL have major consequences from it.

Follow those 2 rules and you will be fine

 

[ramz28]

im confused, so basiclly the canister would be the overflow? so water flow would be this

-->canister--> "sump"-->return to DT. Wouldnt that mean your return pump would have to match your canister flow?

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

yeah i dont thinks this is gonna be a good idea!! just turn the tank into a sump with live rock in it and a 4inch sump sock and you will be fine!! just have to make sure you keep the sump level nice and full as it may evaporate quicker than you may think!! i gave up using my canister filter beacause even though it cleaned well i just hated maintaining it and the sump i made on my own it cost me less than 20 bucks to make and my water looks just as good if not better than with can, and all i do is change the sock and once a month switch out the pure chem and carbon and im golden!! all is growing and all is well.

 

[Cadiz.Jonathan]

I wanna do a sump but just don't want to throw away the canister when I bought it the store told me it was the best filter for a tank but then latter on I was told about mr and herd you guys going off about canisters. Spent like 200 on this thing would rather recycle than throw away 200. Just figured would get more for my buck using it as the pre filter than tossing it.

 

[Mikei70]

I wanna do a sump but just don't want to throw away the canister when I bought it the store told me it was the best filter for a tank but then latter on I was told about mr and herd you guys going off about canisters. Spent like 200 on this thing would rather recycle than throw away 200. Just figured would get more for my buck using it as the pre filter than tossing it.

You could use it for carbon or phosphate remover. The thing is you don't want to use it as a biological filter. It would break down the waste to nitrate when you want the skimmer to remove it before that happened.

 

[Cadiz.Jonathan]

Yea that's what I was thinking. Cotton Carbon phosphates remover

 

[Mikei70]

Yea that's what I was thinking. Cotton Carbon phosphates remover

I'd skip the cotton unless you plan on changing/cleaning it every couple of days. Anything caught on it will begin to break down pretty quickly.