Are Canister & HOB Filter Both Necessary?

Hi Everyone - Had fish for many years - many years ago. Went through a divorce and left all behind. Just bought a used hex tank. Have to do the measurements for size but I think it is about a 30 gallon. Never had a canister filter but I hear so much good about them, I think that I would prefer to have one. Is it necessary to have both or is a canister filter alone enough? Thanks in Advance. Laura

 

The canister filter will work great like Coradee suggested. You can also use an Aqua clear HOB filter which takes up no room inside the tank. I have the Aqua Clear 70 on my wifes tank 30 gallon tank and it is excellant. Moves alot of water. The tank is really over filtered but I do this on my tanks to make sure to have good clear water and filtration. Thanks

Clear Water = Happy Fish

 

I love my Fluval canister filters on a 55gal & 180gal. On the 10gal I have Fluval C3 HOB which is good to 50gal - a little overkill but can't have too much filtration! Very quiet & sleek - lots of room for media.

If I was doing a 30gal I would go for the C4 - 40-70gal.

 

Canister filters in general are superior to most HOB filters, and I think any canister of appropriate size for your tank could easily filter your tank by itself. My canister (Penn-Plax 700) does a wonderful job filtering my 20, water is always crystal clear, and the bio-filtration is excellent. And it is silent with the spray bar submerged. Personally, I will never go back to filtering a tank solely with a HOB.

Sorry, I kind of rambled on a bit there, but to answer your question, you could run both a HOB and a canister, but it would not be necessary.

 

Another nice thing about running two filter units is if one breaks down the other will help keep the bio filter going and the residents happy.

 

A canister by itself is fine. The benefit to using both is that you could use canister for bio, and HOB for mechanical for more frequent cleaning. The canister might need monthly cleaning instead of longer intervals.

 

I have an Eheim 2217 on my 40b with a prefilter sponge on the intake and an Aqueon 30 without prefilter but a 100 micron pad. I clean the 2217 canister every 2 months and the Aqueon HOB every 4/5 days. Cleaning the HOB is lift out the filter cartridge, rinse, replace. Les than 5 minutes. BB live in the cannister; cleaning that is a bit longer.