Emperor 400 Vs Aquaclear 110, Review.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I think both AC110 and Emperor are overpriced, bad filters. AC is vulnerable to leak at the O ring as cleaning the impeller requires removal of the motor and over time the O ring wlll wear out and fail. Another leak vulnerability is when the sponge gets clogged up and popped up, dripping from the top. Marineland Emperor has a complex double impeller blade design to drive the spray bar and biowheels. The added complexity only makes Emperor less reliable to restart.

Marineland's Penquen filters are simpler, cheaper and restart more reliably than Emperor line filters. I am running a dozen Penquen 350 and 170 in my tanks, some amazingley for more than 20 years and are still working. The only maintenance I need is to replace the impellers after 7 to 8 years when it starts to get wear out and make clicking noise. As for the filter media, I bought polyester battling form JoAnne fabric by the yards and cut it up, costing less than 10c per double pads. BTW, I run all my Penquins without the biowheels as I don't think they are needed even though they are perfectly functional. I use my HOBs for mechanical filtration only as I believe there are plenty of beneficial bacteria already in the substrate, ornament and glass surfaces inside my tanks.
 
tiger15 said:
I think both AC110 and Emperor are overpriced, bad filters. AC is vulnerable to leak at the O ring as cleaning the impeller requires removal of the motor and over time the O ring wlll wear out and fail. Another leak vulnerability is when the sponge gets clogged up and popped up, dripping from the top. Marineland Emperor has a complex double impeller blade design to drive the spray bar and biowheels. The added complexity only makes Emperor less reliable to restart.
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Wow a whole lot of mis information there :duh:

You don't need to remove the motor to service the impellar. The only reason for a AC110 to leak out the top is from neglecting to clean. This same thing will happen to a peguin if you go long enough withot cleaning the filter pads.
 
Bderick67 said:
Wow a whole lot of mis information there :duh:

You don't need to remove the motor to service the impellar. The only reason for a AC110 to leak out the top is from neglecting to clean. This same thing will happen to a peguin if you go long enough withot cleaning the filter pads.
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They don't leak the same way. When an AC foam gets clogged up, it tends to pop up under pressure and may drip water over the box to wet the floor. All HOBs, including Penquin, is designed to by pass flow to the front into the tank, not to wet the floor, when the filter pads get clogged up.

Manufacturer recommends removing the AC motor to clean the impeller. It's best not to remove the motor as over time it will wear out the O ring and leak. I don't know if you can remove the impeller from the top of an AC in order to clean the impeller and well.
 
Penguins are basically the same as Emperors only Emperor 400 holds more media and has more flow capacity than a Pènguin 350, not by far tho.

Both a AC and Emperor are designed to pass the flow to the tank if media gets clogged where do you get from they spill water to floor?. That is non accurated.
 
Emperors differ from Penquin in not only holding more media, but also have a more complicated double impeller bades and spray bar design. The more complicated spray bar design has more things to go wrong, making more noise and restarting less reliable. The biowheel is more a show than necessity, so I run my Penquins without the biowheels and use them straightly for mechanical filtration.

AC have a design flaw that a clogged up foam can pop up under pressure. There is a hinge that is supposed to hold the foam in place but it can slip. If the foam popped up above the box, there is a chance that water can drip over the box on the back and sides and wet the floor if the box is not perfectly level.
 
tiger15 said:
Emperors differ from Penquin in not only holding more media, but also have a more complicated double impeller bades and spray bar design. The more complicated spray bar design has more things to go wrong, making more noise and restarting less reliable. The biowheel is more a show than necessity, so I run my Penquins without the biowheels and use them straightly for mechanical filtration.

AC have a design flaw that a clogged up foam can pop up under pressure. There is a hinge that is supposed to hold the foam in place but it can slip. If the foam popped up above the box, there is a chance that water can drip over the box on the back and sides and wet the floor if the box is not perfectly level.
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Thing that can easily be avoided just by adding a pound of biorings on top of the AC foam and the sole biorings weight will hold the foam on its place if clogged.

Regarding the impller system on emperor i may agree about if being a bit more complicated than the one in the penguin, but it hs more flow and media capacity.

Biowheels work under the same principle of a wet dry providing good oxigenation to water, the do more good than bad, having them on wont do any wrong.
 
Yes, you can fix the popped up foam by weight or other means. But if the design is right in the first place, you don't need to improvise.

I didn't say biowheels don't work, just not needed. Biowheel is a proven technology used in aquaculture and waste water treatment plant. There are already plenty of BB and biological activities inside an established tank (on the substrate, ornament and glass surfaces) if you provide good water movement, and there is no need to provide off tank dedicated BA. In fact, if you remove the biowheels from the Penquin, it will generate stronger flow and more in tank BA. I don't think Emperor allows you to remove the biowheels because it will shoot water all over, and this is why I don't like Emperor.

I don't know how many of you use carbon. I don't. I use my filters straightly for mechancial filtration and water movement, so the larger filter media in AC and Emporor is useless to me.
 
^^^^ Well its been 1 month my 50 gal solo FH is is running on a single Emperor 400 and I dont use anything else, the long intake tube reaches the bottom of my tank and I don even need to siphon the tank which is semi-bare bottom. Intake tube gets all the dirt, I am fairy please with this filter.

I only use carbon to remove some medication other than that I run my two tanks without carbon for most of the time.




Cheers.
 
I also like the penguin for this same reason. The reason I think the emperor has a problem starting up is the extra pump/impeller for the spray bar. It sprays out too much water right when you start up so you have to keep pouring water in to get it going. I like to use the AC for bio and Emperor for mechanical.

tiger15 said:
I think both AC110 and Emperor are overpriced, bad filters. AC is vulnerable to leak at the O ring as cleaning the impeller requires removal of the motor and over time the O ring wlll wear out and fail. Another leak vulnerability is when the sponge gets clogged up and popped up, dripping from the top. Marineland Emperor has a complex double impeller blade design to drive the spray bar and biowheels. The added complexity only makes Emperor less reliable to restart.

Marineland's Penquen filters are simpler, cheaper and restart more reliably than Emperor line filters. I am running a dozen Penquen 350 and 170 in my tanks, some amazingley for more than 20 years and are still working. The only maintenance I need is to replace the impellers after 7 to 8 years when it starts to get wear out and make clicking noise. As for the filter media, I bought polyester battling form JoAnne fabric by the yards and cut it up, costing less than 10c per double pads. BTW, I run all my Penquins without the biowheels as I don't think they are needed even though they are perfectly functional. I use my HOBs for mechanical filtration only as I believe there are plenty of beneficial bacteria already in the substrate, ornament and glass surfaces inside my tanks.
Click to expand...
 
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