Emperor vs A/C owners of both only...

[Conner]

I have an emporor 400, 3 AC 20's, and an AC70. To be honest, I prefer the media that comes with the AC's over the Emperors media, BUT, I like the fact that the lip of the emperor sits lower (closer to the water) than the AC. When dealing with evaporating water, the AC becomes much noisier when the water level drops before the Emperor does. That's not a big deal, but when you have a tank sitting right next to your tv, noise level does have an impact. I have to keep the tank level fuller more often with the AC than for the emperor.

With all that said, the last 3 hob's that I've bought were all AC's... I just really like the media they come with vs. the emperor's media...

But both work well IMO. Just differences of preference, I guess.

 

[bitteraspects]

Just did a search & found nothing on a head to head comparison...link please

rather than type everything out, let me simplify it.

the AC110 has a higher flow rate, more media volume, lower power consumption, quieter operation, longer reliability, and an overall more efficient design.

with an AC110, you get no bypass. the design is set up the same as a canister in regards to delivering water through the media. this ensures 100% contact with all your bio and mechanical media.

also, with the AC110, you never have to buy expensive replacement cartridges. while the AC110 will cost you a little more than an EMP400, that money is soon made up by the rinsable media used in the AC110. in the end, you save a TON of money in the long run.

and thats without going into easy customization and the patented re-filtration system built into the AC110. or the facvt that the AC110 has an adjustable flow rate.

the choice is clear... AquaClear

 

[LD50]

with an AC110, you get no bypass. the design is set up the same as a canister in regards to delivering water through the media. this ensures 100% contact with all your bio and mechanical media.

also, with the AC110, you never have to buy expensive replacement cartridges. while the AC110 will cost you a little more than an EMP400, that money is soon made up by the rinsable media used in the AC110. in the end, you save a TON of money in the long run.

AC110's are a zero bypass filter? I have herd some stuff from the AC fanboy club but that is amazing. Do tell when did AC start making their line of HOB's zero bypass? Because they dont even know about it yet!

http://www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/product.cfm?CAT=1&SUBCAT=107&PROD_ID=01006200020101

The numbers of off the shelf Zero bypass filters are small, and as far as I know they are all canisters. Also the only replacement anything for my emp400 I ever bought was quilt batting, costing a bank busting 2 bucks a year. Zero bypass HOB...

To the OP, dude you gotta get what works for you man, the emp dose a great job and is built like a tank IME. The AC has more flow but its not some end all be all filter that some people claim. Its a freakin power head that pushes water over a sponge and couple bags of biomax. Just like the Emp is a power head that pushes water through some filter floss and over a bio wheel. Thats it, sponge/biomax or floss/biowheel...you can do all sorts of things to both of them, I have seen bio wheels put on AC's and reverse wet/drys made out of Emp's so its really up to personal taste. Its like asking which is better, and F-150 or Chevy 1500...depends on who you ask.

 

[packer43064]

rather than type everything out, let me simplify it.

the AC110 has a higher flow rate, more media volume, lower power consumption, quieter operation, longer reliability, and an overall more efficient design.

with an AC110, you get no bypass. the design is set up the same as a canister in regards to delivering water through the media. this ensures 100% contact with all your bio and mechanical media.

also, with the AC110, you never have to buy expensive replacement cartridges. while the AC110 will cost you a little more than an EMP400, that money is soon made up by the rinsable media used in the AC110. in the end, you save a TON of money in the long run.

and thats without going into easy customization and the patented re-filtration system built into the AC110. or the facvt that the AC110 has an adjustable flow rate.

the choice is clear... AquaClear

Opinionated personally, it's a matter of opinion. I haven't bought cartridges since I've bought the Emperor over a year ago. Just rinse it out. I also like the Bio wheels alot and the extra cartridge that you can put whatever you want in the Emperor. It's all a matter of opinion, seems a little biased personally.

 

[hmoobvwj]

I've never owned a AC HOB filter before so I'm going to have to say Emperor 400. As that is like the only HOB I run on my tanks. You don't have to buy cartridges for your Emperor 400 too, you could always put other media in there as well. I fill mine up with ceramic rings.

 

[fobrinkle]

I own 3 emperor 400's, 5 ac70's and 8 ac110's. I love the AC's. Much easier to use cheap media (scrubbies for BIO filtration) rather than buying filter pads for the emperors. The AC's start much easier too. If I have to restart a marineland I have to play with the impeller, and keep filling the box it is annoying. with the AC's you fill it and plug it in and it primes and starts approx 30 seconds later. I will be replacing the emperors with AC's when possible.

 

[Bderick67]

Well I used to be a user of both the AC110s and the Emp400. Now I am a user of just the AC110.

IMO the peguin 350 is a better filter then the Emp400 with all that spraybar nonsense.

 

[packer43064]

I own 3 emperor 400's, 5 ac70's and 8 ac110's. I love the AC's. Much easier to use cheap media (scrubbies for BIO filtration) rather than buying filter pads for the emperors. The AC's start much easier too. If I have to restart a marineland I have to play with the impeller, and keep filling the box it is annoying. with the AC's you fill it and plug it in and it primes and starts approx 30 seconds later. I will be replacing the emperors with AC's when possible.

I fill up my Emperor and it starts. I turn it off during service and plug it in and it starts back up maybe in a minute tops. You must have some jacked up Emperors.

 

[fobrinkle]

I fill up my Emperor and it starts. I turn it off during service and plug it in and it starts back up maybe in a minute tops. You must have some jacked up Emperors.

I turn it off during service too. sometimes when I do waterchanges and the level goes below the tube connector (grey thing) on the intake the filter starts running like crap.

 

[jschall]

I think the design of the emperor that allows it to take filtered water back to a separate impeller on the same motor to pump it into the spray bars is ingenious.

The disadvantage to the horizontal water movement of the emperor is that the filter media is hard to DIY. I cut some cut-to-fit filter floss (a 3/4" thick block of fairly coarse blue stuff) and replaced the expensive and impossible-to-clean-and-reuse cartridge with it. I still have space for fine media that I haven't bothered using yet (don't have any, have a canister for water polishing anyway.)