Hello and thank you for the warm welcome ...
I must WARN all reading that I tend to over explain and my post will probably be long, wordy, most likely boring with more off topic information than anyone would probably need for what should be a simple question, so I am going to apologize upfront for those that will end up rolling their eyes at me
, and no offense will be taken on my part ~ lol I am sure it won't take long before I will end up being known as the psycho "post"er child! I sure hope you all can put up with me as I am a fish addict!!
** you may avoid reading entire post and simply scroll past all the crap to the actual question towards bottom for those rolling eyes...
#1 ~ I am so sorry if this has been discussed before but I really need some quick advice if at all possible as I am placing my order tonight for one of 2 canister filters & any input on which size I should get of the 2 I selected would be greatly appreciated.... and understandably am probably asking the impossible at this late hour so if no one sees this to respond in time I 100% understand due to the late finding of this site so I will simply fly by the seat of my pants if needed ..
**************
OK so here is my situation .... Currently I have two Aquaclear HOB 70's on my 55 gallon, one is dead and the other is going and quickly, with time I may be able to save one of them as a backup or second filter with the spare parts I have around but really need something new and now, this is 100% my fault as when I switched to sand instead of gravel about a year or so ago, was a newbie using aquarium sand & between myself, the fish stirring the tank up, the sand obviously got into the motors of the filters. Over the past year I have done what I can too keep the filters running however they have gotten so stuck that the when I pull the impeller out the "shaft" comes with it ... you can clearly see the wearing on the shaft from the grinding of the sand but I am somewhat of a "I CAN fix this darn it" type of girl ~ I tear apart my laptops and replace or fix most anything wrong with them, most recently the heatsink and fan & sucessfully if that says anything ~ so I am not one to normally give up, ... I have gone as far as to get a very small cleaning brush, dental floss etc and have spent 15-20 minutes rinsing and cleaning the shaft track of the impeller and then reinsert the shaft in the motor and insert the impeller until it will move up and down with no grinding ~ the impeller seems to bounce like it is suppose to, so I put the entire filter back and for about 12 hours or so if I am lucky, they seem to work fine, but then that ohhh too familiar sound of the grinding starts again, then shortly after comes the shut down....
Obviously this has gotten worse with time, lets not blame this on me though I prefer to blame it on my over zealous Rhino Pleco that that thinks he is a dog in water as he goes digging in the sand . ... So I think these motors/parts have seen all the wear I am going to get out of them and to top it off unfortunately at times they have run dry when I did not notice that a shutdown had occurred. 
My 55 gallon is the largest tank I have owned, but I have had as many as 10 tanks set up and running at one time anywhere from 5 gallons - to the 55 gallon and everything in between, I call it "Shanna's wall of fish/stress relief" I breed live bearers & albino bristlenose plecos as a hobby so I have lots of spare filter parts & after trying many other HOB's I have always gone back to the Aquaclear as I like to use my own filter media & simply found they worked the best for my taste. I honestly have had no problems over the years with them until this last year with the sand issue so the Aquaclears will stay with me but just not as my main source of filtration on the 55 gallon anymore.
To be honest I know I could order new shafts and impellers but I have wanted to "experiment with a Canister" for some time now, so not going to spend money on new parts at this time... I am going to use this as "my excuse" to play with a Canister filter
... BUT a cheap one for the time being for 2 reasons, #1 money is very tight at the moment. #2 being my first Canister, I would rather get to experiment with a less expensive one and work on upgrading as my addiction continues to grow.
YES FINALLY ~ THE ACTUAL QUESTION ... DRUM ROLL ...
So I have been researching, reviewing, googling, shopping online, youtubing ect for 3 days... grrr my eyes hurt... this being the last review I watched
and have now decided on one of the following:
Sunsun HW 303B 4 Stage Aquarium External Canister Filter w 9W UV Sterilizer 370g | eBay
OR
Sunsun HW 304B 5 Stage Aquarium External Canister Filter w 9W UV Sterilizer 525G | eBay
SO is the SunSun 304B-5-STAGE 525GPH too much for a 55 gallon, I have always over filtered in the past and that would be my choice but don't want to send the fish flying out of my tank, give them heart failure or send them into hiding
OR should I go with the SUNSUN-HW-303B -370GPH and if needed I can back that up with the one Aquaclear 70 after a little reconditioning to bring it back to life.
The difference is price is minimal and I personally would prefer to get the larger 304B 525GPH if it is not MAJOR overkill for my 55 gallon tank but this being my first canister I am unsure, I know I can use a ball valve on the tubing to control the flow some if needed but even with that option would this filter still be too much...
I am well aware that some will not like my choice of the Sunsun as I have seen this on other forums BUT while I greatly respect those opinions at this time it is what I want, what I can afford and after reviewing extensively ... this could simply be temporary and I can upgrade at a later time.
WHEW.... Nothing like getting accepted and putting out a cry for help before I even had time to update my profile, promise to get that done ASAP!! ....
Thanks in advance and again sorry if this has already been addressed elsewhere on this site, and for the novel I wrote!
Hope you had your popcorn handy, .
Shanna
I must WARN all reading that I tend to over explain and my post will probably be long, wordy, most likely boring with more off topic information than anyone would probably need for what should be a simple question, so I am going to apologize upfront for those that will end up rolling their eyes at me
, and no offense will be taken on my part ~ lol I am sure it won't take long before I will end up being known as the psycho "post"er child! I sure hope you all can put up with me as I am a fish addict!! ** you may avoid reading entire post and simply scroll past all the crap to the actual question towards bottom for those rolling eyes...
#1 ~ I am so sorry if this has been discussed before but I really need some quick advice if at all possible as I am placing my order tonight for one of 2 canister filters & any input on which size I should get of the 2 I selected would be greatly appreciated.... and understandably am probably asking the impossible at this late hour so if no one sees this to respond in time I 100% understand due to the late finding of this site so I will simply fly by the seat of my pants if needed ..
**************
OK so here is my situation .... Currently I have two Aquaclear HOB 70's on my 55 gallon, one is dead and the other is going and quickly, with time I may be able to save one of them as a backup or second filter with the spare parts I have around but really need something new and now, this is 100% my fault as when I switched to sand instead of gravel about a year or so ago, was a newbie using aquarium sand & between myself, the fish stirring the tank up, the sand obviously got into the motors of the filters. Over the past year I have done what I can too keep the filters running however they have gotten so stuck that the when I pull the impeller out the "shaft" comes with it ... you can clearly see the wearing on the shaft from the grinding of the sand but I am somewhat of a "I CAN fix this darn it" type of girl ~ I tear apart my laptops and replace or fix most anything wrong with them, most recently the heatsink and fan & sucessfully if that says anything ~ so I am not one to normally give up, ... I have gone as far as to get a very small cleaning brush, dental floss etc and have spent 15-20 minutes rinsing and cleaning the shaft track of the impeller and then reinsert the shaft in the motor and insert the impeller until it will move up and down with no grinding ~ the impeller seems to bounce like it is suppose to, so I put the entire filter back and for about 12 hours or so if I am lucky, they seem to work fine, but then that ohhh too familiar sound of the grinding starts again, then shortly after comes the shut down....
Obviously this has gotten worse with time, lets not blame this on me though
I prefer to blame it on my over zealous Rhino Pleco that that thinks he is a dog in water as he goes digging in the sand . ... So I think these motors/parts have seen all the wear I am going to get out of them and to top it off unfortunately at times they have run dry when I did not notice that a shutdown had occurred. My 55 gallon is the largest tank I have owned, but I have had as many as 10 tanks set up and running at one time anywhere from 5 gallons - to the 55 gallon and everything in between, I call it "Shanna's wall of fish/stress relief" I breed live bearers & albino bristlenose plecos as a hobby so I have lots of spare filter parts & after trying many other HOB's I have always gone back to the Aquaclear as I like to use my own filter media & simply found they worked the best for my taste. I honestly have had no problems over the years with them until this last year with the sand issue so the Aquaclears will stay with me but just not as my main source of filtration on the 55 gallon anymore.
To be honest I know I could order new shafts and impellers but I have wanted to "experiment with a Canister" for some time now, so not going to spend money on new parts at this time... I am going to use this as "my excuse" to play with a Canister filter
... BUT a cheap one for the time being for 2 reasons, #1 money is very tight at the moment. #2 being my first Canister, I would rather get to experiment with a less expensive one and work on upgrading as my addiction continues to grow. YES FINALLY ~ THE ACTUAL QUESTION ... DRUM ROLL ...
So I have been researching, reviewing, googling, shopping online, youtubing ect for 3 days... grrr my eyes hurt... this being the last review I watched
Sunsun HW 303B 4 Stage Aquarium External Canister Filter w 9W UV Sterilizer 370g | eBay
OR
Sunsun HW 304B 5 Stage Aquarium External Canister Filter w 9W UV Sterilizer 525G | eBay
SO is the SunSun 304B-5-STAGE 525GPH too much for a 55 gallon, I have always over filtered in the past and that would be my choice but don't want to send the fish flying out of my tank, give them heart failure or send them into hiding
OR should I go with the SUNSUN-HW-303B -370GPH and if needed I can back that up with the one Aquaclear 70 after a little reconditioning to bring it back to life.
The difference is price is minimal and I personally would prefer to get the larger 304B 525GPH if it is not MAJOR overkill for my 55 gallon tank but this being my first canister I am unsure, I know I can use a ball valve on the tubing to control the flow some if needed but even with that option would this filter still be too much
... I am well aware that some will not like my choice of the Sunsun as I have seen this on other forums BUT while I greatly respect those opinions at this time it is what I want, what I can afford and after reviewing extensively ... this could simply be temporary and I can upgrade at a later time.
WHEW.... Nothing like getting accepted and putting out a cry for help before I even had time to update my profile, promise to get that done ASAP!! ....
Thanks in advance and again sorry if this has already been addressed elsewhere on this site, and for the novel I wrote!
Hope you had your popcorn handy, .
Shanna
