Choosing the Best Canister Filter

Looking for the best canister filter for your planted aquarium? Ensuring you have a high quality filter in your tank can make all the difference for your plant, fish, and invertebrates’ health. Of all the methods of filtration available for the planted freshwater tank, canister filters have long been the superior choice when compared to other filtration types on the market. You should install canister filters beside or underneath the aquarium. Keep only intake and outlet hardware inside the tank.

As a result, the canister filter is arguably the easiest type to hide. This is of primary importance in the modern planted aquarium, where a natural look is paramount to the design of the system.

Canister Filter

Benefits of the Canister Filter

Beyond the aesthetic considerations, canister filters are quite versatile. All brands offer the option of using a variety of media inside the canister.

Additionally, canister filters are quite efficient, because they operate well under pressure. This ensures that whatever media are inside will be uniformly exposed to the water flowing through the unit.

Perhaps the sole disadvantage of canister filters is the requirement for regular cleaning and maintenance. This, in turn, necessitates disassembly of the entire filter. While no filter design can eliminate this requirement, thoughtful attention to the design can mean the difference between maintenance being a nightmarish chore versus an easy procedure.

3 Types of Filtration:

A canister filter can provide the following types of filtration, making them an ideal choice for aquarium enthusiasts:

  • • Mechanical filtration,
  • • Chemical filtration, and
  • • Biological filtration.

The use of chemical media for specific water purification tasks is typically determined by the dictates of each hobbyist’s particular circumstances. Chemical media can be generalized, such as activated carbon, or more specialized, such as media that absorb ammonia or phosphate. Biological filtration occurs in all filtration systems. It consists in the conversion of ammonia to nitrate by beneficial bacteria in the presence of oxygen.

Shop The Best Canister Filters:

Shop SevenPorts online for quality planted aquarium filters that provide excellent filtration and flow within your freshwater aquarium display. Because of their significantly large volume, these planted aquarium filters provide much better filtration and good bacteria growth in your tank.

Shop OASE Filters

OASE filters are some of the best canister filters in the industry. Perfect for both marine and freshwater aquariums alike, they are manufactured in Italy and designed with German engineering. The attention to detail in the engineering ensures that you experience a canister filter that provides biological, mechanical, chemical, and pre-filtration to provide your aquarium with optimal water clarity. In addition, Hel-X Biomedia offers suspended settlement surface for microorganisms and activated carbon for toxin removal in your tank. Furthermore, the EasyClean prefilter’s design allows you to remove and clean supernaturally from the rest of your filter.

If you are looking for filters that stay out of sight and provide effective filtration, look no further than these canister filters! Below are just some of the planted aquarium filters we have available on our site.

OASE Canister Filters
The Forza has a UV sterilizer

Shop AquaTop Filters

Aquatop’s FORZA filters equip your tank with UV Sterilization that produces crystal clear water. The FORZA filters from Aquatop provide aquarium owners with the latest advancements in UV technology and a patented one pump EZ Prime button. With just one pump, your canister filter can begin the cycling process. Not only can this powerful filter provide biological, mechanical, and chemical filtration, it can also handle up to 450 Gallons per Hour. If also features a UV 9 Watt Bulb for additional protection against harmful bacteria and algae.

There are three FORZA models, including the 295, 450, and 550. All three are equipped with an integrated replaceable carbon cartridge. This series incorporates several impressive features like an optional surface skimmer on the intake, and a handle for easier lifting of the barrel head. Also included is a protective cover for the UV switch and a quick disconnect color-coded valve. FORZA filters also include an innovative safety feature. Whenever your canister filter moves 30 degrees in any direction, the UV will automatically shut off to protect your system.

Shop All Planted Aquarium Filters

-25%
Original price was: $278.99.Current price is: $209.24.
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SKU: OA409
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Original price was: $319.99.Current price is: $239.99.
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SKU: OA228
-25%
Original price was: $349.99.Current price is: $262.49.
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SKU: OA410
-25%
Original price was: $401.00.Current price is: $300.74.
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SKU: OA229

What is Mechanical Filtration?

Mechanical filtration is the trapping or sequestration of particulate matter from the water in the aquarium. Variables that influence the efficiency of mechanical filtration include the nature of the filtration medium, flow rate, and efficiency of flow through the medium. Most systems employ a sequence of increasingly smaller pore size media. Additionally, some may also include biological filtration media. These are designed to maximize surface area for colonization by nitrifying bacteria. The media compartment should have a design that encourages water to evenly and fully penetrate the media, without dead spots.

Flow Rate of Canister Filters

The topography of the aquarium aquascape will have a large effect on the turbulence produced at a given flow rate. For heavily planted aquariums, too much surface turbulence can drive off carbon dioxide, to the detriment of plant growth. For this reason, any change in filtration system for a planted tank should be followed up with testing to insure that the carbon dioxide concentration remains high enough to support vigorous plant growth, typically about 60 ppm.

Given the wide variation among filtration systems and filter media, it is simply not possible to define a given flow rate or turnover rate that is optimal in all instances.

While it is true that aquaculture research has demonstrated that ammonia conversion efficiency increase with increasing flow rate, so long as sufficient oxygen remains available, those experiments were carried out in ponds and at far lower turnover rate, i.e., one turnover per hour, than most aquarium systems employ.

Concluding Thoughts About Aquarium Canister Filters

Here are our closing thoughts on aquarium canister filters. There is no single isolated factor considered “optimal” for a given aquarium filtration system. The goal should be to install a system that effectively removes particulate matter and achieves adequate biological filtration. At the same time, the system should avoid excessive turbulence that will either rob plants of carbon dioxide or create more current than the fish prefer.

Article written by John Tullock