Kathy Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 I'm new to the hobby and as I'm finding out this hobby isn't cheap, even though I've purchased most of my supplies used, I've still had to buy some new. Can anyone tell me what kind of filter is better hang on or cannister? I have only fresh water tanks for now and one of my tank is a little cloudy so I'm wondering if it's the filter and thought of buying a new one. Also for heaters should you get bigger than recommended or stick to what is recommended on the heater. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingin' It Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 Give everything time to settle...put in some filter floss if you want. HOBs are good, but so are canisters. It all depends on you and what you want/like/can spend. Heaters, I'd stick to what is recommended...if you go too big, and the heater malfunctions it'll cook your fish so fast you won't know what happened till it's too late. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren88 Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 canisters are more efficient and silent but also more expensive but you get what yo pay for Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprucegruve Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 HOB(hang on back) filters work well and are pretty cheep,canister filters usually hold more media so you dont need to change it as often. cate is right,i use the recomended heater for my tank size, if something ever went wrong with the heater things could get bad fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishMommy Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 (edited) from my reading and experience, you should go for about 5 watts of heater per gallon. so a 10 gallon tank would get a 50 watt heater for example. if your house stays warm, then you can get away with a slightly lower wattage than if your house is cool. my apartment stays pretty warm, so out of my three tanks, only two need heaters (they are closer to the windows and patio door, which is open nearly all the time). my 20 gallon has a 100 watt and my 55 has a 200 watt. both tanks stay between 76 and 79 F, with the heaters set at about 24 C (they are the Elite brand ones that only have C on the dial, and i suck at temperature conversion without the online calculator, lol!). as for filters, it's all about what your preference is. i have both hobs and canisters and i like both. if you are running co2 into a planted tank, canister is better because it won't off-gas the co2 like a hob would. as for your cloudy tank, it could be a bacterial bloom. have you recently added more fish to the tank or is it a newly set up tank at all? if yes to either question, then i would say it's the bacteria playing catch up and it will clear in time. adding more filters won't help with cloudy water due to bacteria bloom, because the bacteria will only populate enough to handle the bioload of however many fish you have in there. more filters just means more water movement. Edited July 3, 2011 by BettaFishMommy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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