what is your fav hob filter?

[Fedex3d]

I've got a marineland 200 on a 29 gallon tank and a 150 on a 20 gallon and love them both. Really like the 2 media slots on the 200 to add media or use the 2nd slot to use the filter to cycle a new tank.

 

[ktulu909]

Two Marineland emporer 400s on my new 55. Overkill? Meh.

 

[Fedex3d]

WOW !!!! They are definitely getting plenty of fresh circulated water lve always said you can't over filter.

 

[Brox]

Aquaclear for sure, it gets the job done for a hob and you can change diff filter media, also it's not too loud which is good because my tanks in my room

 

[Guppylove85]

nice love all the responses, I haven't up graded or setup my new tank yet i will some time at the beginning of September, it is great to see all this feedback, so many choices.

are there any hob's that you all think are cruddy, not worth investing in?

 

[Fedex3d]

I'm not a big fan of the Tetra whisper. The one I had at one time seemed kinda cheap. But that's just one man's opinion

 

[aaronjohn20]

I beg to differ on the tetra whispers. My parents had a 20g setup back in 1989 or so and had it ran for prob 4 or 5 years with a tetra whisper. It got tore down and put in the basement. Last year I went to my parents and got the tank and everything for it and set it up and the filter still worked, and is def quiet. Now since I've upgraded tanks, the took the 20g back and are currently using it with the same filter

 

[bloodlucky]

I don't see why people buy tank kits then throw out the filter it comes with and replaces it with a "good" filter. I just use my Aqueon QuietFlow 20 and replace my cartridges every month. It does a good job and I've never needed to reboot it because it's been "stuck"

 

[bloodlucky]

What about them sponge filters that you easily just squeeze out beneficial bacteria to cycle other tanks? What about them eh

 

[Lexilove]

I love aquaclear. I have had tetra whisper and I didn't like it. On my old 10 g they kept breaking when wee would have peer outages (2 broke) and they one that came with my 20 g didn't clean as well as the aquaclear. (this is just my opinion I know sow people like tetra... I am not one of them)

 

[paytertot]

I don't see why people buy tank kits then throw out the filter it comes with and replaces it with a "good" filter. I just use my Aqueon QuietFlow 20 and replace my cartridges every month. It does a good job and I've never needed to reboot it because it's been "stuck"

Please tell me you seed the new cartridges before throwing out the old... And we do that because we like certain filters for whatever reason. Like me, I hate hob filters. I just can't afford to buy another canister yet.

 

[Uncle Dirty]

I have 3 tanks set up in my livingroom with 3 whisper 60's and 1 whisper 40 with my tv in between. No problems here.....just sayin'.......

 

[hpiguy]

I just acquired an Aqueon 30 filter in a deal. It's not too bad,it just has some features I wouldn't have purchased it outright because of.

I don't like the power head in the tank on these Aqueons, though it does mean no priming, and the intake tube is poorly and weakly constructed/attached and doesn't seem to be extendable past it's short length. I still prefer the Marineland Penguins. More versatility in the Marineland models for the same prices.

For those that own an Aqueon filter and don't want to pay the crazy high prices that Aqueon wants for their replacement cartridges, I tested the fit yesterday and the Marineland C size cartridge and the Foster Smith BIO3 generic replacements for the Marineland C will fit just fine in place of the Aqueon Large filters. Much less expensive to go that route.

Some people say the Aqueon will fit two cartridges inside, but at the moment I don't see how. I do see where you could drop some bio media in right behind the intake tube if you wanted.

I just wanted to toss out that refill swapability of cartridges to others looking to save money.

 

[hcourts]

I get replacement cartridges st my lfs. He gets them and they cost me a dollar for the large ones they work great in all my aqueons!! And I can't hear any of mine and I have three running in my living room its like beverages, everyone has their favorite brand

 

[hcourts]

Plus I can fit one behind the other in all of mine. Normally in my 55/75 I will replace one and leave the other

 

[Uncle Dirty]

I got the Bio3 cartridges last week. Haven't tried them yet. Hope they hold up, especially for $11 for 24 of them from Foster/smith. Got a new heater and prime so shipping was worth it.

 

[aaronjohn20]

They SHOULD last u awhile. When you do a gravel vac, just take them out and swish them around in your old tank water then put them back in. Continue to do this until they are falling apart. And I'm not 100% sure which filter you have but if you have 2 slots replace 1 filter at a time

 

[ArtesiaWells]

I just acquired an Aqueon 30 filter in a deal. It's not too bad,it just has some features I wouldn't have purchased it outright because of.

I don't like the power head in the tank on these Aqueons, though it does mean no priming, and the intake tube is poorly and weakly constructed/attached and doesn't seem to be extendable past it's short length. I still prefer the Marineland Penguins. More versatility in the Marineland models for the same prices.

For those that own an Aqueon filter and don't want to pay the crazy high prices that Aqueon wants for their replacement cartridges, I tested the fit yesterday and the Marineland C size cartridge and the Foster Smith BIO3 generic replacements for the Marineland C will fit just fine in place of the Aqueon Large filters. Much less expensive to go that route.

Some people say the Aqueon will fit two cartridges inside, but at the moment I don't see how. I do see where you could drop some bio media in right behind the intake tube if you wanted.

I just wanted to toss out that refill swapability of cartridges to others looking to save money.

My previous experience with Aqueons has been positive (for heaven's sake, see my avatar!) but I do agree with some of your points about them, mainly the weak intake pipe and connection to the pump...

I had a QuietFlow 55 on my previous 60 gallon before it cracked and leaked, along with an AquaClear 110, and the filter seemed to give a really nice re-entry flow and pulled a great deal of debris from the water with its dual cartridges. I still have the filter, and will put it on whatever new tank I acquire next; I am also running a QuietFlow 20 on my 10 gallon temporary goldfish tank, and that little filter, for 125 gallons per hour, is keeping that tank pretty pristine...and I have not yet changed the original cartridge it came with.

I learned this the hard way, but the suggestions here by everyone are correct with regard to not throwing these carts away so often, and instead to just rinse/dunk them in removed tank water during water change intervals if they seem like they're slowing down the flow of the filter or if the thing is really falling apart; I never thought they should be, but the pads are pretty normal when they remain nasty and dark brown, stuffed with debris...this is where most of the beneficial bacteria is being housed. That's why it's a good idea to just dunk them every so often in removed tank water to get rid of all the surface, clingy nasty stuff that doesn't have anything to do with the good bacteria...

That said, with regard to the kinds of filters that come with tank "kits," I agree that it is somewhat unnecessary to immediately throw out

SORRY -- DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO FINISH THAT LAST STATEMENT THE LAST TIME I LOGGED IN!!

Continued:

With regard to the types of filters that come with many small "kit" packages -- such as the so-called "internal power filters" on Marina's "Goldfish Starter Kits" and the one that came with my Petsmart/"Grreat Choice" 10 Gallon Starter Kit -- I do believe most of these are worthless and should be replaced; they put out next to no flow, don't seem to catch any debris and have like no power from what I could tell. One of the first things we did after setting up our 10 gallon was to go out and buy an Aqueon QuietFlow 20 external power HOB to replace the included "internal power filter" that came with the tank kit...it just seems like it works better.

Though, I must admit: When we had the one Black Moor in her little two gallon Marina "Cool 7" Goldfish setup and used that kit's little included internal filter, it did seem to suck up her waste pretty effectively as I noticed when I threw out the little cartirdge when we moved her out of that little tank...

 

[hpiguy]

After using the Aqueon 30 for a bit now, I can say it's definitely not being replaced with another Aqueon if it breaks.

One thing, when doing PWCs, you can't let it run. The intake tube is so sloppy and loose on this model that the instant the water goes below the in-tank pump itself it starts to suck air and lose it's flow. Every other HOB I have you can drain a tank down to the strainer without ever losing flow, worrying about backflow or having to restart the pump.

Second, I left the stock filter in it, and wow, what a piece of garbage. It made the water stink. STINK. Something in the floss or the carbon. PEEEEUUUUUU. And cloudy too. The water wasn't milky, but it wasn't crystal clear like I want in my tanks. There were no fish in the tank at this time. I took it out and 80% of the carbon is bunched at the bottom of the filter. That's no good. It needs to stay spread out to work right.
I swapped in the BIO3 generic replacement and within hours it didn't stink as much and the water became crystal clear, as evidenced by my tank pics on here. No it's totally odor free, aside from normal mild aquarium scent. The BIO3 also allows you to toss the carbon packet and keep the blue foam filter intact when cleaning.

The filter will stay on the tank as it seems to be doing it's job, but I won't be using another one, and I'll never buy those Aqueon cartridges again. I'm glad I found out that my other cartridges fit.

All the above of course is just my personal experience with this model. I'm sure others differs.

 

[hpiguy]

I got the Bio3 cartridges last week. Haven't tried them yet. Hope they hold up, especially for $11 for 24 of them from Foster/smith. Got a new heater and prime so shipping was worth it.

The BIO3 package should have come with a reuseable hard plastic clamshell, a bunch of carbon packet of floss divided into sections to keep the carbon spread out and a blue foam piece for the cartridge. If you got the bulk package, it may have come with two clamshells and two blue foams.

When you replace the carbon floss packet, you can toss that if you wish, or rinse it if the carbon is still working, but leave the blue foam intact, so you'll retain your bio filter.

Make sure the carbon floss packet faces the water flow first, so it catches most of the debris.

On my Marineland 200s, I bought extra clamshells, they are like a buck each. I run the standard Marineland C cartridge first, then a BIO3 generic clamshell with a thick piece of blue foam (available anywhere like Foster Smith) in it as just a bio filter. Works great. You can replace the main carbon cartridge at will and retain the bio filtration safely.