Marineland HOB Filters (350 vs Emperor 400)

I personally really like my emp 400, never had a penguin 350 though..
Only think annoying with it its a bit problematic to get going if it drains.
 
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I have both a penguin 350 and a emp. 400. The emperor 400 is much more powerful side by side IMO. Well worth the few extra dollars. I also think it out performs my AC filters and less media to clean. The emperors also have a larger biowheel than the penguins.
 
i actually have a harder time getting my emperors to restart than i do the penguins and even the penguin knockoffs (the aquaclear (?) marineland line made for wal-mart). i do water changes below the intakes of the filters, so they always have to reprime. the 400's can really be a pain to get restarted.
 
i actually have a harder time getting my emperors to restart than i do the penguins and even the penguin knockoffs (the aquaclear (?) marineland line made for wal-mart). i do water changes below the intakes of the filters, so they always have to reprime. the 400's can really be a pain to get restarted.
I would have to say this is the only downfall to them. They start back up very easy by just adding a little water to the box.
 
i have a penquin 350 on my 75 gallon, and ordered an emperor 400 the other day from dr foster and smith.. yep 38.00 good buy even with the 10.00 shipping
 
Even when putting water in the box on my emperor it still sometimes has trouble. But as said above it really is its only downfall other then that i really like it. I would like to try the ac filters sometime but i am not sure how important bio-wheels are.
 
I have a marineland peinguin 350. I superglued the valve so it doent suck air intill the water is below the valve. I can't open the valve now but at least i can do up to about 40% water changes each week without unpluging filter. I also got an extra valve and upper intake pieces for free from marineland, so if i sell or give away powerfilter they can use the the pieces they want. The only thing i don't like about filter now is that it seems the top of filter media get dirty while the bottom is hardly gets dirty, yet water will bypass the filter media above at this point because the filter media is slowing the water flow thru it. Part of these two issues may be because i have little foam filters behind other filter media. Well, also i get alittle splashing or dripping sound that is annoying with biowheels turing or not. The tank is full of water so dont know why i'm getting spashing or dripping sound. The motor seems quieter than a whisper of near same size or rating. My whisper works great but motor is annoying.
 
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yeah, sometimes i have to add 5 or 6 cups of water to the filter before it will 'catch'. if it decides it's not ready, the added water just backflows down the intake tube.
 
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