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I have a 40 gallon tank with one 8.5" Red Devil in it. No other fish. Filteration is as follows:

Fluval 304
2x Penguin 170's w/bio wheel
UGF with two power heads

The UGF isn't a problem because my fish knows not to dig. If he does then I smooth the gravel out quickly. Since I am a full time student, I don't have enough time to keep my Fluval up-to-par. I don't have enough time to take off all the hosing and clean it all out. I don't have enough time to clean the intake tube and the motor unit. (NOTE: I didn't say I don't have enough time to keep up on my water changes, I said I don't have enough time to maintain the cannister filter.) Anyways, do you guys think I have enough filteration on it to take off the Cannister filter? With the two Penguins and UGF, I have about 10x turnover per hour. Any ideas whether taking off the Cannister filter would be harmful or not? BTW, the Fluval takes about 30 minutes for me to clean every three weeks. This is besides cleaning the darn hosing and intake tubes. Thanks for the responses.
Bryson

IMO you should be doing about 1/10th the work on your canister filter as you do on the tank.... why are you messing with the canister filter so much? You should really only clean it but once every, or every other month. If you are fiddling with your canister filter so much that you are concidering taking it off I would say either your filter is worthless and you need a new one, or that you are being entirely too anal about it... I dont really want to sound harsh here, and I suppose I may have but really filters should not be cleaned/fiddled with as much as you are talking about, they dont work as well since you are always disrupting the bacterial colonies.

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Adam

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I agree. My fluval's are no trouble really don't clean it very often. I only do it once every 2-3 months no prob. ;-)

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Clint
CDevoe1111@aol.com

Let me first say that there must be a problem somewhere. When I open up my Fluval once a month it is really bogged down with brown algae and green slime. The impeller can barely spin. If I don't clean the Fluval once a month, the tank looks like there isn't a filter on the tank at all. Even when I do a 20% water change once a week. Stinky, dirty, and messy. The hosing leading to and from the Fluval is full of green slime. I don't overfeed my RD pellets (Pellets and worms are all I feed him). I don't think you guys are sounding harsh one bit, I appreciate the help a lot. BTW, what does it mean if there is calcium built up on my heater and Fluval hosing? There is always a lot of Calcium buidling up. THANKS VERY MUCH!

Bryson

I dont own a fluval, so I dont know a great deal about them.
Heres what I would do
Syphon half the water into buckets or simular, empty the rest of the water, get rid of the ugf, clean the gravel but not overly, put prefilters on the power heads.
Get another fluval like the 404 or an Ac500(which id easier to clean).

I honestly think that half your trouble is related to the UGF and RDs being like oscars can be messey and the ugfs are usueless with them

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TONY
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