Marine land Penguin 350 filter?

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Dark Rose

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 27, 2013
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So I just had a tank and 'stuff' given to me by a coworker... It was a 75 gallon that's actually a 55 gallon (he said he was told it was a 75 when he got it.)

It came with a Marineland Penguin 350 HoB filter, scrubbed it good, it works, running it in the sink now with some mild bleach to kill anything left in it...

Are these filters decent? I've read mixed reviews here and there on the web...
Also, with the double design, could I ditch the cartridges, keep the wheels, and load up one side with sponge, and the other side with bio media and run it similar to my AC50s?

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I love those filters. I ran my last 350 for about 5 years before it got a little too noisy for me. I had used it with sand substrate in the beginning though, so it was probably my own fault. Either way, I have replaced it with another one. Those penguin filters rock. I've never known one to break and I run 5 or 6 of them on my tanks. They're just like the emperors except they push 50 less gph and they lack some of the bells and whistles such as the media-holding cases and the spraybar. I actually prefer them to emps though because the spraybar is completely unnecessary and can make priming an aging filter more difficult.
 
Sry for 2x post, but in regards to the cartridges I would rip the media and carbon off the black frame and then just lay new media over it. That's what I do. With penguins/emps the water flows through the media sideways, whereas the AC's push water up through the media from the bottom.
 
Pomatomus said:
Sry for 2x post, but in regards to the cartridges I would rip the media and carbon off the black frame and then just lay new media over it. That's what I do. With penguins/emps the water flows through the media sideways, whereas the AC's push water up through the media from the bottom.
Click to expand...

OK, so keep the plastic cartridge "frame" and use it to hold new floss/foam/whatever? Could I put a frame in and just a bag of Matrix or something up against it, where the water has to go through the media to flow out?

Triple and quadruple rinsed it, just did a WC on my 75 gallon, have just enough room between the back of the tank and my 3D background to slide the 350 in behind the background... Got it in there now with just the bio wheels just for some added circulation... Tank has already cleared in record time after the WC (the small stirred up particles and such after fill)

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Yeah that would be fine. I just cut a new pad of floss off a bigger roll and slap in on there! Carbon should work too, but if there isn't some mechanical filtration before it, it may get clogged with muck. You could probably put it on the other side of the frame (opposite the pad) if that becomes an issue.
 
Pomatomus said:
Yeah that would be fine. I just cut a new pad of floss off a bigger roll and slap in on there! Carbon should work too, but if there isn't some mechanical filtration before it, it may get clogged with muck. You could probably put it on the other side of the frame (opposite the pad) if that becomes an issue.
Click to expand...

Well this is just in addition to my canister, just adding some extra filtration and turnover, because it looks like my canister probably only does 3x/hr... This does almost 5x/hr, and I've got a circulation fan in the tank... So hopefully a lo of the muck is already being sucked out, so the HoB won't be handling full duties...

That and if I can run that Penguin with media in it and get it seeded, I've got a filter ready for a backup tank in a pinch.
 
i take that frame and put in one of blue filter sleves from a hot magnum and it fits right in the slot.I've been doing it that way for years on my Penquin 170 and 200 and its rinseable over and over.
 
I've figured it all out for mine. The bio-wheels will provide more than enough biological support. Then you buy those, I think, 7 x 5 blue bonded filter pads from Dr. Foster and Smith. Cut out the already attached filter pad and dump out the carbon. Place one 7 x 5 on the cartridge and attach with rubber band. The blue side should be facing the back of the filter. Finally put two of these cartridges on each side.
 
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