Tony, in my mind, there is no comparison between the two as far as which one I would choose if you had a larger tank. I absolutely hate
HOB filters and I will tell you why. I have come home many times to whining filters that have not been filtering the tank for who knows how long because there was a power surge sometime during the day and they lost their prime. I have never had this problem with my cannister filters which are trucking right along as if nothing ever happened. The
HOB filters seem to require more maintenance and more often than cannister filters. I only clean my cannisters about once a month. I usually have to clean my
HOB filters every 2 weeks. The
HOB filters show a lot more than just the hoses and pipes of a cannister filter on the back of your tank. You have a lot more options with canisters as far as media you want to use. Most
HOB's have cartridges with the carbon already in the cartridge, and no place to add any other media. With a cannister, you add anything you want into the filter and how much you want of each thing. My cannisters are also much quieter than any
HOB I have ever used. I have an XP2 and XP3 running on my 100
gal. tank, and sometimes I have to touch the tops of them to make sure they are running. If I could, I would run a cannister on every tank I own!