Canisters are generally quiet but I find them to be a PITA to clean...which means that I don't do it often enough...
Matt
Matt
Canister vs. HOB
- Thread starter Ajtennis
- Start date
Canister is the most over rated filter. It is expensive, pain in the a** to clean, and unsafe. It is not only vulnerable to flooding, but also vulnerable to anerobic condition because the filter media is not open to the atmostphere. An undiscoverd leaky canister can drain a tank over night. A dirty filter and a short power outage can turn disaster as when the power returns, it can flush toxic gas to wipe out the fish.
also the most efficient. only reason i run a hob on my tank is as a backup for if my canister ever goes down. in my 6 years of fish keeping ive never had a problem with a canister (knock on wood)
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Depending on what efficiency you are talking about. In term of energy efficiency, HOB is the best. A typical 300 gpd HOB runs on less than 10 watt motor. The same gpd canister runs on 20 to 30 watt motor. The difference is simple physics. A canister has to drive the same flow through longer hose and filter media thickness that use up energy.
If you haven't had problem for 6 years, you are lucky. Do some search on canister disasters, and you will be frightened by horror stories on leaky canisters that flooded the house/
I have an Aquaclear 110 and in my 50 gal and it works so well that the only real advantage that I can say a canister holds over the AC is that canister is quieter.
That typical 300gph HoB that uses less wattage is highly over-rated in terms of how many gallons it actually cycles.
The Ac110 HoB, for example, is a great filter but no way can it filter a 110 gallon tank by itself, nor can a motor the size of your palm actually cycle 500gph. They are cost efficient filters but are over-rated on the box.
Canister filters are for people who have big to monster size tanks and require strong amounts of flow and filtration. The price pays for its performance.
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no im not lucky... i do proper maintenance as suggested by the manufacturer and keep an eye on all of the o-rings, especially the big ones that go around the head/motor assembly that are the ones more prone to leaking. aside from building yourself a custom sump, canisters are the best filtration you can get.. my 180 will be getting twin fx5s because of how much i like my 406.
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