in the end its up 2 you but im going to put in my 2 cents, ok so first off i have used both and i think they are both very good filters but like all filters the have the flause, ill start with the aquaclear, i had a aquaclear 70 on my 55 along with a marineland bio-wheel 330, both worked great, anyways the aquaclear is great because of how its designed and you can fit anything in there you dont just have to use the filter media they give you, lol you could use fluval media or rena, eheim, all of those in the aquaclear and the best thing about it is when water is low because of evaporation it doesnt make a lot of noise, when the water level is low on the bio-wheels it does make a lot of noise but if you have an auto top off system then you dont have to worry about that, also aquaclear gives so much power in such a small size i mean the 110 model filters 500 gallons an hour no bio-wheel can do that, ok so now the bio-wheels, well other than what I already said about it its still a good filter and the bio-wheel does what its suppose to do, and it last for years and years, now as for how the filters are made and which is better its hard to say, so if your looking for somthing that you can change the media in the the aquaclear is for you but if you are look for good bio- filtration then the bio-wheel is for you but the aquaclear can also have very good bio-filter if you have the right materials.