Aqua-clear Sadness

I have a penguin mini with a bio-wheel on my 10 gallon puffer tank and it works great considering what a messy eater my Figure 8 is. You may want to look into one.

Another thread that is going to start the Marineland / Aquaclear Wars :rant:
 
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Puffernewbee said:
I have a penguin mini with a bio-wheel on my 10 gallon puffer tank and it works great considering what a messy eater my Figure 8 is. You may want to look into one.

I have a mini bio wheel on a 10g and and like it but I removed the filter material and carbon from the frame and bought sheet filter material and cut it to fit and use rubber bands to hold it in place on the frame. Works GREAT! I made 2 and just alternate them every 3 weeks. A good rinse and they're ready to use again.

Tom
 
I am going to say go with penguin or the emereror line by marineland I have been very happy with the biowheel, and just because its a Cartridge filter does not mean you can not customize the media, I do all of that with the stuff its stuffed with floss and the original cartridge and it keeps the tank awsomely clean. silent if I keep the water level up kinda hard with evap while heats running in house but winters nearing the end for us in NC I hope.
 
i think the pequin is a waste....cloges up to quickly dosent work very good.... a 125 or a 175 would filter twice as much and are around 20 bucks.....a 125 on a 10 gallon...whoohooo thats some filterin
 
mine is not clogged been using it almost a year now. Mine works awsome the penguin I love it that biowheel is great and the prcie was right 20 dollars on bigals.
 
no the penquin mini is a waste on anything but a 5 gallon tank...you can get the 125-175 on bigals for like 20..
 
I have an Aquaclear mini at my desk at work -- I am watching it right now. Due to the design, as long as it is leveled properly, it is impossible for it to overflow, unless it had an incredible amount of gunk build up.

I've been using them for year, and have never had them overflow. I clean them out every so often, every 3 or 4 months, but clean the sponges once per week.
I avoid taking them apart, since that wears out the "O" ring.
 
The other reason why the aquaclear could overflow is the use of floss.....why bother using filter floss when you have a sponge, bag o carbon and ammorid....these are designed to be changed at different times....at the mo i only have the filter sponge and they work fantastic....i use 2 sponges in the one filter ( i have 2) and wash the bottom one and swap them around to keep the bacteria cultures to a maximum....)
Not a problem with these filters
 
For an established tank, you shouldn't have to use carbon or ammorid. Use two or three sponge for rotation should be good. That shouldn't create any blockage. The main overflow protection is the passage between the intake tank and the outflowing tank and of course the outlet back to the tank. Are either of these blocked?
 
I am now up to 18 AquaClears (from Mini to 300) running on assorted tanks. I have yet to have one overflow. I also do weekly maint. that involves rinsing the media and replacing any floss. Most of them have a prefilter sponge over the intake.
 
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