"Actually, the water flows OVER the media in my
AC, not through it."
What? More
AC bashing from Willian???
Water does not go over or bypass the media in a
AC unless you screw something up. Simply put, the impeller shoves water under the media, then the water gets pushed up through it. Any water making it back to the impeller has already been filtered. This is by design! With an
AC filter, you can lower the flow rate, and the filter just cycles the water multiple times. So if you have a 200gps
AC set to half the flow rate (100
gph), all of the water gets filters TWICE before returning to the tank.
Also, in
AC filters the water gets pushes at a pretty quick speed through a lot of media. In other filters you have a thin vertical cartridge in a slow moviv pool of water? What do you think filters better, two inches of sponges, an inch of bio media, and some filter floss in an
AC filter OR 1/4 inch thick of media stuck on a plastic grate?
In an
AC filter, the media area is huge. Want to add some peat? Go right ahead. How about some extra bio material? That is easy too. How about some crushed coral? No problem there. Want to setup the whole thing just for bio? How about adding more floss for better mechanical? Only with ACs, just slip whatever you want into a media bag and put it right in there. With the Marineland filters, not all of them have the extra space for additional media.