AC versus the rest

[vantgE]

I think the basic performance of the different hob filters seem to explain there effectiveness quite clearly, an ac 300 is good for a 100 gallon tank, so why does a biowheel filter with 400 gph only handle a 80 gallon tank(emporer 400b), niether do any other hob filters get the same capabilities for the gph they all rate around the same

Penguin

gph100/15gallon tank gph125/25gallons gph170/30gallons gph330/45gallons,

Emporer

gph280/55 gallons gph400/80gallons

Ehiem liberty

gph100/20gallons gph150/35gallons gph200/50gallons

Tetratec

gph150/30gallons gph300/60gallons gph500/100gallons

Aquaclear

gph100/20gallons gph150/30gallons gph200/50gallons gph300/100gallons gph500/150gallons

so generally when averaged penguin gets 6.304 gph to the gallon, emporer 5.037, tetratec 5 gph to the gallon, ehiem 4.286, and of course ac wins with the most acurate results due to most examples with 3.571. Numbers were averaged and divided rounded to the thousandth

So compare these only the ehiem comes close and the ac out prices all of them substantially ( I believe 55 dollars at golds) it's also simpler, meaning it has only one pump to maintain and no fancy biowheels to stop spinning

How can anything more expensive less efficient more complicated be justified? buying anything else just seems stupid

Edited March 26, 2005 by vantgE

[thefishdude]

Agreed....

thanks for the breakdown :thumbs:

[rahim101]

I still think the recommended tank sizes for the Aqua Clears is off.

There is no way I would filter my 90 with Just and AC 300.

For HOB filters, I like to use the rule that says you should filter ALL the water in the tank 8-10 times per hour.

I use 2 AC 500's and an 802 pwrhead in my 90 gallon and for the price it is kept spotless with no hassle.

($55.00 X 2 for the AC 500 + $50.00 for the 802 =$150.00

OR an ehiem canster that start at $150.00....

[Oxquo]

As filters advance and Hagen has patented the filter media idea on the AC I still agree it is the best surface area for the size. As for filtering what they say? I use an AC 500 on my 55 gallon and find that after 2 years is having a hard time keeping up. That is seeing that people keep their fish alive for two years and the exact bioload grows as the fish do. I have always been a strict believer that a filter should turn over the tanks water 10 times and not the average suggested 3 times per hour. After 2 years my AC is terribly noisy and alot of my smaller ones seldomly seal after putting the motor back on after a cleaning also the intake tubes seem to loosen in their slots and miss out on alot of the flow. Aside from that, is there really a self priming filter??? Power outages have always meant a 50/50 chance of coming home to find anything more than a blistering hot motor and a gurgling filter.

I like AC's and always have but other companies have been improving, whisper is definitely the worst I have tried ever, on the lighter side I am completely amazed on my tests and trials of the Cascade. Penn Plax is known in my books to create terrible products which are easy to bust, undergravel filters are an exception. Yet for some reason, being ranked Number 1 in Japan made me give this little blue devil a try. Of course i cheated to some degree and swapped my carbon for amrid as alwasy but aside from that, this guy is so far really quiet, like the difference between Optima air pumps and Stellar pumps. As for self priming, I killed the power via breaker 10 times, once it was slow to start but even then it did start. I think should the power be out for a week and evaporation get ahold of the water supply this guy might be in trouble but otherwise there is no where but up to go with this product. The cool color and design is to be desired as well. Lets remember though that $55.00 for an AC 500 is not a common price and $109.99 down to sales of $99.00 is a more than average price. Cascade has one draw back in its hang on back filters is that 300 gph is a big one. Still, it has been doing a good job on my 55 gallon though I'd like to double it up. Personally, I've always disliked canisters and would rather have 4 HOB's than 1 canister. Tetra-tec also looks like it has good improvements in the makings. Too bad the heater doesn't come with this filter I see that as a really cool bonus, except for the fact that it never self primes, so if your power comes back on, your heater comes on only inside the filter, not in the tank where it's needed. Maybe someone should combine a few of the top filters and make a great one. I have just recently caved on my hatred of canisters when I discovered some guy selling out a bunch of Ocean Clear canisters he bought for a restaurant to keep his lobsters alive and such. To me this is the God of all filter creation, I will begin writing down results upon it's arrival and set-up.

After all that I guess my conclusion is that an AC 500 to me is good for a 50 gallon tank and it's lifespan is on average around here about 3 years.

[RD.]

I'm also a firm believer in overfiltering a tank, and have 2 AC 500's on my 55.

They're both going on 3 years old, and I've yet to remove or clean an impeller on either of them. I pulled one out once when I thought sand had gotten into it, but it was fine so I stuck it back in & it's been running smoothly ever since. Zero maintenance other than monthly cleaning of the media, and between the two filters I have enough bio filtration to support a 125 gallon tank. Both are also still running as quietly as the day I first fired them up.

I know people who have ran AC 500's for 10+ years with no problems, and they too never once cleaned the impellers, so perhaps sometimes it's just the luck of the draw?

All of the smaller AC's that I've used (300 and down) tend to get seized up on a regular basis. It seems that if I don't clean the impellers on a bi-monthly basis or so, they seize up on me when I unplug them for routine media cleaning.

Edited March 26, 2005 by RD.

[Toirtis]

I am big on the ACs, not just for flow-rate and reliability, but also for the sheer volume and customability of the media compartment.

I will add that I have yet to meet anyone that likes the TetraTec filters.

[Oxquo]

Hey I hear ya on the tetra-tec's. I got mine as a promo I am testing it on a 30 gallon as to which I haven't seen any better results than my AC -200 could do. RD, do you have any planted tanks? I find with planted, even with a prefilter I get munged up. I am quite convinced that even though more often used on planted tanks are the canister lines but they get nicely plugged as well, problem is you seldomly know it until two or three days later. At this time I run mostly air driven but on my displays 5 different AC's They are great filters but can improve still, more things than the box and the filter number I mean.

[RD.]

The only plant life in my tanks is algae.

[Rainmaker69]

I run AC filters, minis, 200,s, and 300.s/ They have been running for about a year, some slightly over. I find that I have to give the impellers a flick every time I unplug them before they will start pumping again, with few exceptions. They are a fantastic filter, otherwise and I am really pleased with them. I do not follow their recommended tank size and I run multiple filters on tanks to get 10X exchange rates or better. I got a Fluval 204 about 2 months ago and replaced one of the AC300,s on my 55 with it. Everything is going good on this tank so far and I appreciate the longer cleaning routine with the cannister. I tried another filter type with the slide in cartridge, I believe it was a TetraTec or something like that, and replaced it with an AC within a week. What a piece of crap it was.

Oxquo, what do you not like about cannisters?

[Nyasa]

What's there to appreciate about the longer cleaning routine on cannisters?

I use AC of various sizes on all of my tanks and have a Magnum and a Fluval cannister filtre. I find the maintenance on cannisters to be tedious and time consuming and they need just as regular maintenance as any AC.

AC's are dependable and durable and easy to maintain.

[Oxquo]

Oxquo, what do you not like about cannisters?

Cleaning canisters can be a pain as opposed to unplugging the HOB rinsing the media and carrying on. Also a HOB filter still maintains good air to the media while power is out yet a canister sits and rots until power comes on though most of them do self prime due to being lower than the tank itself. Last but not least, price, normally you can buy atleast two HOB's for the price of 1 canister, or an even better investment in most cases is a powerhead to accompany the HOB with a polishing system set up on it. All this and money for beer afterwards.

[albert_dao]

I don't even unplug the HOB's when I clean them. Not even if the water level drops below the intake.

[dunl]

I used to unplug mine to clean the filter media, but unless I get sand in the filter, I just keep it going like Albert said. They keep gurgling, and self-prime almost immediately during water changes once the water level reaches the input shaft.

[RD.]

You guys must have a pile of crap that gets blown in your tank when you remove the media?

I not only unplug mine, I suck any leftover waste out with my python before I replace the media basket.

[vantgE]

I like to overfilter too but what you guys are running seems alot, I think double filtration with two filters would be ideal for any tank and my money