noisy aquaclear?

[ScatMan]

1 have 3 renas, all bought used and the most i paid was $80 for a mint xp4. sell the ac and buy used.

imo, i'd splurge for the xp3 at least. reason being that if you ever get a bigger tank, you have the filter to handle it and you'll never look back. with all that extra media capacity you can stuff it with enough ceramics to handle a serious bio-load with room to spare.

 

[ScatMan]

sorry, i skipped your actual question. an xp1 will probably be enough to get the job done but there's no way i would buy one, not even for a 10gal. the difference in price between the xp1 and xp3 vs filtering capacity is not worth it imo (even the xp1 vs xp2); like buying a hot-dog for $15 when you could have a steak for $20

the xp3 gives you 3 times more media volume for 1.6 times more money, the xp2 is double the volume at only 1.2 times the cost. prices may vary slightly in your neck of the woods.

 

[Acura_RSX]

sorry, i skipped your actual question. an xp1 will probably be enough to get the job done but there's no way i would buy one, not even for a 10gal. the difference in price between the xp1 and xp3 vs filtering capacity is not worth it imo (even the xp1 vs xp2); like buying a hot-dog for $15 when you could have a steak for $20

the xp3 gives you 3 times more media volume for 1.6 times more money, the xp2 is double the volume at only 1.2 times the cost. prices may vary slightly in your neck of the woods.

ya thats my problem is buying used around here is rough. since 3 weeks ago when i began looking at local classifieds for my tank equipment I am yet to see even one canister filter posted up for sale .. of any brand or size. if i find one that comes up for a good price I will definatly have it but at this point its not looking too promising for a while.

As an update .. I came home and cleaned out the motor in my ac .. adjusted it a little and some of the rattling noise went away but it still has a pretty loud constant "huming" sound .. sounds like a quiet generator .. which isn't great for getting to sleep but i found out a big part of my problem was actually the lid to the filter .. the lid was amplifying the sound alot .. for now I have the lid taken off to cut down the sound but other then extra water evaporation are there any downsides to having the top left off? also any other suggestions to get rid of the humming sound from the motor now that the rattling is somewhat gone? also any suggestions to cut down on the noise the air pump causes? It's not horrible but it'd be great if I had someway to dull the sound a bit more.

 

[Milpool]

I have 5 Ac 110/500 on various tanks. The noise you are most likely hearing is from grooves in the motor shaft. Pull the motor out and then take the impeller/magnet off and inspect the motor shaft...it should be smooth and straight. Any grooves or imperfections in the shaft will cause the impeller/magnet to vibrate causing humming and rattling noises. The previous owner of the filter may have used sand or fine gravel as a substrate and sucked some up into the filter which made its way into the motor and scratched up the shaft. Not much you can do except buy a new motor.
The only downside I can see to keeping the lid off is dust getting into the filterand then into your tank.

 

[Acura_RSX]

thanks alot for your help guys! i coincidentally bumped into the guy i bought my aquaclear off who now has a fluval 304 for sale so I'm going to buy this off him tomorrow for $60 and just run that on my tank. then try to re sell the aquaclear.