CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

juss another thought on canisters...and powers

ive been keeping fish for years and ive never had a canister b4,
well...this is my thing,...what do canister have that power filters dont?...and some, at less GPH rate have a greater size tank capacity...

like would you guys use an AC500 powerfilter, over a magnum 350 canister?....while the ac does 428gph and the canister does 350

is the reason becaue canisters filters the water better?....or does it have more bacteria area...duribility, cost or lifespan of filter media...power usage...etc...?

i would like any recommendations cus im planning to buy another filter and i want it to be well worth the pay...cus an AC500 is only 30$ and magnum 350 is about 60-80$ which is more than twice as expensive...

or does it have more bacteria area

thats most of the advantage of a canister is more media area for bacteria to colonize and the different grades of media all in one unit.

Other wise they polish water better then hang on's,but if your water's clear and parameters are good I don't think they're worth the extra cash. I mean I'd take 2 ac500's over most canisters at the same price anyday, but thats just my oponion

I would go with an emperor 400, at $40 (big als), they have almost as much bio area in their bio wheel, and it is wet dry (in theory). You could get two of them for the price of one cheap canister, and have 3x the filtration GPH!!!! Just a thought, that is what i would do newayz!

Hmm.. this is actually a question i've been wondering about for a while as well...

I have a emperor 400 and a whisper 330 in my tank, and it's awesome! Great filter, I absolutly love it.

But it doesn't do a great job at polishing the water. My water is never crystal clear. It always has a hint of red or tan to it...

The chemical tests always show that the water is fine.

I've been considering replacing the whisper with an AC500 because I hear that's a great polishing filter, but then there's the whole canister route....

What would you guys suggest for this purpose??

Ac500 is a horrible polishing filter. Whisper is the best hot power filter for polishing IMHO. They arent great filters, but they remove particles great!!! If you have driftwood in your tank, it will cause that tan color, that is not a polishing issue. Unpolished water will be cloudy. I doubt you have a problem with those two filters!!!

hhmm...

I had driftwood in the water about 4 months ago, but removed it because of the color...

The water has improved a bit, but is still that tannish red color...


I don't know what to do, but I guess the fish are healthy, so I can't complain...

It is the same color as what the driftwood had??? In that case, doing water changes will lessen it and remove it if you dont have the driftwood in the tank anymore. I happen to like that color, but it is easily removed by doing water changes.

in my 55g tank i have a wisper 10-20...and its great!.....yea...10-20 isnt enough...but guess wut....i replaced the propeller with one from a 30-60 one and it runs fast like crazy.... BUT ive heard stories about wisper being a bad polisher..., and people say that penguin/emporer is better....this, i think is because the filter cart is very thin
i cant make it out cus my ACpowerhead 402 does all the polishing in the tank =]

i dont think ill have much trouble with the ac 500....cus i knoe the filtering materia is huge and thick, yet its coarse....and the holes are big.... thats where my 10x10 sheet of floss come in......man...this floss is THE BEST in polishing.....

i use it for my powerhead, my ac mini, and in my trickle filter box i made for my 30g....and the water is CRYSTAL clear!

when i use the ac500...ill prolly wrap the filter material with the floss for maximum filtering =]

....me n my creativity... =]

sheet of floss??

huh?

Help me out with this one...

I may just steal your ideas... I've also heard of people replacing their filter material with sponges and such.

Where should I start with this stuff? Any great benefit to it?

Also, the powerhead. I thought they were used with undergravel filters.. Do you have an undergravel in your oscar tank? isn't that bad?




I have the whisper that i'll screw around with, and i'll leave the emperor 400 alone.

thanks for the help

He has a powerhead with a sponge prefilter. Yes, powerheads can be used to draw water through an ugf, but more generally, they are used to create current in a tank!!!

Powerheads can also be used as a pump (with or without the sponge prefilter) to push water to an external filter like a wet/dry or trickle filter.

I think Fish Novice's trickle filter is probally something similar to mine (if not correct me) - powerhead pushes water up a tube into a box on top of the tank then gravity pulls the water through the filter box and the media then it goes back into the tank.

sheet of floss??

you can buy just the floss like filter inserts are made out of around here it's pretty cheap,like $4-6 for a 2X2 sheet

BUT ive heard stories about wisper being a bad polisher..., and people say that penguin/emporer is better....this, i think is because the filter cart is very thin

the filter inserts on both are the same thickness if you buy any aftermarket or bulk replacements some even interchange.On the brand name replacements a whisper should be a better cartridge for two reasons 1) you can leave out the carbon since you build your own whisper brand cartridges 2) some of the penguin/emperor cartridges only have floss on one side. also on the whisper brand replacements they're actually alot thicker if you count the fins inside the frame but it's just empty space so it shouldn't matter - Both a good filters,just different people will probally have different feelings about both, I have both and like both but unfortuneatly the new whispers are going downhill

one additional point,if your trying to make a hang-on filter "polish" better change the size of the media! example - if a ac 500 doesn't polish good enough for you ditch the sponge and go with a small pore sponge! simple! easy and cheap!:D The "stock" ac500 sponge has pores alot bigger then the openings in floss but a small pore or closed cell sponge has smaller openings then floss.Take the simple easy route instead of the pay double for the same thing aproach

sure enough...i DO have a UGF.....and only in my 55g where my O is....lol...how ironic....

i had it in there since i setup my tank not knoeing it was bad with cishlids....
now i knoe...and ive yet to remove it.... i dont use the powerhead or air bubbles to draw water through tho...the plates are just there....lol
the powerhead IS in there though....but ive attached a quickfilter on it...so it filters water like an underWATER filter...

and stillearnin....yes!....my trickle filter is the type you have described....lol.....lets go into detail.....it rund 180gph ont he pwerhead (or it can be decreased while its pumped upwards)....and the box is about 8x8x8 inches.....i have in there (from top to bottom)....a cap from a critter keeper (fits nicely)...used to break the water flow so that water is distributed throughout the whole 8x8...not juss one spot....and then 3" layer of 1"cubes of sponge-like particles used as areobic bacteria area....then i have 2" of filter floss....and then 1" of gravel, then a thin layer of floss again =].....

thats used in my 30g tank....and ONLY that is in there....its just like haing a canister for a 100g...juss smaller....lol

sometimes it juss is WAY better to use homemade stuff than go but the real thing....sometimes the homade things work better like in my case......lol
and the floss....whoa.....very handy....saves me a lot of money

i can also put so much floss that it can prolly polish just as well as one of those drinking water filters......and fish might actually die in too clean a water supply....lol (a joke)