livepsycle Posted December 29, 2012 Report Share Posted December 29, 2012 Hey guys. Just inherited an big Aquanics 1600 Canister filter. I know nothing about it and haven't really found much info on them. Any good advice I should be aware of? Is there a recommended order of fitration mediums? Are there any mediums I must have? Any I don't need? Any I should avoid? How chocka-block full of medium should it be? Also... it's under gravel. So I think the gravel/substrate may be important. But I'd really like to use sand. Is that an option or do I need (with absolutely no doubt) to use a gravel with bigger dimensions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noddy Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 Sand doesn't work with under gravel filters as it doesn't allow the flow and you will simply end up with a destroyed filter full of sand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
african-cichlids Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 I'm personally not a fan of under gravel filters in my experience thay are a pain in the arse. But that's just my opinion you might like the idea. Give it a go and noddy is spot on with the sand, that's the downside about ugf your limited to what substrate you can yous. If you got african cichlids I'd go a 3mm white gravel carb which helps buffer your water to a degree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betta Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 If you haven't got any media yet then sintered glass is the way to go, massive surface area for your bacterial culture, the filter doesn't need to be chokkas, the media will settle in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noddy Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 You should be able to remove the under gravel part of the filter but you may have to cut the pipe and cover the end with a strainer and then you can go with the sand but really depends on what the rest of the setup is to contain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatsright99 Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 (edited) You haven't said why you want sand. Be careful as it can easily get into your impeller and shred it like butter. Undergavels are old tech and only. Have a limited use- most people will argue about it for marines... You could reverse flow a canister and have the outlet going in under the filter plate useing the gravel -not sand,as a massive bio filter. Cichlids will make the ugf useless and plants don't like it to much. Depending on how much effort you want to go to, you could raise the filter plate and mix sand and very fine stones to create a dead zone for anerobic bacteria and put a layer of shade cloth over that then a layer of larger size gravel-1cm deep? Then more shade cloth and them the gravel you want. That middle layer is for when you are doing syphoning you don't disturb the lower level, you know not to go deeper. That's for starters, and I am sure others will have diff views and thoughts about that but without knowing what you want, there's so many optins. So bugger it and just get a good size ext canister and an internal filter as a polishing filter. Edited December 30, 2012 by thatsright99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livepsycle Posted December 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2012 OK so I'm getting the message about losing the UGF. Fine. Looked like a pain in the arse anyway. What's a polishing filter? I was thinking about sand because I'd like to have a heap of plants if I can. But my thinking may be off in this regard. It just seemed to me sand would be good for root growth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadFishFloating Posted December 31, 2012 Report Share Posted December 31, 2012 Sand not usually that good for roots, and harder to use ferts with. But can still work. Problem is that it moves. Gravel and sand, is better for plants than sand alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
