Well, we spend most of our time in the basement actually. The basement is a finished walkout basement, no rooms but the entertainment center is there and oh yes....a mini bar.
I'm done with canisters
- Thread starter Redearsunfish
- Start date
Same here! I live in my basement.. only going upstairs to eat and sleep. Rotate the poofy chair 180 degrees to go from viewing the tank to the plasma display. They're cool in the summer and stay warm in the winter.. so I save from needing to crank climate control.Well, we spend most of our time in the basement actually. The basement is a finished walkout basement, no rooms but the entertainment center is there and oh yes....a mini bar.
You rarely see more than 240 gallons on a second floor without floor reinforcement. Not sure you can go 1000 gallon+ at all.
Anything can fail. Excluding acts of god like a commercial air liner crashing into your house, you can have a fail safe aquarium. What's a failsafe aquarium? Really it's any aquarium that doesn't fail, it could fail catastrophically, but it doesn't.
Canisters fail, siphoning the entire tanks contents onto the floor.
Hob's fail, filter pads can clog due to neglect and eventually have spillover problems. Usually its the fault of the user.
Even a lowly sponge filter can back siphon water through the airline if set up incorrectly
I still stand by the fact that sumps are the safest. Or should I say, can be the safest. Its a diy project, the amount of redundancy and engineering that go into the project is up to you. It's endless. I made mine with a gigantic margin for error. A margin for error so huge that I feel like no commercial filter can compare. Sure the schedule40 pvc rated at 150psi can rupture and spray water everywhere - but I'll bet a dozen cheap injection molded brittle plastic power filters or canister filters stress fracture and soak a living room floor before my plumbing does.
Its all personal preference.
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Canisters fail, siphoning the entire tanks contents onto the floor.
Hob's fail, filter pads can clog due to neglect and eventually have spillover problems. Usually its the fault of the user.
Even a lowly sponge filter can back siphon water through the airline if set up incorrectly
I still stand by the fact that sumps are the safest. Or should I say, can be the safest. Its a diy project, the amount of redundancy and engineering that go into the project is up to you. It's endless. I made mine with a gigantic margin for error. A margin for error so huge that I feel like no commercial filter can compare. Sure the schedule40 pvc rated at 150psi can rupture and spray water everywhere - but I'll bet a dozen cheap injection molded brittle plastic power filters or canister filters stress fracture and soak a living room floor before my plumbing does.
Its all personal preference.
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Manufacturer's instruction says that air pump and air line should be located above, not below the tank, so even if an air line comes off, which happens frequently, it won't back siphon. But how many people actually follow the instruction. Don't underestimate the tiny air line leak. There have been reports that half of the tank water was in the ground over a weekend incident.
A clogged up HOB filter pad shouldn't spill over to the ground. IME with Pengiun, Whisper and Aqueon HOBs, they are engineered to spill over the bypass spillway, not over the box. I have observed how close the back up water to the top of the box without spilling over. You are speaking about AC in which the unique reverse flow design can pop up a clogged up foam spilling water over the box if it is not perfectly leveled. This is why I stay out of AC.
Sumps are pretty safe IMO, if you design it right and test run it. But setting up a sump system requires brain which is intimidating to many people. Sponge, HOBs and Canisters are for no brainer, just hook them up and ready to go.
A clogged up HOB filter pad shouldn't spill over to the ground. IME with Pengiun, Whisper and Aqueon HOBs, they are engineered to spill over the bypass spillway, not over the box. I have observed how close the back up water to the top of the box without spilling over. You are speaking about AC in which the unique reverse flow design can pop up a clogged up foam spilling water over the box if it is not perfectly leveled. This is why I stay out of AC.
Sumps are pretty safe IMO, if you design it right and test run it. But setting up a sump system requires brain which is intimidating to many people. Sponge, HOBs and Canisters are for no brainer, just hook them up and ready to go.
If one is really lazy/stupid and never cleans the sponges in an AC filter, they can eventually clog up, but even in that rare scenario any resulting spillover can be easily directed back into the tank by simply utilizing the self leveling tab at the bottom of the filter and elevating the back side of the filter.
I've never experienced any form of spillover from a HOB, and I've been running numerous AC filters over numerous years.
But I agree with the previous poster, anything can fail ...........
The leveling device allows you to adjust the AC box back and forward, not sideway. If the popped up foam lean on one side, it can wick water and drip to the ground. Another weak link in AC is that you have to unscrew the motor to clean the impeller. Over time the O ring will fail and leak.
If I cross the street lightning could strike me down, but in 55+ years that hasn't happened, either. 
Some of my older AC's are 10-15 yrs old, and I've never had to change an O ring on any of them.
Some of my older AC's are 10-15 yrs old, and I've never had to change an O ring on any of them.
I don't dispute that you have never experienced an O ring leak, but it has happened to me and others. O ring is made with rubber that will deteriorate with age. All canister filters are vulnerable to leak because they rely on O ring to seal the canister. If you never or seldom unscrew the AC motor to clean the impeller, it can last for a very long time. I know Whisper has O ring and likely other HOBs do, but they are not designed to have the motor removed to clean the impeller, so the O ring is not a weak link. That said, I damaged the O ring an old Whisper in an attempt to fix the noisy impeller.If I cross the street lightning could strike me down, but in 55+ years that hasn't happened, either.
Some of my older AC's are 10-15 yrs old, and I've never had to change an O ring on any of them.
I don't doubt that your ACs last for decades, so do all my Whisper,Aqueon and Marineland HOBs. The low wattage motor is an engineering marvel that will never burn out and last forever. . People seldom abandon HOBs because they stop working, but more likely because the impellers make loud noise that can't be or not worth to be fixed. The only HOBs I burnt out the motor were my old fashioned SuperKing and MasterKing that run on direct drive motor that gets very hot.
LOL, no kidding? Yes, O rings can leak, plastic can crack with age, silicone seams can fail, glass can fail under stress, etc-etc. If I lived in a world of paranoia I probably wouldn't be keeping large glass boxes holding 1,000+ pounds of water in my house.
But what you are describing as a manufacturing flaw is in my humble opinion, based on decades of practical day in & day out use, an operator error. How do I lay blame on a manufacturer if I am too stupid or lazy to clean the media in my filter, to the point that water ends up on my floor? Or if I am constantly removing the motor to clean the impeller without checking the condition of the O ring, or at the very least lubricating that ring before resealing the motor? Maybe it's just my age, or the manner in which I was raised, but I don't look for others to blame when it comes to my own acts of ignorance.
On a side note, the only time an AC motor (specifically the AC 110 model, I don't run the smaller motors) generally needs to be removed, to clean an impeller, or change an impeller, or impeller shaft, is when one is running the filter in a tank with sand substrate. Something which I do not advocate doing, for just that reason. Other than tiny sand grains that can & will damage the internal motor parts, there is generally no reason to ever remove an AC motor from the plastic housing that it sits in. Again, this is based on decades of actual hands on use.
But what you are describing as a manufacturing flaw is in my humble opinion, based on decades of practical day in & day out use, an operator error. How do I lay blame on a manufacturer if I am too stupid or lazy to clean the media in my filter, to the point that water ends up on my floor? Or if I am constantly removing the motor to clean the impeller without checking the condition of the O ring, or at the very least lubricating that ring before resealing the motor? Maybe it's just my age, or the manner in which I was raised, but I don't look for others to blame when it comes to my own acts of ignorance.
On a side note, the only time an AC motor (specifically the AC 110 model, I don't run the smaller motors) generally needs to be removed, to clean an impeller, or change an impeller, or impeller shaft, is when one is running the filter in a tank with sand substrate. Something which I do not advocate doing, for just that reason. Other than tiny sand grains that can & will damage the internal motor parts, there is generally no reason to ever remove an AC motor from the plastic housing that it sits in. Again, this is based on decades of actual hands on use.
It's not stupid to do it. Here is what the user manual recommends:
Every three months, the
motor should be
thoroughly cleaned.
Remove cover, filter basket
and discard water
remaining in filter case.
Remove motor by twisting
a 1/4 -turn gently in the
direction of the arrow on
front. Ease motor down
slowly to prevent damage
to the filter and motor
guide.
Pull impeller out of impeller
well and rinse to remove
accumulated slime deposits.
Every three months, the
motor should be
thoroughly cleaned.
Remove cover, filter basket
and discard water
remaining in filter case.
Remove motor by twisting
a 1/4 -turn gently in the
direction of the arrow on
front. Ease motor down
slowly to prevent damage
to the filter and motor
guide.
Pull impeller out of impeller
well and rinse to remove
accumulated slime deposits.
