New filtration

[chaotica2010]

I am coming into some unexpected money and have decided to upgrade the filtration on my 55 gallon. I am currently using an Penguin Emporer Bio Wheel for up to 70 gallon tanks and an under water gravel filter.

I am thinking of moving up to a canister filter and possilbly some reverse flow powerheads to help the underwater gravel filter.

What I would like to know is

1. How difficult are the canister filters to set up and maintain?
2. Any good name brands anyone uses that they can reccomend.
3. I am considering cleaning the actual gravel filter itself. How often do you all do this if you use one?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Oh and I am in the states so the filter would need to be availble here.

Rick 8)

 

[Tolak]

I set up a canister filter on my 55 in August. If you can put together legos, you can set up a canister. Maintanance is about the same as a hob, rinse media and change pads, although having a greater amount of media the length of time between maintainance is increased.

I went with the Eheim canister, due to their reputation as being the best, although a bit more costly than others. You get what you pay for, and Eheims are no exception. Some weeks I have tons of overtime, work, eat, sleep, do it again. Filters going down do not fit into this schedule.

I have a 10 gal tank that still has the under gravel filter running, along with a hob. I've had it lightly stocked until recently, and would tear down the tank and rinse the gravel and filter plates about every other year. Probably going to replace the gravel soon and disconnect the ugf completely, now that I have that tank stocked up.

Tolak