Any recommendations for a good supplementary filter for a 29 gallon aquarium.

[Fresh2o]

Tetra made whisperers in the 80s! When I bought a 20 gallon long aquarium off of kijiji the tank came with an old second nature whisper power filter 30. The box for the filter was never opened so it was brand new though it was from 1995. I was surprised by the name but the box said tetra on it so it said " why the heck not!". The filter turned out to be very good though I had to play around with the impeller a bit because it was noisy. Today I am still using it as a supplementary filter on my 29 gallon but I would like to replace it soon for something more modern. View attachment 214702

They may have made them before that, perhaps in the late 70s. At that time I believe they were originally listed as Second Nature Whisper Power Filter 1, 2, and 3. Then later renamed them according to the recommended tank size. This was a step up from the power filter I used prior to that. Metaframe Dynaflow 150 over flow style power filter. It had a motor the size of a brick.

Glad that vintage filter worked for you. The impeller can be tricky. It comes apart so you would want to close the drain if servicing over a sink because of the small parts. I have had to improvise with small bits of rubber and nylon washers because parts had worn out or were lost. I stopped using my last whisper PF a few years ago.

Currently I am a fan of the AquaClear series mostly because of the flexible media options they allow.

 

[Pleco1415]

do you think if I got the aquaclear 50 with this much water in my tank it would be more quiet than the 30 that I am returning.

 

[Pleco1415]

this is what my whole aquarium looks like

 

[Ian086]

View attachment 214762 this is what my whole aquarium looks like

Can I make a recommendation, not for the filter but have you ever considered painting or putting a black background on the tank. It makes everything thing pop and the fish and décor colours really stand out....

 

[Pleco1415]

Can I make a recommendation, not for the filter but have you ever considered painting or putting a black background on the tank. It makes everything thing pop and the fish and décor colours really stand out....

I used to have a black background on my old tank and it looked really good but it was made out of bristle board so if it got wet it would loose its colour. When I upgraded the tank I bought a black aquarium background and the other side of it was blue and it was so thin that when I turned on the light for the room it looked more like a dark blue so I got rid of it.

 

[Pleco1415]

Do you know anything about moss balls?

 

[Paul1792]

Fluval C series is the best

The filter is crap. The motor is making a loud grinding noise and it is over flowing. I was very surprised because I've had aquaclears on my other tanks in the past. I will bring it back because I have a warranty on it and I will probably get the 50 or buy a tetra filter. I tried fixing the motor by putting some Vaseline in the impeller but it still makes the grinding sound.

I like the aquaclear filters for many reasons but one thing I hate most about them is the outflow. The outflow is placed near the top of the aquarium so you hear the loud water trickling sound. You will probably say fill the tank up more but if I do that the water will be right at the rim. I'm guessing the larger models have a deeper out flow so if I get the 50 instead of the 30 maybe it will be quieter. If that is not the case do you know any other good hob filters? I love the marineland bio wheels but the bio wheel makes to much noise even when the tank is filled up.

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I agree with the design flaws you dislike about the AquaClear.

I have an aquaclear 50 and a Fluval C3 running side by side on my 38 gallon tank and you would never know they were both Hagen Products.

The C3 is rated for tanks "up to 50 gallons" and has a 153 gallon per hour rating and the water flows from back to front in separate media compartments and 100% of the water is filtered with zero "overflow" until the filter gets dirty enough to clog and then it is easy to see the water to go directly into the tank without being filtered ... and the little "red button" starts popping up to let you know the filter is clogging. The mechanical compartment lets you insert cut to fit 5" x 5" x 1/12" inch 100 micron polishing pads for super crystal clear water. You cannot hear any splashing of the water and the flow causes no "air bubbles."

The AquaClear 50 is also rated for tanks "up to 50 gallons" with a 200 gallon per hour flow rate. However, it is easy to see that about 25% leaves straight to the outflow into the tank without being filtered unless you move the flow rate to the "low" setting. Although I got lucky with a silent motor on the AquaClear, I hate the splashing noise and those hideous little air bubbles that only go away if the tank is filled to where it almost overflows. I don't know how in the world you are suppose to know when the filter is dirty since the filter looked like it was clogged due to water flow right out of the box on Dec 27. You cannot use the 100 micron polishing pads because they restrict water flow too much.

[note: I am still running my Aqua-Tech 30-60 along side the AquaClear and the Fluval C3 until the AquaClear fully builds up with BB ... and yes, there is a lot of current going on in my 38 gallon tank}

I thought I had purchased a defective unit ..... and was ready to send it back ........ until I saw a "demo" on YouTube and it was running identical to mine. Further, there is no way to use 100 micron polishing pads because they restrict the flow too much so tightly packed floss will have to do. For those reasons, I got a C4 for my 29 gallon tank.

My AquaClear looks EXCATLY like this when it is running:

AquaClear 50 Review Part 2 - YouTube

Like the guy in the video, I use the pre-filter sponge on both filters.

I believe the AC 70 can be customized to provide much better filtration because it is a full 1and 1/2 inches deeper than the AC 50.

 

[Pleco1415]

You probably read this in the tread already but I'm using an ehiem 2213 on my 29 gallon. My ehiem 2213 has a lot of biological media in it but not a lot of a actually media that's traps the waste. It only has a thin filter floss pad and a carbon pad to trap waste and that is why I wanted a supplementary filter that would trap the waste with a cartridge. I have a second nature whisper power filter on there right now rated for 30 gallons but it is getting old and starting to have problems. If you know of any good supplementary filters other than Aquaclears and fluval c series please let me know. I like the marineland bio wheel filters but to loud for me because the aquarium I am putting the filter on is in my room.

 

[Paul1792]

You probably read this in the tread already but I'm using an ehiem 2213 on my 29 gallon. My ehiem 2213 has a lot of biological media in it but not a lot of a actually media that's traps the waste. It only has a thin filter floss pad and a carbon pad to trap waste and that is why I wanted a supplementary filter that would trap the waste with a cartridge. I have a second nature whisper power filter on there right now rated for 30 gallons but it is getting old and starting to have problems. If you know of any good supplementary filters other than Aquaclears and fluval c series please let me know. I like the marineland bio wheel filters but to loud for me because the aquarium I am putting the filter on is in my room.

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I'd vote for walmart's Aqua-Tech 20-40 or 10-20, depending on how much flow you want. I was using the Aqua-Tech 30-60 before buying the 2 HOB filter system on my 38 gallon. It worked perfect at keeping my water crystal clear. Of course, the blue factory cartridges are worthless and expensive, so I threw them out and used "cut to fit" Acurel waste & debris reducing pads followed by "cut to fit" 100 micron AquaticLife Non-Woven filter (polishing) pads.

The reason for getting rid of my AquaClear is that in order have lots of biomedia, I was using the "dirty water chamber" stuffed with Seachem Matrix and Purigen so to get clean water in the dirty water chamber, I was making these giant unsightly pre-filters with floss packed into a bio-bag surrounding an odd shaped opening and it was a horrible mess to make a new one every two weeks. But it sure kept my water crystal clear. Since you already have bio media in your canister, you obviously wouldn't have to do that.

And the good news ...... the aqua-tech lip goes right to the edge of the water at normal aquarium height so none of that annoying splashing sound. The noise level is not totally silent but low and smooth sounding and thus not annoying at all ...... nice background noise.

 

[Pleco1415]

I just returned the aquaclear 30 and got the aquaclear 50. When I opened the box and set it up it made the exact same noise as the old one. I took out the impeller and put a little Vaseline all over it and that took care of the noise problem. The next problem I fixed was the over flowing. I cut down on media and used the activated carbon, the sponge, and instead of using the bio max I used the ceramic material from my canister filter. It is a lot more quiet now but I've seen better with other filters.

 

[Paul1792]

I just returned the aquaclear 30 and got the aquaclear 50. When I opened the box and set it up it made the exact same noise as the old one. I took out the impeller and put a little Vaseline all over it and that took care of the noise problem. The next problem I fixed was the over flowing. I cut down on media and used the activated carbon, the sponge, and instead of using the bio max I used the ceramic material from my canister filter. It is a lot more quiet now but I've seen better with other filters.

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Glad you got it under control. If you should decide you want first class filtering should your canister ever "die," I would strongly suggest a Fluval C series.