Can you recommend canisters and lily pipes for a 29 gallon?

[Fishstery]

So I'm taking 2 vacation days off work to set up my UNS 45s shallow pond scape for my betta and figured in that time I could tackle a tear down and deep clean on my 29 gallon pea puffer tank and my 12 long honey gourami tank. I'm going to completely pull all the plants which are just growing wild, clean leaves and prune, and clean off the driftwood and put the scapes back together. As the last year has gone by with the 29 which is my 2nd most recent setup, I've found a few things I'd like to improve on it and I figured this would be a good opportunity to do so. Right now I'm not too happy with the circulation. Its such a deep tank and I also have the canister about 26 inches below the top of the tank and my little finnex canister just has a hard time with the lift. Im looking for a new canister that won't completely break the bank but im getting lost on what GPH rating I should use for the tank size and taking into consideration the max rise. Also, I've searched EVERYWHERE but does anyone know where to get extra long glass or stainless lily pipes? I think another part of the issue is that the glass intake is only 13 inches deep so it barely reaches halfway to the bottom of the tank. I know my puffs don't need a whole lot of flow so I don't want something that will be overkill, but I get a lot of detritus buildup on my driftwood and plant leaves and I suspect the circulation issue being the culprit. I was looking into a sunsun hw302 that's rated at 265gph so if you have experience with this on a tank similar in size/volume I would appreciate it!

 

[Fishstery]

Bump because I didn't get any answers. I just got the sunsun hw302 and this canister is freaking MASSIVE. Like at this point I'm a bit worried it will be too much for my puffers. Does anyone have experience with this filter? I figured because of the lift it has to do the flow rate would be cut down to around where I need it to be. This canister is about 4 times the size of the little finnex I've been running rated at 95 gph. It just doesn't circulate the water enough which has resulted in 90% of the tank being dead spots which has resulted in algae and detritus buildup on my driftwood.

 

[Broggy]

Bump because I didn't get any answers. I just got the sunsun hw302 and this canister is freaking MASSIVE. Like at this point I'm a bit worried it will be too much for my puffers. Does anyone have experience with this filter? I figured because of the lift it has to do the flow rate would be cut down to around where I need it to be. This canister is about 4 times the size of the little finnex I've been running rated at 95 gph. It just doesn't circulate the water enough which has resulted in 90% of the tank being dead spots which has resulted in algae and detritus buildup on my driftwood.

what I would have done, is buy a sponge fiter, and a power head. that would fix the overkill filtration and flow problem. plus you can angle the power head any way you want.

or you can diy something to block the flow from the out take.

 

[Fishstery]

what I would have done, is buy a sponge fiter, and a power head. that would fix the overkill filtration and flow problem. plus you can angle the power head any way you want.

or you can diy something to block the flow from the out take.

There is a sponge filter in there already and an internal UV sterilizer that acts as a power head. I positioned the UV in a way that it would catch the flow from the canister outflow and push it the rest of the way to the other side of the tank but it's not sufficient. The tank is very very densely planted with huge pieces of driftwood. I just want some feedback from someone that either has this exact canister, or has a canister with a similar GPH on a tank that's 20-30 gallons. When I put my finger infront of the current outflow I can barely feel the water coming out even after I freshly cleaned it. The canister im using is rated for up to 20 gallons so obviously it's already not sufficient enough for the tank volume and then add the rise because it's set below the tank instead of level with it, and that's where the problem lies. I can always buy double tap valves to customize the flow but im dumping all my money into my new pond build im not looking to buy more bells and whistles for my puffer tank. I'm just looking to fix the circulation issue.

 

[JayAlva]

I set up a fluval 207 cannister with glass tubes modifying the vinyl tubs to fit the glass wear was a pain and i can never really clean the intake that great. The intake goes about half way but never had any water quality issues. If you're worried about flow use the poppy shape glass tub it doesn't give direct flow doesn't blow fish around too bad.

 

[Orion0220]

I like the Sicce filters, the whale has a bunch of different sizes, lots of ways to control the flow and they look awesome and they've been super reliable, Sicce is an Italian brand that makes the seachem tidal filters. Ever since I found out about them, I swear by them. plus you could easily change out the intake/outtake for steel lily pipes. I just use the ones that come with the filter because I like that you can aim the outtake however you want, but MD fish tanks on youtube uses these ones, they're not too expensive, and look good.

 

[Fishstery]

Thanks for the replies! I already got the filter and lily pipe, since I didn't get much response on this thread before it was time to set everything up. I'm going to put the filter on tomorrow but I'll update this thread to let you guys know how it works out. I bought the sunsun 302 but I realized this canister conveniently has a built in valve shutoff. Acting like a double tap valve I can just keep the valves partly closed to restrict the water flow if it seems to be too much. I already had a poppy outflow ordered for it so I'm going to run with that and luckily the inflow that was included with the filter is about 5 inches longer than my glass one now so it will reach almost to the bottom. It's black plastic which isn't as aesthetic as my glass inflow but I have a black background anyways and it's worth the trade off IMO.

 

[SallImSayin]

I've had an Aqueon canister filter on my 29g for a bit over a year now and it's been great. It's much easier to clean and get into to maintenance than my other one (which is also great). Holds a lot of filter media. And none of my canisters have ever leaked. I just bought a bigger Aqueon to go on my new set up. The other I have is a Hydor. I haven't had any problems with returns or height, they've been easy to adjust to whatever setup I have, as long as they're below the tank. The Hydor I've head 3-4 years, now. The thing I prefer about the Aqueon, though, is it comes with a HOB polishing unit (or 2, for the 400 model). You don't have to use them, but I do, so I don't put any filter floss on my actual canister, just put it in the polishing unit and can pull and replace it without having open anything up.