What's a good budget friendly HOB filter that will fit in a 125?

[Backfromthedead]

Regardless of the size of the tank, the destructive behavior of Dovii will attempt to knock off the return pipe. I once had a 14' Vieja (pic in my avator) housed in a 125 that constantly knocked off the strainers from the return pipes. I had to drill tiny holes in the pipe to secure the strainer with fish line. Heater is another item they will attack. I once had a 10" flowerhorn that cracked a heater. I didn't notice it until the water felt cold. Glass heater has no place with Dovii unless it is protected with armor or made of steel. The only safe filter for a large Dovii is a hard plumbed sump system with heater inside the sump.



The difference has nothing to do with quality, but the type of plastic. Penguin uses black plastic, which is more flexible. AC uses transparent plastic, which is less flexible, more brittle, and thereby greater thickness is needed to compensate. AC box is intended to be stuffed with different media, so it needs to be transparent to see what's inside. I once dropped an empty AC box and it developed a small crack instantly. Black plastic doesn't crack as easily. AC is equivalent to a HOB canister filter. You need to take the box out to clean the impeller by unscrewing the motor. Not only that it is tedious, the box is heavy with water, so one must be careful not to slip and drop the box.

I wasnt arguing that a dovii wont destroy a filter intake, rather that your suggestion of keeping a full grown dovii in a 4x2 is absurd.

 

[tiger15]

The impeller does not need to come off to take the box out. You only need to remove the cover and the intake tube.

You need to take the AC box out to clean the impeller, not the other way around.

AC is the only HOB you need to do that. All other HOBs can be cleaned in place by removing the intake tube and pulling out the impeller. For AC, you have to unscrew the motor to access the impeller, and there is an O ring there subject to wear and tear.

 

[RD.]

Yes, for the love of god & everything sacred & holy - watch out for those O-rings!

 

[Backfromthedead]

You need to take the AC box out to clean the impeller, not the other way around.

AC is the only HOB you need to do that. All other HOBs can be cleaned in place by removing the intake tube and pulling out the impeller. For AC, you have unscrew the motor to access the impeller, and there is an O ring there vulnerable to wear and tear.

This is true. I think its a tradeoff for the power of the filter though. Also probably necessary for the design of the flow through the media.

 

[Zanzag]

Agreed. Definantly the price paid for the higher flow is an impeller that is more labor intensive to get at. Seems like a fair trade to me.

 

[robmcd]

Emperor 400. 60$, dependable and last forever.

 

[Lepisosteus]

You need to take the AC box out to clean the impeller, not the other way around.

AC is the only HOB you need to do that. All other HOBs can be cleaned in place by removing the intake tube and pulling out the impeller. For AC, you have to unscrew the motor to access the impeller, and there is an O ring there subject to wear and tear.

Misread what you mean. My apologies

 

[RD.]

For AC, you have to unscrew the motor to access the impeller, and there is an O ring there subject to wear and tear.

Not to nit-pic, but to remove the motor requires a half turn, and a slight pull down. It's been a few years since I've needed to do this, so please correct me if I am wrong. This is not a high temp, or high pressure seal, the o-ring is in one of the most non-aggressive situations that one would ever come across compared to many o-ring applications. In theory, if one is careful when removing the motor, and putting it back in (a child can do this IME) that factory o-ring should last 30 yrs. I'll let you know when one of mine fail.

 

[Niki_up]

Not to nit-pic, but to remove the motor requires a half turn, and a slight pull down. It's been a few years since I've needed to do this, so please correct me if I am wrong. This is not a high temp, or high pressure seal, the o-ring is in one of the most non-aggressive situations that one would ever come across compared to many o-ring applications. In theory, if one is careful when removing the motor, and putting it back in (a child can do this IME) that factory o-ring should last 30 yrs. I'll let you know when one of mine fail.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t even had to take the motor off my filters much since I first set them up...maybe once or twice in the last 5ish years....

 

[tiger15]

This is true. I think its a tradeoff for the power of the filter though. Also probably necessary for the design of the flow through the media.

The trade off for higher power does not equal to higher filtration performance, just higher gph. Best performing mechanical filter runs on gentle flow, as excessive gph will just clog up the filter faster and prematurely. Best performing biological filter is a sponge filter that runs on trickling air lift flow.

That said, high gph provides better circulation, and is beneficial to water quality. But the best bang for the buck for higher gph is to invest in a circulation pump. For $27, you can get a Hydor circulation pumps from Big Al for 425 gph, $37 for 800 gph and incrementally all the way up to 2500 gph.