# Your Favourite Filters?



## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

What are your favourite filters for your specific parameters?

i.e. what is your favourite canister or hang on back filter for say an aquarium with sand and x aquatic creature.


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## Fish_Man (Apr 9, 2010)

aquaclear (HOB) with any substrate


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## Octavian (Sep 30, 2009)

Rena XP Filstar and Aquaclear filters.


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

Fish_Man said:


> aquaclear (HOB) with any substrate


Does aquaclear clog easy with sand?


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## xbacala (Jan 9, 2009)

I love Eheim Classic Canister


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## trailblazer295 (Mar 7, 2010)

I've used various Aquaclears and always been happy with them, currently have an AC70 and 30 on a 30g tank with black flourite sand substrate.


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## didi (Mar 24, 2010)

I use AC 70 too in a 36g Tank. It works great for me. You can add two sponges instead of one and a biomax as the third media. Then even if the one sponge gets clog, you can rinse it while you have the other sponge in there. This way you have always enough bacteria. At least that's my plan so far.

But also, I have gravel in my tank. If you have tank, I am not sure if it gets clog faster.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

Joeee said:


> Does aquaclear clog easy with sand?


Any filter that goes motor>media is not friends with sand. Canisters that flow media>motor are more forgiving. I recently had some very very fine silica sand that got sucked into my Aquaclears, despite using prefilter sleeves, and I scratched up the inside of an impeller well so badly I replaced it. The sound is horrible. Thicker grained sands like pool filter sand are heavier and considerably larger grained and since I switched over I have not had any filter sucking up-ping problems.

As far as my favourite filters, for HOB, I like Aquaclears-- but they're getting ridiculous with the prices. Other than price though, I think it is a very proven, simple, highly versatile design, and has yet to be bested as a hang on back filter.

For internal filters, I think Eheim's Aquaball is fantastic, though I saw a video on JBL's CrystalProfi on youtube in which it looked very impressive. Similar to the Aquaball but it solves all the design problems that the Aquaball had. These are problems like inefficient use of space, an oversized motor head, puke green color, giant suction cup base that puts it far from the aquarium wall.

Canister wise, I like Eheim's Classic line. The 15 and 17 have no bypass, are reasonably priced, still have a fantastic motor, come with excellent quality tubing, excellent media, and they get the job done. I don't need media trays and I've never really seen the point. 22XX's are just as easy to maintain in my opinion.

I've never really used a sponge, undergravel, or box filter at home so can't comment.


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## Plaid (Nov 10, 2008)

My hands-down favourite HOB is the Aquaclear series.
I've got a mini that's run for something like 7 years, with no issues at all.

I've run them with flourite, moon sand, filter sand, and regular gravel, and it works great. My only concern is that the flow doesn't change at all, but that's intrinsic to the HOB filter itself.

I've also run Penguins, the Top Fin brand, and a HOT Magnum, and I find none of these to give as much bang for the buck as an Aquaclear. With all the media lasting for years at a time, too, it's the clear economic choice.

Wes


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## redrobster (Mar 3, 2010)

*Eheims , OVERATED*

I love my RENA ,HATE my damn EHEIM 2260. What a pain to clean without buying extra shut offs!!!! Clean my 75 gallon , no problem with the RENA But dare to clean out the Ehiem , It's freaken Fu*[email protected]& problems in my 150 , I migt as well re aquascape: mad: Never again, by the way,Jagger heaters are also over rated. I just love my new marineland heater , And if some one wants to trade for my 2260 , whata u got if u think their so hot


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## redrobster (Mar 3, 2010)

*Oh and these are Cannister filters I speak of.*

Eheim BLOWS


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## mandarin (Apr 8, 2010)

HOB - Aquaclear

Canister - Eheim


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## CanadaPleco (Sep 7, 2009)

Eheim all the way... I have sand in all of my tanks and have had pretty much every single pro series Eheim they have made, super easy to clean, works great, never really any sand in them. Never had an issue with breakage or anything either.

Hang on the back, emp 400's are much better for bio then any aquaclear filter.

As to the guy above complaining about ehiems being hard to clean, put some freakin shut offs on the hoses!!!! All the pro series filters come with them. I can clean any of my eheims in 10 min or so, and that includes the HUGE 2080


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## fish_luva (Nov 24, 2009)

CanadaPleco said:


> Eheim all the way... I have sand in all of my tanks and have had pretty much every single pro series Eheim they have made, super easy to clean, works great, never really any sand in them. Never had an issue with breakage or anything either.
> 
> Hang on the back, emp 400's are much better for bio then any aquaclear filter.
> 
> As to the guy above complaining about ehiems being hard to clean, put some freakin shut offs on the hoses!!!! All the pro series filters come with them. I can clean any of my eheims in 10 min or so, and that includes the HUGE 2080


Totally agree with you Canadaplec on both accounts... i am using eheims (2215, 2213 & 2217) and 2 xp3.. I found the xp3 had bypass and sand actually got up around and on top of the cotton batting, thus it went in and killed 1 of my impellors. Never had trouble with the eheims with this.

I also use the emps 400's as well 2 of them and find them excellent...


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

CanadaPleco said:


> Eheim all the way... I have sand in all of my tanks and have had pretty much every single pro series Eheim they have made, super easy to clean, works great, never really any sand in them. Never had an issue with breakage or anything either.
> 
> Hang on the back, emp 400's are much better for bio then any aquaclear filter.
> 
> As to the guy above complaining about ehiems being hard to clean, put some freakin shut offs on the hoses!!!! All the pro series filters come with them. I can clean any of my eheims in 10 min or so, and that includes the HUGE 2080


Biowheels may have their uses but I still find it highly irritating to pay money for a giant bucket on the back of my tank that actually has next to no actual media capacity. If I want Biowheels I'd get a Biowheel Pro or something like that.

I personally disagree with you that the biowheel is good biofiltration but as a non scientist I can't defend my position.

As for the guy who yelled EHEIM SUCKS-- what?

It's competetively priced, includes media, is of good construction for the price, and still has a better quality motor than the competition. Sure-- every design has some drawbacks. I think the little L shaped grey tube at the bottom of Classic canisters from Eheim is prone to damage if you aren't paying attention and I once snapped one. Otherwise I think the design is perfect.


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## vrb th hrb (Feb 20, 2010)

AquariAM said:


> Biowheels may have their uses but I still find it highly irritating to pay money for a giant bucket on the back of my tank that actually has next to no actual media capacity. If I want Biowheels I'd get a Biowheel Pro or something like that.
> 
> I personally disagree with you that the biowheel is good biofiltration but as a non scientist I can't defend my position.


I've always had an emperor 400 on my larger tanks. the bio wheel is great, but I always stuff the media inserts with ceramic rings, getting lots of extra biofiltration going on.

I like aquaclears for their ease of use, if i get a bit of bypass, pull out the sponge, wring it out in my water change water, and back to normal.

i've always been too much of a cheapskate to buy a canister


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

vrb th hrb said:


> I've always had an emperor 400 on my larger tanks. the bio wheel is great, but I always stuff the media inserts with ceramic rings, getting lots of extra biofiltration going on.
> 
> I like aquaclears for their ease of use, if i get a bit of bypass, pull out the sponge, wring it out in my water change water, and back to normal.
> 
> i've always been too much of a cheapskate to buy a canister


They really aren't expensive any more. You can get a used Eheim 2215 for only a few dollars more than a new Aquaclear 110 and it's 10x better.


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

I use Aquaclear with only sponge as filtration.


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## ksimdjembe (Nov 11, 2006)

I'll chime in here with a thumbs up for AquaClear HOBs


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

AquaClear 110 is the best deal on the market today. I run a LOT of them. I have about ten of them. I run them with either dual-sponges and forget the ceramic tubes, or I run them with a sponge and ceramics. Sometimes I bag-my-own-carbon, and sometimes not. HOBs and carbon are always easier than carbon-in-a-cannister, which is a P.I.T.A....

When I'm feeling Rich, I splurge on an EHEIM 2217, if the tank is over 50 gallons, and I'm not stacking two tanks on top of each other, it's worth having one of them. I usually get another cannister (whatever I can get cheap) to go beside it, for redundancy.

In a sandy tank, I would go with the EHEIM, as AquariAm states. You don't want that grindy grindy sand getting into your AquaClear.

I have heard people say that their AquaClears do not auto-restart for them if the power fails. I can only imagine that happening if your water is more than half way down the intake tube, and you lost your siphon. I keep my tanks within 0.5" of the top of the tank, and the intakes are always 3" submersed or more, and my aquaclears have never lost prime/siphon when power went out, and have always auto-started.

The only glitch I get with my aquaclears is that when the media gets clogged, you COULD get water down and out the back of it, and onto the floor. Not fun. If I'm in a room with carpets, I don't use AquaClear HOBs. Most times however the aqua clears "eject" the media container (the lid lifts up) long before they leak out the back, and this is your "clean me!" signal.

W


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

KhuliLoachFan said:


> AquaClear 110 is the best deal on the market today. I run a LOT of them. I have about ten of them. I run them with either dual-sponges and forget the ceramic tubes, or I run them with a sponge and ceramics. Sometimes I bag-my-own-carbon, and sometimes not. HOBs and carbon are always easier than carbon-in-a-cannister, which is a P.I.T.A....
> 
> When I'm feeling Rich, I splurge on an EHEIM 2217, if the tank is over 50 gallons, and I'm not stacking two tanks on top of each other, it's worth having one of them. I usually get another cannister (whatever I can get cheap) to go beside it, for redundancy.
> 
> ...


As above, for everything.

I too have NEVER had an AC fail to restart if the water level was at the correct level. Ever. In 10 years and about 20 aquaclears. Never had an eheim internal or can fail to restart or jam the impeller under any circumstances.

I've had several Marineland and Tetra filters fail to restart under the appropriate conditions. This is unacceptable.


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