LR and removing Cannister

[col]

Hi
My cannister filter has just broke and I'm not sure wether to replace it or not. Set up is:
20 months old
36 UK (42 USA) gallons
20+ kg live rock
Prism skimmer
2 percs, R Gramma, bicolour blennie, Bangaii Cardinal, YT Damsel - all pretty small.
Quite a few people have said to ditch the external cannister and the LR will take care of the filtration. I do not have DSB.
The thing that concerns me is that there was a fair amount of gunge on the media in the cannister. I'm monitoring the levels closely and if anything happens I will set up another external immediatley.
Any thoughts?

 

[broomer5]

I would say 20+ kg of live rock in a 42 gallon tank would have plenty of biofiltration - especially in a 20 month old tank.
I'm sure the gunge on the canister media held a decent population of benifical bacteria - but I would also bet that it held a lot of detritus & uneaten food.
You have live rock, a skimmer and maturing tank. You may want to add some additional in tank water circulation/powerhead if you don't add a new canister filter.
If it were me - I would ditch the canister filter too - especially if you don't notice an ammonia/nitrite rise.

 

[chandler04]

If you dont have a Wet Dry, then you should definitely set it up. That way you can put in the old cartirdges from the canister. You should never get rid of those cartridges, cuz that bacteria is very important. You should get the Wet Dry for the filtration, the flow and the in-sump skimmer. The skimmer lowers your nitrate and waste levels by removing wastes from the water, and you shouldn't be without. Canisters are okay, but wet dry is the thing you need.