[jason lee]

I currently have a 55gal with an Aquarium Life Support trickle filter. Most of the post I see have canister filters, other than easy manitance what is the advantages of a canister? I bought this tank in 2000 and was told it was the best setup for a planted aquarium, was that just sales talk.

 

[Blacksunshine]

Trickle as in Hang on back?
For a planted HOBs aren't great due to surface agatation assisting ininjected CO2 to having a way to outgass easily. But as long as the water level is kept high and the surface agatation is minimized it shouldn't be a probelm. And if your not using CO2 it's a moot point.

 

[jason lee]

It is a trickle with sump under the aquarium the size of a 10 gal tank and 500gph pump. The C02 I have running into the pump intake so the impeller discharges it into hundreds of tin bubbles.

 

[Blacksunshine]

Got ya. Well so long as there is nowhere in the system that alot of surface agatation is being made then yeah it would work fine for a planted tank.
Wet/drys on the other hand are not good because their design is intended to get the water in contact with as much air as possible. this is the oppisite of what you want with a planted W/ CO2 tank.
But a trickle with sump. Thats ok. that is actually the setup my LFS has on their 3teir planted holding tank.

 

[BlueRam]

I currently have a 55gal with an Aquarium Life Support trickle filter. Most of the post I see have canister filters, other than easy manitance what is the advantages of a canister? I bought this tank in 2000 and was told it was the best setup for a planted aquarium, was that just sales talk.

A trickle filter is designed and built to consume waste compounds (nitrogen cycle) so they work really well in chiclid tanks for example (many heavy feeders). For a fast growing* planted the opposite is true in that the plants consume "waste products" (why you need to dose ferts). The next biggest danger is the outgassing of CO2 which can be minimized by raising the water level in your sump to submerge the bioballs or removing them all together. Several members here run variations on this theme.

You might consider constructing a "Rex reactor" as injecting into the impeller is noisy when I try it.

*Lots of assumptions here, basically optimized for rapid plant growth.

 

[jason lee]

Thanks for all the information, I'll try all the suggestions and see which one works the best.