Okay, I have just set up my new 200L tank, fresh RO water, live aragonite sand bed (2 maybe 3 inches). At the moment I have a Eheim professional 2235 running on it.

I have about 30kg live rock in my (badly leaking) nano which I am going to move over when I have sorted the water out.

My stocking level at the moment is 2 clowns, blue Linkia star, CBS and a few snails so i know there is plenty of room left - but should I keep the canister filter going, not decided on corals yet - im thinking they are a bit too much hassle.

I have a good protein skimmer on the tank and great circulation,

The filter will pump out nitrates that would hopefully get used up by my chaeto i guess? any other reasons as to why I shouldnt have it?
Thoughts please :)

Well it is just my opinion that as long as you don't intend to keep corals, you can use the canister filter. I did so for many years with great success.

But, if you don't have any coral eating fish... I think down the line you'll get a little nagging feeling to try out some corals! As long as you have the right lights, there are a lot of species that you could keep :).

And also, 30kg for about a 40 gallon tank? I thiiink that will be more than enough filtration :). Especially with a good protein skimmer.

If you are completely sure you won't want to do corals in the future, go for the canister filter, it will help with filtration. But IMO, with that amount of rock you will be fine without it, and down the line you could add some corals :)

I keep corals (not hard corals , just mushrooms , frogspawn , zoas etc) and use a canister ...my tank is 30x12x15 (100L) i have a v2 400 skimmer , 20 kg of LR

I took out all of the sponges (as you know they become nitrate factories ) .... and filled it up with live rock rubble loosely packed .... a bag with anti-phos in it and a bag with carbon in it ....

I just have one sponge that is in the bottom of the canister (before the rubble) to filter out any crap and fish waste so the live rock doesn't get clogged ...

I clean the sponge once a week , and my nitrates consistantly are below 5ppm .... really the canister is just somewhere to run the anti-phos stuff and the carbon ...

Good luck

H

Good call - I have loads of ceramic media in the filter that it has come with, Im getting some more live rock as need to seed my new tank.

Its looking really good so far - have 5 chromis and my 2 clowns plus a few inverts.

I also have a ton of chaetomorpha that should munch up any remaining nitrates