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I'm just getting into planting my tank and i have 2 filters hooked up to my tank. I read some where that HOB filters are not good for the plants because of the carbon filter. I have a HOB filter and a EHIEM 2227 canister filter. Both are running in the tank currently. Can i disconnect my HOB filter and just use the canister?

55gal Tank:130 watt coral lights,Eheim Wet/Dry 2227 Canister Filter,Powerhead, Co2 Injection and a heater.

justin84,

How many filters you should have hooked up to your tank depends on many parameters, like tank size, fish load, plant volume and species, just to name a few.

The main reason why I comment here is because the notion that Carbon inserts in filters (HOB and any other) are problematic for planted tanks is nonsense. This comes from some corner of the hobby that made up the idea that carbon would remove fetilizers that are added to a tank. This happens not to be true though, even the great Amano runs carbon on his tanks after the initial setup.

Where a HOB becomes a small problem is when injecting CO2 into a tank, usually done on high tech tanks. Pretty much all HOBs increase the surface agitation of a tank by quite a bit and the larger surface area causes more contact possibilities between the CO2 in the water and the air above it. As such, more of the CO2 will be lost to the air as the natural content of CO2 in that environment is less than it is in the enriched water.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Ehiem 2227 is a wet/dry filter rated for a 350gal tank, so chance are you would be fine just with that. The reason most planted aquarium people like the canister filter is because the don't break up the the surface area of the water. This is only important if you are use Co2 in the planted tanks. If you are using Co2 you don't want the to break up the surface water, which will increases the gas exchange.

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

I heard that the carbon in filters is no good after about a mo. anyway & is not really needed in the common tank except for medicine removal after treatment. I have the premade filters with the carbon in them & very rarely change the filter. I just rinse off the old one occasionally. I have well water so it doesn't hurt them, but I know for those who have city water, they are to just swish it around in the removed tank water after a water change cause the chemicals straight from the tap water will kill the bacteria.

Patty

We folks that do not use well water exchange filter media if needed and it may contain carbon (to remove, as you wrote, medication), but the carbon does not do anything to condition the tap water which contains either chloride or chloramine. To remove these substances you have to add a special water conditioner. Carbon does not do anything with respect to inactivation of thee substances harmful to fish.