Please Recommend a New Filter

[Burning Spear]

[FONT=Arial, helvetica, verdana, times new roman]My home's power blinked Friday morning. It was not even long enough to reset the VCR clocks, so I didn't give it a second thought. Friday night I fell asleep about half an hour after dinner, so it was a rare night when I didn't go to the basement to feed the fish. Last night I went down and saw that both of my AquaClear filters had failed to restart after the power interruption. Both motors burned out. This is not the first time this has happened. I discovered it at 8:50 last night, so it was too late to go to the store and get replacements. First thing tomorrow. Fortunately, the fish are OK.

So I'm done with AquaClear. Can anyone recommend a hang-on filter that will self-prime in such situations? I don't want to deal with cannister filters -- I have a $200 Fluval sitting unused. I prefer hang-ons for the ease of cleaning and media replacement.

Any suggestions before I go out this morning? Thanks in advance![/FONT]

 

[jft]

Eheim!

 

[cabezon]

I send you my emperor 400 to trade for the canister. I cant fit the hob on the back of my tank because of a countertop.

 

[mfdrookie516]

if this is something that has happened before, you may want to look at your electrical system and see if there is an issue there. aquaclear is one of the most highly recommended filters on the market... i would almost have to guess that even getting another filter, if you experience another power failure like you did, you may have the same issue. did you have them hooked to a surge protector or gfci plug?

 

[Burning Spear]

if this is something that has happened before, you may want to look at your electrical system and see if there is an issue there. aquaclear is one of the most highly recommended filters on the market... i would almost have to guess that even getting another filter, if you experience another power failure like you did, you may have the same issue. did you have them hooked to a surge protector or gfci plug?

They're hooked to a surge protector that's plugged into a GFCI outlet. Every few months there's a momentary blink in our house. I'll know because my touch-control desk lamp is on. If the VCRs are blinking, it was a long outtage. I happen to enjoy every aspect of the Hagen filters but for the fact that they won't restart unless they're primed. For someone who is out of the house 12 hours a day, I need something that will restart on its own. So I tried a Whisper EX. I'll replace the motors on the AquaClears and run them in conjunction with the Whisper.

 

[HN1]

What level do you keep the water in your tank? I've run AC20s - 110s and never had an issue with them priming after an outage.

 

[Burning Spear]

What level do you keep the water in your tank? I've run AC20s - 110s and never had an issue with them priming after an outage.

I keep the tank full to within an inch of the upper edge.

Just to clarify, I've been keeping aquariums for 15 years. I downsized to one 70-gallon aquarium a few years ago, after getting into ponds. I always used Fluval exterior canister filters, so my only experience with hang-ons has been the AquaClear. Again, I really like the filter, but there are just too many times when I come home to see them empty; the motor dead or whirring to try to draw the water. Maybe it's an issue of using too long an intake pipe? I want to draw the water from the bottom, but maybe I should be using the shortest intake pipe available?

 

[cabezon]

First off, instead of just a surge protector you would definitely want a UPS with a battery. that way little dips in electricity will be evened out. a surge protector just protects from spikes. Also I don't believe there is anything you can do to the intake to assist in the priming of a centrifigal pump, other than keep the water level in the tank high.

 

[WhiteDevil]

Here, take the AC's off the tank, take them to the sink, drain them, then proceed to remove the motors on the units, remove impeller, clean, reassemble, plug in to test, working great! Now reassemble, fill with tank water, turn on and enjoy.

My AC70 draws from the bottom of the tank. 52g FBH.

I doubt there is anything wrong with your filters, but Ill be interested in purchasing them if you are going to toss them out, I mean they are perfectly good still, Its kinda like a GFCI built into the motor.

NO HOB self primes, To combat this at my residence I put the tanks on Battery Back Ups.

 

[stephen_t89]

I understand what you are going through. I have been through my share of filters. I currently have an emperor 400 and it is great! If you would like more info on this product you can go to this site and read up on it a little more. Like I said, this is my personal favorite filter.