What's a good budget friendly HOB filter that will fit in a 125?

[tiger15]

Dovii can grow to 24”. 125 is only 18” wide. With good filtration, you can keep a dovii for a while until iit approaches full grown size. You will then see him struggle to turn around and don’t look cool at all. A cramped fish will not live long.

Dovii is best kept solo in a bare bottom tank, as he will pick up sand and blow it to one side negating substrate biofiltration effect, and potentially ruin filter impeller. With sterile bare bottom, you need to provide external biological filtration. I rarely recommend AC, but in this situation, AC will do a better job than cartridge style HOBs due to AC large media volume for biological.

 

[Irecruitfish]

Dovii can grow to 24”. 125 is only 18” wide. With good filtration, you can keep a dovii for a while until iit approaches full grown size. You will then see him struggle to turn around and don’t look cool at all. A cramped fish will not live long.

Dovii is best kept solo in a bare bottom tank, as he will pick up sand and blow it to one side negating substrate biofiltration effect, and potentially ruin filter impeller. With sterile bare bottom, you need to provide external biological filtration. I rarely recommend AC, but in this situation, AC will do a better job than cartridge style HOBs due to AC large media volume for biological.

Yeah he's not going to be in this tank long-term it's just short-term. But I could tell you he's a lot happier than being in that 37 gallon tank!

 

[viejafish]

You don’t need a 500 gal tank to house one dovii. A 2 ft wide 120 will do, at the minimum, with good filtration and massive weekly water change. The width of a tank limits the size of a fish it can house..

Since you can buy 2 to 3 Penguin for the price of one AC, It’s a better bang for the buck to run 2 or 3 Penguin than one AC. Just fill up one Penguin with bio balls for biological, and the others for mechanical. Multiple HOBs gives you more dirt pick up points and is an insurance in case one stops. It’s critical for tank busters as they like to knock off return pipe.

 

[Lepisosteus]

Bad guess

Agree.

 

[Lepisosteus]

I’ll speak from personal experience. I’ve owned the aqua-clear 20, 30, 50, and 110 models. If sand is kept out of the impeller the filter will run dead silent. I had the 30 model on a 20 long in my bedroom just a few feet away. I ran mine for a minimum 4 years. Never once had an o-ring fail. Never had an overflow, and never had a plastic piece break. When you pick up an aquaclear filter you can feel the difference in quality. The plastic seems thicker and more durable. I remember when I had marineland biowheels all the edges were sharp. Aquaclear rounds off most of them. Just shows a greater level of care and quality.

 

[Backfromthedead]

You don’t need a 500 gal tank to house one dovii. A 2 ft wide 120 will do, at the minimum, with good filtration and massive weekly water change. The width of a tank limits the size of a fish it can house..

Since you can buy 2 to 3 Penguin for the price of one AC, It’s a better bang for the buck to run 2 or 3 Penguin than one AC. Just fill up one Penguin with bio balls for biological, and the others for mechanical. Multiple HOBs gives you more dirt pick up points and is an insurance in case one stops. It’s critical for tank busters as they like to knock off return pipe.

Well sure if youre keeping a dovii in a 120, it will most likely knock the return pipe off...every time it turns around.

 

[adamsfishes]

You need at least an 8x3 for a full grown male dovii. Anyone who says otherwise is objectively wrong.

 

[viejafish]

Well sure if youre keeping a dovii in a 120, it will most likely knock the return pipe off...every time it turns around.

Regardless of the size of the tank, the destructive behavior of Dovii will attempt to knock off the return pipe. I once had a 14' Vieja (pic in my avator) housed in a 125 that constantly knocked off the strainers from the return pipes. I had to drill tiny holes in the pipe to secure the strainer with fish line. Heater is another item they will attack. I once had a 10" flowerhorn that cracked a heater. I didn't notice it until the water felt cold. Glass heater has no place with Dovii unless it is protected with armor or made of steel. The only safe filter for a large Dovii is a hard plumbed sump system with heater inside the sump.

I’ll speak from personal experience. I’ve owned the aqua-clear 20, 30, 50, and 110 models. If sand is kept out of the impeller the filter will run dead silent. I had the 30 model on a 20 long in my bedroom just a few feet away. I ran mine for a minimum 4 years. Never once had an o-ring fail. Never had an overflow, and never had a plastic piece break. When you pick up an aquaclear filter you can feel the difference in quality. The plastic seems thicker and more durable. I remember when I had marineland biowheels all the edges were sharp. Aquaclear rounds off most of them. Just shows a greater level of care and quality.

The difference has nothing to do with quality, but the type of plastic. Penguin uses black plastic, which is more flexible. AC uses transparent plastic, which is less flexible, more brittle, and thereby greater thickness is needed to compensate. AC box is intended to be stuffed with different media, so it needs to be transparent to see what's inside. I once dropped an empty AC box and it developed a small crack instantly. Black plastic doesn't crack as easily. AC is equivalent to a HOB canister filter. You need to take the box out to clean the impeller by unscrewing the motor. Not only that it is tedious, the box is heavy with water, so one must be careful not to slip and drop the box.

 

[Irecruitfish]

You need at least an 8x3 for a full grown male dovii. Anyone who says otherwise is objectively wrong.

Regardless of the size of the tank, the destructive behavior of Dovii will attempt to knock off the return pipe. I once had a 14' Vieja (pic in my avator) housed in a 125 that constantly knocked off the strainers from the return pipes. I had to drill tiny holes in the pipe to secure the strainer with fish line. Heater is another item they will attack. I once had a 10" flowerhorn that cracked a heater. I didn't notice it until the water felt cold. Glass heater has no place with Dovii unless it is protected with armor or made of steel. The only safe filter for a large Dovii is a hard plumbed sump system with heater inside the sump.



The difference has nothing to do with quality, but the type of plastic. Penguin uses black plastic, which is more flexible. AC uses transparent plastic, which is less flexible, more brittle, and thereby greater thickness is needed to compensate. AC box is intended to be stuffed with different media, so it needs to be transparent to see what's inside. I once dropped an empty AC box and it developed a small crack instantly. Black plastic doesn't crack as easily. AC is equivalent to a HOB canister filter. You need to take the box out to clean the impeller by unscrewing the motor. Not only that it is tedious, the box is heavy with water, so one must be careful not to slip and drop the box.

I guess my dovii is still getting acclimated. He's acting like a gentle giant so far. When do they start showing that angry behavior?

 

[Lepisosteus]

Regardless of the size of the tank, the destructive behavior of Dovii will attempt to knock off the return pipe. I once had a 14' Vieja (pic in my avator) housed in a 125 that constantly knocked off the strainers from the return pipes. I had to drill tiny holes in the pipe to secure the strainer with fish line. Heater is another item they will attack. I once had a 10" flowerhorn that cracked a heater. I didn't notice it until the water felt cold. Glass heater has no place with Dovii unless it is protected with armor or made of steel. The only safe filter for a large Dovii is a hard plumbed sump system with heater inside the sump.



The difference has nothing to do with quality, but the type of plastic. Penguin uses black plastic, which is more flexible. AC uses transparent plastic, which is less flexible, more brittle, and thereby greater thickness is needed to compensate. AC box is intended to be stuffed with different media, so it needs to be transparent to see what's inside. I once dropped an empty AC box and it developed a small crack instantly. Black plastic doesn't crack as easily. AC is equivalent to a HOB canister filter. You need to take the box out to clean the impeller by unscrewing the motor. Not only that it is tedious, the box is heavy with water, so one must be careful not to slip and drop the box.

The impeller does not need to come off to take the box out. You only need to remove the cover and the intake tube.