30 gallon filtration

Slashdogg

Slashdogg

AC Members
Feb 15, 2005
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Port Elizabeth, South Africa
I can get hold of:
1. Aquaclear 200/50
2. Fluval Canister Filter 204

(really nothing else is available to me, bar some really dodgy no name products)

Now the Aquaclear has a higher flow rate than the Fluval at 757L/h, whilst the fluval is at 680L/H. But the fluval is a canister filter so one does not have to worry about making holes in tank hoods to fit it in. The other downside to the fluval is its price, its more than 3 times the price of the AC.

Basically, I am wondering if it is worth getting the fluval? Do the advantages of canister filtration greatly outweigh the negatives?

TIA
Ryan
 
Get 2x 30gal AquaClears, cheeper and a large area of cleaning power if you put one to the left of the tank and one to the right (what i got in my 29gal). But if you have the money get the Fluval.
 
So you think it would be worth getting the fluval? I'm keeping relatively non messy fish, so I really dont think I'd need 1400 L/H of filtration. Thats 14 times the tank volume in an hour. It'd be like a whirlpool. :p
 
haha i guess i would go with the fluval then. (wish i could afford a 30gal fluval...)
And the 2x 30gal filters dont cause much water movent if you fill your tank up to the water exit ramp. Pretty calming waters, so calm that i have to use a AC powerhead to stur up water from the bottom to get all the poop or whatever floating up towards the filter inlets.
 
Flow rate or filtration turnover are not by themselves critical. HOBs are not very efficient filtration devices, so rely on high turnover rates to compensate for that. Canisters in general are much more efficient than HOBs, so need less turnover to accomplish the same job. You cannot compare different filter formats by only one characteristic of the units.
 
Yes, I was saying that HOBs cannot ever be as efficent as canisters (smaller media volume, more possible media bypass) so they use greater flow rates (more turnovers per hour) to accomplish the same level of cleaning (both particulate and biological) as canisters. This is not a bad thing, it is just the nature of the particular format. I am not running down HOBs, they certainly can do the job and tend to be easy to maintain.

I haven't used HOBs in years (personal preference, largely canister filtration for me with some RFUG and some Wet/Dry) so I cannot offer good suggestions there. Generally I would select a unit with the tank in middle to lower part of the filter's suggested range. That is, if the filter says it is suited for tanks of 20-40 gallons, you would be midrange; or if 25-50 gallons, you would be a bit below midrange - which I would consider ideal. You would need to modify that for fish loads that were higher than optimum by use of larger or duplicated filter units.
 
there like 17$ down here for a AC30gal...or topfins i dont know forgot...good luck with your fluval
 
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