Keeping the water of your aquarium crystal clear isn’t possible unless you have the right tool to do it. A canister filter is the one thing that you must-have beside your aquarium if you want the water to be healthy. Especially if you have a bigger tank with plants in it, it becomes nearly impossible to keep it clean. The canister filter is a media that filters the water of the aquarium and keeps it safe and sound for the fishes.
Getting your aquarium a canister filter keeps it safe and nice, saves your time, and gives it aesthetics as well. However, once you get the best canister filter for yourself, understanding the setup instructions is like owning a war. Stick to this article to know how you can set up your canister filter with the least headache to take in.
How to set up a canister filter?
All the best canister filters will come with a common principle of working methods and a similar process to set them up. Here, I’ll get you through the easiest process you can follow to set up any shape and size of canister filters:
- Understand the process first
After you open up the box of your new canister filter box, you’ll get a handful of things to boggle your mind from them. Don’t lose your mind having too many things in hand; rather, let’s know how they work together. Once you set up the filter, it will suck in the water into the canister; then it filters with several media.
- How it goes in
The water goes through a carbon pad, a foam pad, some bio media, another coarse foam pad, ceramic rings, and so on. All these media will get stacked inside and get sandwiched by the media holders. Or, there may also tray for each media to hold them in place. Putting them together should be easy if you know what goes first and what goes up or down.
- Get started with the assembly
After getting your hands on the canister body, unscrew or detach the hatch of the canister and take it apart. You will get some trays or no trays at all, and if you have trays, they will have their identical design to identify if you don’t have trays with instructions of what to put where you have to follow an order of putting them in.
- Put in all the media
First, Put in the feet or the lattice screen in the bottom of the canister, make sure the feet are pointing towards the bottom. The feet will make a gap between the bottom, the filter hose, and the media. Second, put in all the bare ceramic rings, shake the canister a little so that the rings are firm in their place.
Next, put that on top of the ceramic rings, after that, put in all the bio media. Make sure you pre-rinse the bio media if you see they are dusty. Put in the last layer of the foam before you put in the carbon filter layer at last. Put the last layer of the protector on top before putting the cap or the motor on the canister.
- Route the tube with the pipes
Routing the tubes of the canister filter is a crucial part that you have to be very careful about. You have to route the intake and the output tube in the right order to get a proper flow and filtration. First of all, fit the J-tube or the intake inlet for the canister firmly so that it doesn’t leak water later. Cut a two-inch tube and attach it to the one end of the outlet J-tube and the other end of the spray bar.
- Attach them with the filter
The other end of the spray bar will have an end cap so that the spray can work properly. Attach another flex tube to the J-tube and the valve, connecting the outlet pipe. Keep the long tube a little loose with about 2 inches of slack and connect the input and the output tubes. Attach the suction filter on the end of the inlet pipe so that fishes don’t come in the filter through the pipe.
- Put everything in place
Once you’ve connected all the tubes and the valves to the right places, it’s time to attach them in their place. Second thing, you have to connect the filter with an electrical outlet and start filtering. Start with putting the filter on the right place where you’re going to put it with the aquarium. Put in the inlet and the outlet tubes on the aquarium using the J-tubes. The J-tubes will work as a hook to keep the pipes, the inlet suction tube, the spray tube in place. Use suction cups to hold the spray bar inside the aquarium and make sure the bar is firm in its place.
- Starting the filter
Once you’ve connected all the tubes and valves to the filter and the aquarium, it’s time to start the machine. If your filter doesn’t have an automatic priming feature, you have to suck the outlet tube manually for the first time. It will make some bubbles out of the spray bar at; first it’s because of the trapped air. Next, you have to connect the filter to the electric outlet for a constant filtration. Make sure the electric cord goes up from the filter for future safety if the filter gets leaks.
Bottom line
Setting your canister filter up can be a fun job if you know how to do it with the least amount of effort. It’s not a good thing to have the best canister filter in your hand, but you’re not setting it up properly. If you understand the loop properly, it will be a lot easier to set up your canister filter on your aquarium.
Assembling and putting all the filtration media in is a lot easier than the tube routing. You have to be sure about which tube goes which direction and how they keep the loop in order. Clean your filter every few months and change the sponge filters when they become useful after a few cleanups.
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