Canister vs. HOB filter for 75 gallon?

I know I'm vastly outnumbered, but I'm satisfied with my 2 x Penguin 200's for my 60 gal.

I have always used HOBs, like you, and don't really have a reason to change now. Theyre cheaper, and you get a really good up/down circulation with them. Plus if you use two, you can reach both sides of your tank for filtration without doing some extra plumbing with the canister intake. Then if one breaks, at least you have some filtration until you can get out and buy a replacement.

My penguins also have little overflow canals, so if for some reason the spillway clogged, water would just pour back into my tank and not overflow onto my floor. I know the risk for overflow is a big concern for many with HOBs, but that pretty much eliminates it.
 
You need to consider only one brand: EHEIM. I started this hobby with HOB filters but now I have two 2236's and a 2217, all of which are dead SILENT. I plan to buy a Pro 3 2075 soon.
 
I've been running a Rena XP2 on my 75 for 4 years. Service it once a month. Spraybar is great. Price is right too.

Martin
 
For anything over 55g, I think at least running a canister with a backup power filter is the way to go. I like running both so that I can alternate cleanings as well as have a quick way to setup a QT tank by using media from the power filter.

My only canister I have had is a Marineland C360 on my 75g tank, and I really like it. Early on, there were some troubles with O ring failures and reports of leaking, but I believe that was years ago and has been fixed. There are still rumors running around about leaks, but I believe that is just leftover worry from those early reports. I've had mine for about 11 months (got it used), and I have not had a single problem with it. I only have to clean it every 3-4 months, and it is completely silent. There have been times that I had to put my fingers in front of the output to make sure it was going!
 
let me the 1st to say I dislike canisters espec. the fluvals! my fluval causes crud back wash cuz it gets caught in the coiled tubing. & here's a thought - the price is way too costly.

I sold my fluval. I run 2 AC110's on my 72gal & AC70 on my 20gal. + with frequent large w/c. powerful & effective.

AC hob's are the least expensive & in this price range the most efficient units in the market. why spend 100's on canisters & other branded hob's when the AC's do the job so cheaply & so easy to maintain. 2 AC110's at $80 each is < the big name canisters.

So a novel thought! save $ & easy to care for. hmmm! now that's a holiday gift anyone can use!

unless you have the $ to spend, I would save it for better quality fish & other accessories/meds/foods. couldn't you use the $200 you could save on something else??!!

www.kensfish.com check out his prices.
 
Remember to consider your long term satisfaction. Almost any popular basket canister filter or a combination of basket canister and HOB will do, and with it all the associated short term cleaning maintenance required.

However if you see yourself expanding your hobby and spending even more time cleaning filters that require regular cleaning with good to fair performance, then you should consider filters that are more in the work horse category that while not being so sheik in looks and amenities for popularized media, work horse filters have much better endurance between cleaning and can scale bigger applications more easily and may be where you end up needed to go anyway as your hobby grows.

So I highly recommend you buy one filter at a time and one that is a work horse and that you will be able to apply to larger applications down the road as resources are rearranged, and who's price is reflective of real performance and value and not so much marketing. The only two that stand out in this category are the FX5 and the Magnum series. Why? becasue they incorporate proven industry technology "circumference filtration" which is always used in serious commercial applications becasue the truly do they have the best performance with the least amount of resources needed to maintain them.
 
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Not by design but rather since most of my gear is used stuff, I've got a good number of filter types all running at once and am usually so busy doing w/c et al that I never really thought to consider which filter systems were the easiest to live with. Like Gunner I was usually more concerned with how well it worked.

In the HOB my older A/C's are the best, followed by the Biowheel bros. Although I screw around with different media in the Biowheel HOB's the A/C's are a lot more amenable to mods and experimentation due to their large wells.

In canisters the FX5's are my biggest and newest but I must say that I only bought them 'cuz I couldn't afford the E's at the time. The Fluvalls work extremely well, but their cycling noises make them the loudest thing in my fish room. I've never heard a peep out of my friends' Eheims. Have a couple of older 400's, with HOB's on 75's, and they are dead quiet. Have a bunch of HOT Magnums that get moved around a lot but all in all my only gripe with the cans is the maintenance and space. Elevation is critical to performance and then you have to find a place to hide the bugger, and the FX5 is a BUFF (as in B-52). Then the hassle of unhiding it when you need to get inside of it. Major pain.

The tops in livability and carefree clean water has been my reticulated foam sumps and DIY wet/drys. Ease of adding things like extra inline sterilizers, heaters, biowheels, etc. along with the increased volume of water make them my best performers and the least hassle of all. Of course they are even harder to home than the cans and they will over flow at some point. They've taught me a real appreciation for my floor drain.

They can all do a great job so just think about time to maintain and cost of ownership. Although I personally wouldn't use them by themselves the ultimate cheapest and simplest would actually have to be a stack or two of ATI sponge filters and some air lines. Doesn't get much simpler than that.
 
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