My Marine aquarium run on canister filters!

[Sheetmaself]

Good day to you, not sure if anyone will be interested in this but as opposed to your normal Marine tank with either a sump or an all in one filtration solution I am trying to do one from canister filters. I am by no means an expert on any of this so very open to ideas and there will definitely be issues along the way!

So a bit about me, I have had tropical tanks for years and got into Marine about a year ago.

I started with a TMC firstwave 48l tank which i managed to get to look like this.



True to form I wanted a bigger tank so treated myself to a Neptunian Pro m90. I loved setting this tank up and got it to look like this.







Then i moved house!

The new house (despite being exactly the same as the old house as in same development, same type of house, just a new view) didn’t suit the old tank as we wall mounted the tv and reduced all clutter meaning the old tank which come out 65cm from the wall was waaaaay too intrusive.


So what to do.

I tried living with a TMC nextwave 78l and moved my tangs and foxface on, but i just missed this type of fish too much.

So the long search began. I knew what I needed, a marine tank with sump at no more than 45cm depth (depth in tanks is back of tank to front of tank).

I searched for about 3 months finding nothing, considered a customer tank but at £2.5k for the tank, sump and cabinet no pipework and at least another £1.5k to get it working i just couldn’t justify it having just moved house, had lots of work done on the new house to bring up to similar spec as the old house and with my partner potentially losing her job.

In my search I kept finding tanks only to realise they were sumpless tropical tanks. Hello YouTube, a few videos on if this was even possible suggested that it can be, but that it may require higher levels of maintenance. Chatting with 3 local fish shops, one runs their main show tank from a canister the other suggested strongly against my idea but gave me ideas of how to do it.

So present day, I have bought a Aquael Opti 200 tank. This tank is only just over 40cm in depth so even after bringing it out from the wall a bit to aid in maintenance it passes the, let’s be honest here, wife test. The tank had an inbuilt light attachment rack and a lid. My hope is that by removing this light rack there will be enough space for the AI blade 30” the sit above the water but below the closed lid (I have 4 cats so need a top to the tank). Anyone who knows their Ai Blade’s also know they are very fast and loose on what they class as water resistant so it will be interesting to see how long it lasts!

I have bought a ceramic heater with built in guard as this will have to be hung in the tank.

I have 2 canister filters, 1 x Eheim Experience 150 that will be used for filter flosses and carbon and one Eheim 4+ 600 that will be used for a small piece of fine wool, Purigen and potentially other similar type items (very open to advice on this) and lots of bio media.

I have a Eheim 500 UV which I will be running in line but after the canister filter. I am as yet undecided which one but thinking maybe the smaller 150 as this i assume will be a slower flow through the UV?

I also have a Nero 3 wave maker. Hopefully i can get away with just the one but if i do need another i will look at one.


So thoughts? Am i an idiot for even trying this? Andone else with experience of this and is there anything else i badly need?

I will update this with the build which should start Tuesday.

[Jasandjules]

Cannisters tend to result in higher nitrates than most corals can cope with (except for perhaps some of the tougher mushies and leathers).. Why not use Live Rock?

[Sheetmaself]

I plan on a mixture of Seachem Matrix which is live rock, and purigen in the larger canister filter. I assumed (happy to be told I am wrong) that as the Seachem is basically live rock chippings as i understand it and therefore a huge surfavr area that it would be ok?

[Turn7]

I think it’s a very brave thing to attempt , and not something I would want to do tbh.

What’s the stocking plan proposed ?

[Sheetmaself]

Stocking plan is going to be along the lines of

2 x clowns
1 x Royal Gramma
1 x mandarin
1 x tiny Sailfin Tang (for about a year to year and half)
1 x watchman Goby
1 x cleaner wrasse

Then shrimp and snails

[Sheetmaself]

Interested as to why you say brave?

In my eyes, yes ok it will need more maintenance and cleaning than with a sump to remove the nitrates from the canisters but then that maintenance will be easier than vacuuming a sump so kind of swings and roundabouts. I don’t mind tinkering with a tank and weekly changes of floss for the small canister and top of large canister and a bi-monthly cleanup of the larger canister should suffice.

As in original post always happy to be told i am wrong.

Anyway if it all goes wrong i can have the most over filtered discus tank ever!

[Sheetmaself]

Got the tank this afternoon. It looks lovely but i do need to sort out the lighting situation somehow. I have a mate who took my od Regal Tang off of me when i downsized looking into 3d printing a bracket as whilst the metal supports seem to not get too warm the plastic lid is resting on the light and getting hot.

Plan is to remove the metal light cradle, which is a simple job, and then fit to AI Blade onto some form of bracket that won’t dunk over £300 worth of light into the tank!

All going well it will be enough above the water line to allow a good light spread and not break due to water ingress but be far enough away from the lid that it doesn’t melt it!

[Turn7]

I sat brave , because I’ve seen how many reefers have had to deal with tank crashes amongst other issues, and that’s all using tried and tested methodology.

Not saying it won’t work, but salties require a different level of interest I think.

I wish you well and will follow with interest.

[Sheetmaself]

Thanks, I have had marine before and currently have two other tanks still that are marine. Whilst i do not proclaim in the slightest be an expert i am not a novice either, however this whole running from a canister is new and the tank has certainly shown some problems already with regards to the lighting situation.

I did think this morning “why am i going canister filters, when I could actually of got just a custom sump made” this would likely of been cheaper as well than the £3-400 i have put into the canister filters!

[Sheetmaself]

Ok not too much of an update so far as it still isn’t wet, ut the heater is in



Looking at the size of the canister filters box this thing is serious! And don’t forget this is only 1 of 2 filters as waiting for the second to be delivered.



Starting to think i may run the electrics onto the rhs as this will hopefully give me some space on the lhs for general living room things such as xbox controllers etc as this side will have the shelf.

Already thinking i may add a macro algae reactor, but I will see how it gets on without as about £3-400 new.

[Sheetmaself]

Background is now on. Used only soapy water to affix, to be honest i probably need something a little stronger but it is down now with no air bubbles and sellotape just holding it in place. Can’t actually see the tape but would still like to be able to remove it in a few days time.