AC500, Emperor 400, Canister

[HugeGhost]

Which has better bio filteration.
The AC500 packed with ehiem substrate or the 2 biowheels on the Emperor 400!
then with a canster filled with the best media have great bio filteration even though it has no contact with air!

I am guessing its the AC500 loaded with media can almost act like a fully charged wetdry since the substrate is exposed to air! Any experts know the answer.

 

[Blacksunshine420]

the AC500 is mostly a mech filter. it has too much waterflow to work effecently as a bio, If you want a HOB with bio. the best hands down is the emp. The bio wheel is fully exposed to air and gets a few thousand times more o2 to the bacteira then a submerged collony.

Personally I think AC's are built cheaply with cheap plastic. I really hate that if the media gets clogged the whole sponge unit pops out of the unit.
The Emp 400 offers the media baskets for additional media to be added and thats a nice feature.

However as far as media your best bet there is going to be a can. you can't beat multil levels of filtration unless your going full wet dry. To enhance the bio filtration of your canister you can add a biowheel to it. Marineland sells stand along biowheels with and without a power head to drive them. get the one without and just hook it to the return of your cannister.

 

[Fry]

dissolved oxygen is in the water, although wet/dry exposes bacteria to oxygen much better

I agree that aquaclears are built with cheap plastic but you really can't beat them for the price with their power and available space for media

your best bet would proabably be a canister with the biowheel60 attached as Blacksunshine420 said, the only thing better would be a full wet/dry system

 

[ewurm]

I vote for the AC too.

 

[kil66]

HOB are easier to clean then the canister.

 

[lemcc]

IMO bio-wheels are more of a novelty
in my AC 500 i can have 1 sponge and 2 Liters of Seachem Matrix
the plastic is cheap but media options and capacity far out weight the Emp 400

2 Liters of media or 2 bio-wheels

i gave my last Emp 400 away for free

if you love hearing erratic plashing get a Emp 400

Canisters are good but most people myself included neglect the maintainance
so i setup my Canisters for bio media only and use a prefilter on the input
this is good for about 6months

 

[HugeGhost]

Well i got 2 points one person says the emperor with its o2 spray bar and 2 biowheels will have more bacteria colony then 2 a packed of the best media AC500? Still i am thinking since the media is under water and does not contact the air tahts why you say biowheels all teh way.
I am clueless anybody know thanks alot !!!!!!!

 

[Blacksunshine420]

Anerobic Bacteira work more effecntly when they are exposed to air. Thats fact. so the biowheel working above the water will most def add to their effective ness. So in the small space that the biowheel is in it has more filtration ablity then any underwater collony.
Some may call it a novlety. but its simply proven science.

the AC pushes too much water thru its media to be greatly effective as a bio filter. But it is great for mechanical filtration. A good medium would be to get one of each.
Fill the media baskets in the emp with lava rock and replace the pad filters with bio carts. et it up for pure bio filtration and use the AC110(formerly 500) with the sponges for mech filtration and getting large organic stuff out of the tank.

As to the splashing of the emp. Make sure your water levels stay up (should be doing this anyways) and adjust the spray bar so it softens how it hits the wheel. It will run almost silently. Had a 280 on my 10 gal for a little bit. didn't make a sound. except for the slight trickle sound your going to get with any HOB.

 

[HugeGhost]

well i have been searching everywhere for the biowheel60 you were talking about, cant find it! that would really be awesome a biowheel on my tank hooked up to my canister!
How good is biowheels compared to a wetdry with the blue bioballs.

 

[rkc772]

i like the emperor... haven't tried ACs yet. if they can make the ACs with bio-wheel i will go with it since ACs media can be customized unlike emperor you need to buy their media with no excuse to put on it. Canisters are great. only the cleaning gets on the way. i have a canister although i hate taking it apart.. i can't complain about it on performance.