Canister vs hob ?

[J. H.]

I have a marineland magnum 350 (a canister) that my father bought 16 yrs. ago, it is noisy, a pain to clean, and has very little media capacity. It also puts out ~100gph instead of its rated 350. (~250 if I remove the reverse undergravel filter). I don't use media, just the floss for mech. I replaced the impeller and case a year ago and it was quiet until I accidentally sucked sand in.
I also have an Aqueon 75, a hob that an old roomate threw away. It is silent except for the water splashing into the tank if you let it. It really pulls 400gph, even fully loaded, or pretty close to it anyway, as long as I don't have a stocking prefilter over it. It also pulls 14w, aganst the marineland's 28.

I have been quite happy with the Aqueon QuietFlow 20's that I have on my son's 10 gallon tank.

I have one that I picked up somewhere too. it is my favorite small filter. I never use any of the others if it is free.
I check my canister on my 55 about once a month. I check my hob on my 10 twice a day. I grow spider plants in my hobs. The babies are free, once you have an adult plant, you have more babies than you will ever need. I have 2 in my 10g hob, together with a baby horseradish, and a third floating around the tank. I have 0 algae and 0 nitrates, week after week. The only reason I stick to the canister on my 55 is that it is set in a wall, visible from both long sides, with bookcases also set in the wall right up against it. There is nowhere to put a hob. Canisters can be hidden from view.

 

[tiger15]

Impossible? Would you like to come inspect my 10-15 year old impellers. Lol

AC impellers last almost forever, unless you are sucking in fine grit or sand. I have replaced 2 I think over the years, both buggered by sand getting in. Same with impeller shafts, had a couple bugger up by sand, replaced shaft and impeller at same time. I still have several extras of both sitting in a parts drawer for several years.

So other than a couple sand Fung ups no impeller issues, and no o-ring issues. Not sure what you are doing to have to
replace them every 3-5 years?

Also, we rarely havee power go out, maybe 3-4 times in past 30 years, and my AC 500's have always started back up.

I only replaced impellers in the living room tanks every 3 to 5 years because I want absolutely silent operation. I have impellers in the basement tanks that have never been replaced for 10+ years as I don't mind the noise. HOB motors last forever, probably can outlast human heart as I have yet one burnt out. I don't use sand, only gravel. But even with gravel, they slowly disintegrate into sand size by erosion. When I vacuum the substrate, I always suck up some sand. With large cichlid, they will pick up a mouthfull of gravel with sand and spray everywhere. The most abrasive substrate is crushed coral or African mix, which have sharp grains and light in weight that get sucked up easily.

Only having power outage 3-4 times in 30 years in your area is unbelievable! I have more than 3-4 times outage each year from momentarily to a few hours, and fortunately not day long outage even during the Sandy event. Even without outage, I turned off the filters in WC or cleaning and not having the filter to restart automatically is an annoyance. Automatic restarting is critical if I am away from home during a power outage. I dropped the entire line of Whisper HOBs becasue they are terrible restarter. Penguins are reliable restarter and the impellers only need to be cleaned every few months. Not sure about AC as I never like the design and don't own many long enough.

 

[pops]

BTW.... I also never clean impellers. Lol. Not ever. I use probiotics to help keep my tanks gunk free, but even before that I never routinely cleaned my AC impellers or shafts.

I have never cleaned mine either. water flow has never slowed down. sponges and media every 2 weeks yes, never the impellers or the chambers.

 

[RD.]

Yes, we are very lucky with regards to the stability of our power. The impellers in my units are not noisy, I have 8 old AC 500's running in basement family room - never once had anyone mention noise, not even the wife who can apparently hear me curse from across the street. Lol

I agree that the impellers can vibrate from time to time, as can the lids, but usually an adjustment of the intake slider at the top fixes that. If the filter media is kept clean that removes back pressure, which removes a lot of potential noise issues. I run extensions on my intake tubes, so even at 80%+ water changes, I never turn my filters off - except when I clean the media.

Their design is certainly not perfect, or 100% fool proof, but for the media volume, water turnover, overall reliability and price, IMO it is still one of the best HOB on the market.

 

[viejafish]

If you keep fish only tank, HOBs are better choice than any canister. HOBs are easy to clean, less prone to leak, and no chance to go anaerobic. If you keep lush planted tanks, canister is preferred because it doesn't drive off CO2 as vigorously as HOBs, and being a nitrate factory benefits plants. Planted tank aquarists advocate against vacuuming the substrate in which bacteria recover nutrients. A gunk up canister will achieve the same goal, so it's OK never to clean a canister in a lush planted tank, but not OK for fish only tanks. Plants are the best biological and nitrate filter.

AC is the most popular HOB for monster fish tanks because it provides the highest turn over rate of any HOB. But if you don't keep monster fish, AC can over kill. The box is wider than comparable HOB so the ugly box has to stick out farther from the wall. The powerful flow makes more splashing noise, and is prone to leak from popped up sponge or worn out O ring if not set up right, which is a non issue for other brands. Although AC has the largest media volume, the sponge doesn't provide the finest mechanical filter due to large pore spaces, but the mechanical can be improved by wrapping a filter pad around the sponge. Since I don't keep monster fish, I prefer less powerful HOBs from other brands. I much prefer to dump and replace dirty diapers than to rinse pooped up sponge. In fact, when I replace worn out impeller, I ordered the next lower model impeller that pumps less flow, makes less noise, and it takes longer to clog up diapers but more fully.

 

[J. H.]

. I much prefer to dump and replace fish diapers than to rinse pooped up sponge.

I agree, except for this. I hate throwing things out.
It also makes sense to add that hobs offer better oxygenation and are easy to set up.

 

[viejafish]

I agree, except for this. I hate throwing things out.
It also makes sense to add that hobs offer better oxygenation and are easy to set up.

I bought very cheap polyester batting from craft shop and cut the diapers at nickel each so it is not worth to get my hand dirty cleaning poop. My fish friend collect bucket load of dirty diapers in his fish room and dump them in a washer to clean. For him, cutting the diapers takes time and it is easier to recycle than to cut new ones until the material break down to dust. He has two sets so there is always one ready for replacement.