Altohombre
The Tennis Pro Reefer
Ok so I am running an Eheim 2213 Canister filter (it comes with a premade media set inside the canister) in my 46g with 60 lbs live rock and 60lbs live sand.
I hear all the talk about having to clean the canister every week and how it can cause high nitrates and what not. Right now every time I check my nitrates it is about 20 and I want this to lower. Now I had it checked at my LFS at the end of my cycle and the kid who checked it swore that it was at 0, which made me scratch my head because we use the same test kit. Since then it still tests at 20 on my kit and I have done about 3 5g water changes since then which has been 2.5 weeks.
Now as for the debate, is my tank able to run on its own with the 60lb live rock and 2.5 inch live sand bottom without using a filter? I also have an AquaC Remora running. Unfortunately I don't have a sump or refugium or any kind of overflow device that I can think of that may be needed for my tank to run on its own because I have no space for it. Should I keep running my canister filter and cleaning it often?
I hear all the talk about having to clean the canister every week and how it can cause high nitrates and what not. Right now every time I check my nitrates it is about 20 and I want this to lower. Now I had it checked at my LFS at the end of my cycle and the kid who checked it swore that it was at 0, which made me scratch my head because we use the same test kit. Since then it still tests at 20 on my kit and I have done about 3 5g water changes since then which has been 2.5 weeks.
Now as for the debate, is my tank able to run on its own with the 60lb live rock and 2.5 inch live sand bottom without using a filter? I also have an AquaC Remora running. Unfortunately I don't have a sump or refugium or any kind of overflow device that I can think of that may be needed for my tank to run on its own because I have no space for it. Should I keep running my canister filter and cleaning it often?