HOB or Canister

[Amicus]

I am pretty unfamiliar with the canister filters and thinking about getting one. Which is a good filter to get? I was looking at the Marineland C series and Fluval. Do I need to drill my tank for a canister? I am not object to this but also wary at the same time. If I were to go with a HOB it woud be a biowheel. Is there a better choice for planted or artificial? Does lighting make a difference with filter type. Will the canister deal with ammonia as the biowheel does? I have a biowheel on my 29g and things have been going well but am interested in a canister.

 

[mfdrookie516]

Canisters are great. I think aquaclears are more than sufficient for tanks less then 75g, but anything 75g or bigger I prefer a canister. You don't drill the tank for canisters, the hoses go right over the top and back down in to the tank. I would look at fluval, rena, and eheim. I have all three and can't complain about any of them. I used to hate the eheim, but I'm liking it more and more every day now.

I have an eheim 2224 on my 40 breeder and a fluval 305, fluval 405, and rena xp3 on my 125.

 

[Amicus]

May I ask why you did not like that particular canister? If I plant, do I want a canister anyway?

 

[carey]

I have 7 tanks and am running Aqua clears or fluval canisters. I have the fluval 305 on my sw tank and a fluval fx5 on my 125g. I really like how they go together and come aprt for maintenance. I haven't had any other filters so I really can't compare I guess. LOL

On a 29g I would say an Aquaclear 70 is my vote. A canister isn't really necessary imo.

Godd luck

 

[mfdrookie516]

I'm running the canister on my 40 mainly because its planted... but for other reasons too like the fact that canisters filter better, it allows me to run my co2 reactor inline, doesn't agitate the surface, and doesn't stick up off the back of the tank which not only looks bad (IMO), but also allows the tank to be closer to the wall.

The reason I didn't like the eheim was because my fluvals were the first two I had and I fell in love with them. Their design is much different than the eheim. I liked the way the sponges were off to one side and the bio media was in baskets in the middle. On eheims and renas, there are just baskets. I'm actually liking the desing better and better, especially when it comes to cleaning. The reason I didn't like it was because it was different. The only reason I even mentioned it is because I used to say I didn't like eheims and didn't want to sound contradictory.