Nu Clear Vs Ocean Clear

[fishfoot]

Hi there all, I am going to add a polishing filter on to my ehiem bucket filter. I am using a little giant mdx4 or 5 so I am cool with the flow rate.

I want to know does any one have experience with either the nuclear or ocean clear filters or both. can you compare them, which one is better easier to use...etc.

Please let me know.

Thanks!

 

[squint]

Polishing? Is your water cloudy?

I used an Ocean Clear bead filter for several years. NuClears are supposed to be built a little higher quality but I don't know what that would add as the OC seemed pretty sturdy to me.

Only Ocean Clear has a bead filter. I never opened it up in 3 years for cleaning. I just used the backwashing feature where it self-cleans. After I opened it up, I found that there wasn't any gunk built up in there. The beads felt slimey but were otherwise clean.

I'm not sure how you would clean a large mechanical filter. Bleaching it would require a rather big container and you couldn't easily put it in the dishwasher afterwards like I do with smaller micron cartridges.

Water with the bead filter was crystal clear. I was initially concerned about its ability to trap small particles but it did fine. My experience over the years is that cloudy water is the result of varying levels of free floating bacteria or algae. No mechanical filter other than diatom' filters can filter such small organisms. What gives you crystal clear water is killing the microorganisms with UV.

 

[fishfoot]

thanks for the input, its not cloudy the water it has little bits in it...the water is clear but there are alot of floating particles...I use a diatom filter on the tank every so often. I can pick up a Nu clear for 40 bucks so I think I might give it a try. Can you tell me more about "bead" filter material maybe show me a photo. I am going with the micron cartage...

will let you know.

 

[squint]

If they're particles that you can actually see then it's something a conventional mechanical filter could pick up.

I have the same issue in a tank with a wet/dry because the overflow really only skims the surface. I'll have to address that.

That's the product homepage for the bead filter:

http://www.redseafish.com/Product.asp?dir=y&catID=98&subID=30&proID=100

You can download the manual from there, too.

Basically, it's a small version of the bead filters that are popular with ponds these days.