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Well, let's assume I was wrong about Purigen, fine. But that's what I thought I had read on the Seachem website. But I also said you can run a C series without it.
Lets not assume, let stick with the facts. Purigen is a great product, don't get me wrong, I much prefer it to carbon. That said however, its purpose is to remove and control nitrogenous products.
As for the link to blackwater tanks ........ for gosh sake ...... I assumed you had at least one and knew all about them. I put that in for anyone else who was reading the thread ... who, like me, might not know what a blackwater tank was.
Fair enough, since you were responding to my post, I assumed you included the link for my use. Blackwater tanks are accomplished by adding products that increase tannins in the tank, a substance that purigen removes, so if your goal is a blackwater tank (which certain fish appreciate), then crystal clear water is most definitely not a goal - that was by-the-way, the point of my original post. One has to know one's purpose in order to determine what will work best, aquarium keeping is not a one size fits all hobby.
Yes ....... as to the aquaclear basket being a mess ........ that is only my opinion. But I own both ....... do you?
No, I clearly stated that I do not - I simply said that if their performance is proven long term like the AC is, then I might have to consider getting one. A new product on the market is not proven long term. I've spent a lot of money on filters over the years and quite frankly many were not worth the money. I don't play that game anymore. I have a proven product that works, so I can sit back and see how things are doing in a few years, after that initial super high cost of the "biggest and best" new idea on the market comes down a little. I outgrew the need to acquire every new gimmick that hits the market a long time ago. That is what makes aquarium keeping expensive. Some people (not saying you) get so hung up on getting the newest gimmicks that they just have to have it - regardless of whether or not they do anything or even the same thing as something they already have.
The Fluval C has three separate chambers so it is easy to separate the media.
Each type of media in the Fluval C can be changed without messing with all the media AND can be changed without turning off the filter.
To service the AquaClear basket, you must shut off the filter ....... pull out the media basket as it drips all over the place ....... then try to get the different media stacked so that it is somewhat even. And trying to stuff floss in it is a mess. So that is my opinion. I can service a Fluval C series in a couple of minutes with zero mess. Servicing my aquaclear 50 is a major messy ordeal. And yes, that's only my opinion.
Well see, there you go. I see servicing my filter as something I do when I'm doing water changes, so my filter is already shut off. I use a nice big dish to transfer the filter media into immediately as I take it out of the filter and then I have a nice convenient place to rinse it out using nice clean RO water that I am adding back into my tank. Put it all back together in the dish, slip it back into the filter, complete my water change, dump the dish, and voila no fuss, no mess. Back together and running like a champ till next week when I do it again.
As to the bypass issue, you have it if your filter is unmodified. All those holes in the side cause water to bypass due to the law of physics that water follows the path of least resistance.
Here is the issue described along with a homemade cure (I used duct tape myself):
So let me share a little observation that I made just recently one of my aquaclear filters. My aquariums are in a classroom, and students are required to maintain the aquariums as part of their grade in my course ~ show me that they understand how to do it properly and all that. Recently one of the groups failed to clean their aquaclear filter for several weeks and water flow through (or around) the filter slowed to a mere trickle. In fact, it was such a mere trickle that what the students noticed is that their fish were struggling to breath. The reason being they were not getting enough oxygen because there wasn't enough flow. Now, if as you claim, there was this well documented severe issue of by pass occurring in these AquaClear filters as you claim, then an issue like that would never have occurred. Water would simply have been bypassing the clogged media and there would have been no issue with flow or oxygen supply. Guess what? As soon as we cleaned out the filter media and we got normal flow restored, the fish issue just sorted itself right out. Based on that observation and the reduced flow through the AquaClear filters that I've observed through the years, and the obvious improvement of flow that occurs as soon as you clean the filters, I'm gonna say that your opinion of a well documented severe issue probably is not the big issue that you keep trying to make it out to be, regardless of how many threads you link. The fact is, if I started linking threads on what a great filter the AquaClear is, I could very well be here all night long. There very well may be a little water that bypasses the media in the current set-up, quite frankly I've never seen one that stopped flowing completely. But I'm also willing to bet that if you let the filters on your Fluval C plug up that water will find its way through the filter as well, which means you got a little bypass issue of your own going on 
. So once again, I'm going to take my personal experience and observation of the functionality of the filter over your opinion.
AquaClear bypassing filter media - Equipment Forum - Nano-Reef.com Forums
That's why there is a specially made filter basket for Aquaclears by an aftermarket company that makes the filter work correctly.
AquaClear 70 Media Basket
No, the filter works correctly as it is built - there wouldn't be as many success stories about them as there are if they didn't. The specially built filter basket is a great gimmick produced by a aftermarket company that takes advantage of rhetoric like yours to sell an unneeded product for the almost the same cost as the entire filter to uninformed or misinformed people who don't know any better. Who spends $50 on a media basket to fix a $50 filter?
Have a great day !!!!!!!
