Canister vs HOB filter

[Jemina]

My husband and I are toying with the idea of a 50 or so gallon tank. We have been looking at filters and accessories and are confused why one would use a canister filter vs a HOB one.

Why spend $100+ for a Ehiem Pro when you could spend $45 for a Marineland Emporer 400? Is the filteration that much better?

Thanks

 

[vato]

yes s, typically the filteration is much better with a canister. The design does not allow the water to by-pass the filter media in a canister, even some of the best HOB's still do this even if they advertise to the contrary(Aquaclear). When it gets right down to it they are far cheaper than a HOB filter becasue of 1. their capacity 2. their ability to effectivly filter your water 3. duriblity. In my opinion they are much better than any Hang on Back. If you still have any doubt, then I can tell you more if you'd like.

 

[daveedka]

Cannisters have there advantages, as do HOB's, I have never used canisters but most definately will when the time comes. Hob's are relatively in-expensive, do a ggod job with filtration, and are easy to maintain clean ect. Ac's are a pretty dependable filter, my personal favorite is the Emporer series. Hob's are easier to monitor, they are versatile, but in some instanceds Emp. being one. you will want to DIY your media rather than buy the pre-made carbon loaded cartriges. For me it is much easier to be able to see my filter and the flow through it. when estabilishing a maintenance routine, the HOB tells me when to clean media, because of the overflow system on the media well.
Hob's are a bit noisier than cannisters (silent from what i've heard), but in all honesty I cannot hear either of my hob's from 5 ft away.
What I am quickly finding out is that cannisters are most popular with planted tank people because they can be set up to not ripple the top. and when injecting Co2 surface agitation is counterproductive. maintenance on canisters doesn't seem to be too difficult according to most and in the instance of Ehiem, my understanding is that they last for decades so the extra cost up front pays you back down the road. although the emp 400 and the ac 500 I'm running are both in excess of 10 years old now and have had no issues to date.

In your tank either will work fine, IMHO if you are going to grow plants, have need of silence, or have a need to restrict current go with the cannister, if not go with the HOB. I might also reccomend doubling up on filtration one way or another. redundancy prevents emergencies if something should go wrong.

 

[Gunnie]

If I had to choose, I'd take the canister filters over HOB. If you have a power outage or surge, your canisters will not lose their prime & will just start where they left off. The maintenance on canisters is also much less. I'm constantly having to do something with my HOB filters every week or two. I don't touch my canisters for at least a month before I clean them again.

 

[TKOS]

I persoanlly liekthe HOB's, even with my planted tank. But as you have seen there are probably going to be an equal amount of people that like each. What you really need to look for is the amount of filtration offered. Don't rely on the tank size on the box. Instead find the gallons per hour pumped through each filter. Then divide that by the tank size. You should be looking at a flow through rate of 5 or 6 times an hour roughly. If the HOB can do it, is cheaper and you don't plan on having CO2 injection then I would side with the HOB.

Another option as well is 2 HOB's. Some of the larger ones get a bit menacing looking sometimes. 2 smaller ones can do just as good a job and spread the flow to each side of the tank, plus allow for continued filtration if for some reason one breaks. Just a thought.

 

[JSchmidt]

Either a canister or an HOB can be a serviceable filter. I run both on many of my tanks. I use HOBs on smaller tanks with less messy fish. They (if packed with an easily rinsed and reusable media like foam) are effective and inexpensive filters. I particularly like Emperors because of the biowheels. I don't find filter noise particularly odious, but HOBs do make a lot more noise than canisters.

Canisters are great because they're silent (if they're Eheims anyway) and, as was mentioned, they tend to start more reliably after power outages. I run almost all of my canisters as biofilters. They are packed only with Ehfimech (ceramic noodles) and/or bioballs, and are prefiltered. As a result, they provide great biofiltration with very little maintenance. The downside is that they cost quite a bit more at the outset.

You can get excellent filtration with either canisters or HOBs. The differences will largely be driven by your esthetic preferences and your willing to shell out money. More important, I think, than naming one type of filter as superior, is to find filters that allow you to (a) do cleaning of mechanical media frequenlty, (b) have more than one filter on a tank (redundancy is a necessity, in my book) and (c) provide sufficient mechanical and biological filtration for the bioload they'll handle.

Sorry for being longwinded...

Jim

 

[aquariumfishguy]

The short and simple version is that people who use cannisters use them because:

A) their setup requires the use of one
B) because they feel they are better off
C) because they over stock their tanks
D) because they have an extremely large tank
E) they just dont like the HOB filter

Whatever the reason, there is no dire need for everyone to use one. Especially if the aquarium is under 55 gallons, a HOB can be just as useful provided you do not over stock. And yes, two filters would come in handy for practical reasons. But I say, its your choice.

 

[Jemina]

Thank you all so very much!!!

After reading your responses, we feel not only better about the filters we have now on our 18, and 28 gal tanks, but what our options are if we do get the larger tank.

My husband, Drew, does have another question though. The canisters we are seeing in catalogues do not have a very high gal/hour rate. Is the same ratio of 5-6 water changes per hour that you would use on a HOB filter the same for a canister? Is it because the canister is just more efficient in teh filtration? We kinda over kill with our filters and run something like 9-10 water changes per hour.

Thanks again

 

[daveedka]

My husband, Drew, does have another question though. The canisters we are seeing in catalogues do not have a very high gal/hour rate. Is the same ratio of 5-6 water changes per hour that you would use on a HOB filter the same for a canister?

Not really, and to be honest the gph ratings are highly arbitrary to begin with. they can be used as a guideline to compare and chose filters, but the filters don't really flow that much when running.

With Hob's you have overflows that allow water to bypass when the media fills up, with most hob's there is some bypass even with new media. with the cannister all the water goes through the media, therefore it cleans a little better and more dependably. So in essence, the cannister flow doesn't have to be as high. For my tank 9-10 times an hour is minimum and two filters minimum, so the 5-6 times number seems really low to me. but once again it's a guidline. I've found that at about 9x's tank volume is starts being difficult to control current with an HOB. anything below that is fine on each filter for me.

 

[vato]

agreed, the choice between HOB and Canister is completely up to personal preferance. There are positives and negatives to both. So choose wisely what is best for you.