Why Does Nobody Like External Filters?

[rictheredneck]

the question is in the title really, why do they have such a bad rep with redgards to nitrate levels i just dont get it.
a filter is a plastic box with porous media in it that will colonise with denitryfiying bacteria and constant water running through it right? what is the diffence in this and live rock? obviously you dont get any hitch-hikers before anybody lets me know that . wet and dryfilters are the same but the bacteria are living in a higly oxygenated enviroment and therfore working harder. every six months or so when the media start to clog it gets replaced in stages or cleaned. in a marine tank we dont chuck out all our old live rock when it becomes encrusted with coraline algae or mat grown inverts like xenia and gsp start to flourish. im goin out on a limb and saying that the man-made media used in filters is more pourous than most live rock out there and therefore the bacteria have more surface area on which to grow.

 

[WayneVT08]

It's basically just a nitrate factory. It take out ammonia and nitrite, but so does the LR and other things but it keeps in nitrates, if you have a refugium then the macroalgae would help take the nitrates out.

 

[tat2life]

they really that bad ? i was going to get a external filter in a few days. it was reccomended to me at one of the lfs and supposed to be really good

 

[robbhp]

obviously you dont get any hitch-hikers before anybody lets me know that .

sorry to say this but you should see inside my fuval FX5, when i open it up i cant bring myself to replace the filter as i would be killing so many small critters, i even have small filter feeding clams in there, brissle stars, fire worm things you name it and i think they live in my fx5.

ROB

 

[rictheredneck]

It's basically just a nitrate factory. It take out ammonia and nitrite, but so does the LR and other things but it keeps in nitrates, if you have a refugium then the macroalgae would help take the nitrates out.

so in lay mans terms your saying that they are too efficient? they convert too well thus producing lots of nitrate?please explain "but keeps in nitates"

obviously you dont get any hitch-hikers before anybody lets me know that .

sorry to say this but you should see inside my fuval FX5, when i open it up i cant bring myself to replace the filter as i would be killing so many small critters, i even have small filter feeding clams in there, brissle stars, fire worm things you name it and i think they live in my fx5. ROB

lol yeh i know my gfs fluval is like a hatchery but i didnt want to start saying that you get inverts with filters and confusing my post

 

[robbhp]

what shops do you use mate , i go to trev at oasis loads , was even there today LOll

 

[rictheredneck]

what shops do you use mate , i go to trev at oasis loads , was even there today LOll

oasis, the abyiss in stockport and cascade which is my local get super discounts there and xmas pressies n stuff lol- im from whitefield. oasis is prolly my fave though super good selection.

stride out abit as well go to maidenhead aquatics and popped into the reef ranch in leeds last month for the first time loadsa of lil frags for like a 5iver a pop os will be goin down again soon and stocking up.

how did u get on with your shaving brush did they have any in at cascade?

 

[Musho3210]

they trap gunk which produces high amounts of nitrate (you can fix this by cleaning it every day)

They arent bad at all, mechanical filtration is great, you just have to clean/replace it like every 1-2 days, if you dont it will start producing higher amounts of nitrate.

 

[WayneVT08]

Well you can't take out nitrates. It just that simple the only way to take them out is to do water changes. If there was a fuge you wouldnt have to worry about nitrates as much, not saying you wouldnt have to worry about them, but not as bad.

 

[Musho3210]

nitrates can be removed by anoxic bacteria (no oxygen, nitrate rich areas). Since filters constantly have highly oxygenated water going through them anoxic bacteria wont grow in the filter, this is another reason why they are called nitrate factories.

 

[rictheredneck]

they trap gunk which produces high amounts of nitrate (you can fix this by cleaning it every day)They arent bad at all, mechanical filtration is great, you just have to clean/replace it like every 1-2 days, if you dont it will start producing higher amounts of nitrate.

hmm im not sure i agree on that they trap gunk well obviously the mechanical part of the filtration does but the fluval 305 that my gf has and my eheim wet dry are only filled with ceramics for biological filtration but i cracked open mine the otherday for some media for a quarantine tank and it was pristine inside it has running a couple of months. did the same to my gfs heavil stocked softie tank and that was clean it hadnt been opened in 6 months.opening a filter and cleaning the media is definetly alot easier than trying to clean inbetween and behind rockwork imo

they trap gunk which produces high amounts of nitrate (you can fix this by cleaning it every day)They arent bad at all, mechanical filtration is great, you just have to clean/replace it like every 1-2 days, if you dont it will start producing higher amounts of nitrate.

hmm im not sure i agree on that they trap gunk well obviously the mechanical part of the filtration does but the fluval 305 that my gf has and my eheim wet dry are only filled with ceramics for biological filtration but i cracked open mine the otherday for some media for a quarantine tank and it was pristine inside it has running a couple of months. did the same to my gfs heavil stocked softie tank and that was clean it hadnt been opened in 6 months.opening a filter and cleaning the media is definetly alot easier than trying to clean inbetween and behind rockwork imo

 

[rictheredneck]

nitrates can be removed by anoxic bacteria (no oxygen, nitrate rich areas). Since filters constantly have highly oxygenated water going through them anoxic bacteria wont grow in the filter, this is another reason why they are called nitrate factories.

but so is a tank filled with lr then due to the water being oxgenated just like a normal non wet - dry filter. id say there arent many people on this forum that use a live rock setup with a plenum if any...

 

[Musho3210]

live rock can contain anoxic areas as well as sandbeds. You dont need a plenum to be anoxic

 

[rictheredneck]

live rock can contain anoxic areas as well as sandbeds. You dont need a plenum to be anoxic

how can live rock contain anoxic areas?

 

[Musho3210]

deep down in the rock, its not much but it is something. Live rock isnt like a sponge in a filter, a sponge in a filter does its best not to allow bypass, live rock allows bypass and oxygenated water is only able to go through the outer areas, the outer areas contains nitrifying bacteria and inner areas contain denitrifying bacteria.

I THINK that once water reaches the inner areas of the rock the oxygen of the water is gone since the nitrifying bacteria on the outer areas have used it all.