- Hey, it's Thomas here.
And today we're gonna be checking out
Sicce's Whale canister filter.
And yes, I just said canister filter.
I can feel the glare from the reefing community
coming right through the camera.
But hear me out,
because I really think they were wrongfully shunned.
Now, for those who skipped freshwater
and went directly to salt water,
you're probably not very familiar with the canister filter.
So before we do anything else, let's fix that.
The canister filter is a closed container
to hold a variety of filter media.
Most often all three stages,
including mechanical, chemical and biological media
with a motor built into the lid
and a pair of hoses to take water from
and return water to the aquarium.
It's basically a media reactor
that has a motor built into it
rather than needing to use an external pump.
And they've been favored heavily in the freshwater world
because they take up less space on the rim of the tank
allowing you to get the tank closer to the wall.
They generally hold more media
and they run much quieter, often silent,
compared to hang on power filters.
And while they are hugely popular
on the freshwater side of things,
they don't get nearly as much love on the saltwater side,
which I personally think is a dang shame
since they definitely have a place in reefing.
Heck, I had a skimmer-less 20 gallon SPS dominated reef
that ran on a canister filter and it did very well.
But I'll explain how I pulled that off
in just a little bit.
Where I think the majority of reefers
are gonna find benefit in a canister filter like this one,
is going to be with things like periodic water polishing,
whether it's mechanical or chemical filtration,
things like adding extra filtration to an all-in-one system
that's already jam packed in that rear chamber,
there's no more space for anything else,
or even adding filtration to our quarantine system
that will allow you to have an external inline heater
or UV sterilizer without having to add more pumps
or taking up space in the tank.
If those sound like scenarios
that you've been trying to find a solution for,
Sicce's Whale canister filters are a really great option.
They're built tough by a company known
for having a fantastic warranty
and customer service to match.
They are user-friendly with features
that make maintenance simple and easy,
like large media baskets, a removable valve block,
simple priming, a strainer with a built-in check valve,
and serviceable intake and output assemblies.
They come ready to go with media tubing
and everything you'll need to get them set up.
Plus they look pretty dang slick
with that glossy piano-black finish.
In the box you'll find the canister filter
with the media baskets and the media inside of it,
this soft and rigid tubing,
the installation sets and parts
that include the intake assembly,
the output assembly, a 90 degree elbow,
a water deflector, an intake strainer,
four hose clamps, four suction cups,
four rubber feet for the canister body,
and three media basket handles,
as well as the instructions and a quality control card.
The Whale canisters come in four different sizes
including the 120, 200, 350, and 500,
rated for aquariums between 10 and 90 gallons.
When being used as the primary filter,
they push 140, 190, 330,
and 390 gallons per hour respectively,
and have 1.5 liters,
2.2 liters, 5.2 liters and 7 liters of media capacity.
They also come ready to go right out of the box with media,
including 10 PPI and 20 PPI foam pads
as well as core ceramic bio media.
The media is preloaded into the square media baskets
inside of the canister,
but make sure you remove the bio media
from the plastic package before running the filter.
The square media baskets also make swapping
and cleaning the media a whole lot easier,
and their shape makes using cut-to-fit
or off-brand media really, really easy
for those who prefer to buy those types of media in bulk.
These canisters have a lot more going for them as well.
Not only are they super quiet when they're running
and look really sleek with that glossy piano-black finish,
but they are also very user-friendly.
The intake assembly has a plunger rod
and check valve for easy priming.
The output assembly has a valve for flow control.
The output is multi-directional,
so you can send the flow wherever you need it to go
in the tank.
The valve block has a single stage quick release lever
that both closes off the tubes
and releases them from the canister in one motion.
It also has a pair of rotating barbs
to make placement of the canister easier
regardless of where you want the tubes to go.
The locking clips that hold the lid onto the body
are two-stage and have a very nice firm click to them.
The tubing is great to prevent any kind of algae growth
and it has thick walls,
so they don't easily kink.
Sicce also includes a very simple but effective
hose clamps and easy grab handles for the media baskets.
Long story short, Sicce did what they do best.
And just like with all of their aquarium pumps,
they made this canister filter, you know,
super user-friendly, easy to work with and built to last.
Doing maintenance on this filter is also really simple.
Unplug it from the wall,
pop off the valve block and take it to a sink or tub,
undo the clips, pop off the lid,
and you have access to those media baskets for a media swap.
For a more thorough cleaning of the motor housing,
you can access the impeller
by flipping over the lid of the canister
and giving the impeller cover a twist
following the direction of the arrow to unlock it.
Then you can pop it right off
and pull the impeller out for a quick scrub.
Also both the intake and output assemblies come apart
to make cleaning them easier, which is great.
Like I mentioned earlier,
I actually used a canister filter very similar to this one
as the primary filter on an SPS dominated reef tank,
which I'm sure some of you are sayin'
is probably a bad idea,
but I'm gonna go ahead and argue that one.
Basically, if you're gonna use a canister filter
there's a couple of things you have to consider and do
for it to work properly.
Number one,
you'll notice canister filters have a lower flow rating,
and to get around that you're gonna end up using
a canister filter that is rated for a tank much larger
than the one you're putting it on.
And the reason that it's so low
is because they're tailoring the flow
to the contact time of the bio media,
but our reef tanks want a little bit more flow.
So you go with a larger canister filter
on a smaller reef tank, no big deal.
There's one more thing you really have to do as well.
And that is to take all of the fine mechanical media,
whether it's fine foam pads, or polishing pads,
or filter batting, or anything like that
and pitch it aside.
Because if you use it in the canister,
it's gonna bog up very quickly
and you'll be going in and doing maintenance on it
weekly or bi-weekly, which we don't wanna do.
If you just use a coarse foam pad on the bottom,
which is where the water is gonna enter through first,
and fill the rest of the trays with bio media,
you'll get all of the biological support that you need
from the canister filter,
and only have to do monthly maintenance.
Which is a lot better than doing weekly or biweekly.
Which is also why I generally won't use any sort
of chemical media
if I'm running a canister filter as the primary filter.
You always have the option if you need it.
But if you wanna stick to that monthly maintenance,
which you definitely wanna do if you're using one of these.
Yeah, just leave it out.
And then you're good to go.
Now for the rest of you reefers out there
that are gonna use a canister filter
for things like periodic maintenance,
such as biweekly or monthly water polishing,
the following setup, I find,
works really well for me.
Starting with the very bottom basket
in the canister going up.
I like to use 10 PPI foam pads,
then 20 PPI foam pads,
then a fine filter pad like felt, floss or batting.
And then top that off with a high quality bag of carbon.
Then you can let it run for the entire day,
or even overnight, but usually not longer than 48 hours.
And you'll pull out all of those tiny bits
of dust and specks floating around in the water
while also removing yellowing pigments from the water
for a crystal clear tank,
which is a great thing to do right
before you have like a dinner party or family coming over,
so that the tank looks immaculate and you can show it off.
If Sicce's Whale canister filters match your reefing mantra,
you can go ahead and pick one up for yourself,
whether it's for some periodic maintenance
or maybe setting up a nano tank,
by clicking right here.