Too much filtration??

[RobTop]

Through out my freshwater fish keeping I have always believed there was no such then as too much filtration. And when I went to reef keeping 2 years ago I held to that belief. Now I am rethinking it. I think it is possable to have too much mechanical filtration. On my 75 gallon reef I have the sump/skimmer, along with a HOT filter and fluval 404. The HOT and fluval are mainly there for water movement, but I thought some extra mechanical filtration wouldn't hurt. Well every time I clean the filter you can imagine what I find. Tons of "bugs". I am thinking of switching the HOT and Fluval with simple powerheads to keep the water movement, but also to stop the zooplankton loss. My only reservation is the old addage, if it's not broken don't fix it. I have a sizable zooplankton population, everything is thriving, but I am just wondering if things wouldn't be better off with the removeable of these filters and replacing with powerheads.
Thoughts?

 

[Anonymous]

IMO canister filters are detrius traps that will later cause diatom blooms. But if you have no problems now I would fix what ain't broke. But if you have cyano/diatom problems later,it would be a valid place to look first.

 

[Jeff Hood]

I have never used any type of mechanical filtration in my salt water tanks unless you consider letting the detritus settle in the sump a filter. I will occasionaly siphen it out of there.

Jeff

 

[Anonymous]

There simply is zero need for mechanical filtration as you can see the mechanical filter IS affecting your tank in a negative way. Anything that can be trapped by a mechanical filter can be eaten by something in your tank and all you are managing to do is remove food from your tank. Ditch the fluval altogether and keep the HOT magnum handy for active carbon use when needed (usually 3 days once or twice a month).

 

[Shelby1317]

What I would do is remove one and after a month if everything is ok in the tank, remove the second one and watch the tank from there.

 

[ddavis4um]

I had a similar setup.

I did pitch the fluval a few months ago and the tank is healthier than ever. I do have about 170 pounds of Live Rock though. But now I am not cleaning the Fluval 2X a month.

I am in the same place in regards to protein skimmers. I have a poor one, I believe, and keep reading about the better ones. But everything is healthy and do I really need to spend $250 just to pull more gunk when some gunk might be good?

 

[RobTop]

Thakns for all the replys. The filters are getting turned off. With 23 tanks I have several places to use them so I am not worried about what to do with them. I'll post a follow-up in a month or so and let everyone know where things are.
Thanks
Rob