I'm done with canisters

[RD.]

I didn't say that it was stupid to clean the inner workings of a motor, if that's what you were suggesting. Having said that, I certainly wouldn't follow Hagen's recommendations when it comes to any of their products, including the AC 110. Such as what they inform consumers with regards to their bio media, Biomax rings.

BIOMAX should be rinsed monthly using the water from the
aquarium. Never rinse BIOMAX with tap water or any water that could
contain chlorine. BIOMAX should be replaced every 6 Months.
Note: Do not replace all filter media simultaneously. Stagger media

I actually know people that used to follow that advice from the manufacturer, and toss out their Biomax media every 6 months or so, and replace with new media. WTF? I have Biomax media that is probably older than a good portion of the members here on MFK, and it's still functioning exactly as it should be. Sure you need to rinse it off in tank water every month to remove any accumulated build up on the surface of the rings for 02 levels to remain viable for the bacteria, but that's all it requires. The only ones that benefit from replacing it every 6 months are the people who are selling the media. Doh!

Ditto to pulling the motor every 3 months to remove slime deposits? WTF is that supposed to mean? An established aquarium should have a light coating of bio-film, on everything! You don't need to clean it off, ever. That makes about as much sense as pulling the water lines down in my 50+ yr old house to clean the internal scale deposits off the old copper pipes. I want those copper pipes to be covered in a coating of mineral build up, just as I want the intake pipes, and internal motor parts to be covered in a light coating of bio-film. The only thing that film does is allow the moving parts to run smoother, just as a light coating of lubrication would.


I have no issue with canister filters, but some of the comments being made about AC filters are just plain ridiculous.

 

[mudbuttjones]

I've read that water can mineralize and pores can clog, reducing effectiveness. I still have old dirty biomax. My fish are still alive. I don't doubt that its not as good as it was new. I've been replacing most of my media with scrubbies

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[RD.]

Well don't believe everything that you read on the internet.

Our water here is very hard, and very high in mineral content, and I don't see any clogged pores on any of my media. I know that the biological value of the media is still very high as I can (and often do) clean all of my AC 110's on the same tank, on the same day, and never experience so much as a hiccup of free ammonia. In other words, the Biomax media is handling the majority of the bio load, with no issue, so it's effectiveness is still intact, all these years later, even in water with very high mineral content.

 

[tiger15]

BB are very resilient and don't clogged up to death easily. Even if you clean the media with chlorinated tap water and wipe out some, they will recover quickly by reseeding from your tank water. Unless your tank is bare bottom, there is plenty of BB in your substrate to biologically filter the water and reseed your media. I don't even bother to maintain biological media in my filters, just focus on mechanical filtration to keep the water moving and clean.

As for cleaning the HOB impeller and housing, once every 3 months is not excessive and about right as slime will build up and may stop restarting. It's critical to ensure my filters to restart reliably after power outage when I am not home watching

 

[RD.]

How much BB is required to run an established system is dependent on the bio load. Most filter media used for mechanical (such as AC sponges) once established also become bilogical filttation. In fact many AC users only use sponges in their filters. No different than those who only run sponge filters in their fishroom.

As for cleaning the HOB impeller and housing, once every 3 months is not excessive and about right as slime will build up and may stop restarting. It's critical to ensure my filters to restart reliably after power outage when I am not home watching

True, and a good point. I can only add that IME, all of my AC 500's (old school 110's) have not had an impleller cleaned in approx 8 years, which is when we moved into this house. In fact, I'm quite certain that I didn't clean any before or after the move, either. I had enough to do without worrying about cleaning filter impellers. lol In the last 8 yrs, the power has gone off several times, usually short durations, the longest being approx 3-4 hrs. All 8 AC 500 filters have always started back up as soon as power was restored.


* I would add to that, with smaller AC filters there is a MUCH greater chance at a "dirty" impeller not starting back up after a power outage. My comments about AC's motors in this discussion are only referring to AC 500/110 motors.

 

[viejafish]

Reliability in restarting is an important factor in selecting a filter. Long term power outage is a natural disaster that cannot be prevented, but I don't want to come home after a vacation and find my filters stop running due to a momentary power outage. IME with Penquen, Whisper and ACs, all need to have the impeller cleaned periodically to ensure reliable restarting. Not sure about the new Whispers, old version Whispers have the weakest motors and the impellers need to be cleaned monthly or else they would not restart. Whisper is the first HOBs I abandoned because of the restarting issue. Not sure about the big AC, smaller ACs need to be cleaned every few months to ensure restarting and soon the O ring would be ruined. AC is the second HOB I abandoned because of the weak O ring. Penquen is most reliable in restarting, but still need to be cleaned every 3 to 4 months to ensure restarting. The newer Penquen seems to perform worse than the older Penquen as the impeller needs to be cleaned more frequently to ensure restarting. I would not leave home for vacation without cleaning all my filter impellers.

 

[RD.]

Not sure about the big AC, smaller ACs need to be cleaned every few months to ensure restarting and soon the O ring would be ruined. AC is the second HOB I abandoned because of the weak O ring.

Which is exactly why I only run the big AC filters. (500/110) Approx 10 yrs of running without cleaning or changing any O rings, still quiet, and still 100% reliable, even after several power outages!

 

[stempy]

Multiple tanks or large systems =central sump+ drip system and siphon bottom of sump/tanks once a month. Doesnt get any easier imo.

 

[Redearsunfish]

Multiple tanks or large systems =central sump+ drip system and siphon bottom of sump/tanks once a month. Doesnt get any easier imo.

True!

 

[HarleyK]

True!

Assuming precautionary measures to prevent the spread of pathogens from one tank to the central filtration and back to all tanks.

And also assuming that all your fish have the same requirements for water parameters.

Bottom line: Nothing is perfect. It just has to work for every one of us individually. It'd be boring if we all had the same setups and preferences. This thread would have died after 1 post. I'm glad it didn't.

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