What kind of filter??

nursie

nursie

AC Members
Jan 15, 2005
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Peoria, IL
Real Name
michelle
I haven't had a tank up and running for a couple of years, and would like some advice before I do so again. I have a 55 gal which I am setting up outside of my bedroom. When I had it going before, it was farther away, and I had 2 Emporer filters on it. They were good, but rather noiser than what I want outside of my bedroom.
I am thinking about a cannister type filter. Any suggestions as to brands...or are the hang on tanks better? I have searched the archives here and read what I could find there. I saw a Filstar cannister mentioned and will have to look for those.
If I get a canister, how do I decide what filter media to put in it?
 
Filter

Most filters themselves are actually not all of that noisy. Much of the noise comes from how the water returns to the tank. If the filter outlet is much higher than the water level, then the water returning to the tank would splash as it comes down and makes contact with the water in the tank.

I am currently running an Emperor 400. My water level is almost touching the plastic edge of the top of the tank. The water comes out of the filter and gently mixes with the top of the water in the tank. It is quiet. Being a new filter, I cannot say if it will remain quiet. Perhaps the bio-wheels might start making noise? My old bio-wheel pro never wore out and never made noise. On the far side of this current tank, away from the Emperor, is a small Aquaclear that I am running while the Emperor's wheels are cycling. That makes more noise because the outlet's lip is higher than the tank water.

I have an older Eheim stored in the closet. What might be called "classics" now. I recall that I chose that particular model because the motor was quiet. It was cleaning a tank in my bedroom. It was also quiet, as long as you keep the filter's output under water.

In my humble experience, most filter motors and impellers are quiet. It's the water coming back to the tank that makes the noise. You can remedy that by having a high water level. The only filter that I could not seem to do that with was an old Whisper WDF. The water had to drop to the tank. Even so, it wasn't that noisy.

I hope this helps.
 
If you're thinking of switching to a canister, I highly recommend the Rena FilStar XP filters. I've got an XP2 on my 65g, it's nearly silent, very easy to clean, and works incredibly well. The media baskets are huge, the filters come complete with everything except biological media (which is about $20CDN) and they're even quite attractive to look at! They're also very reasonably priced.
 
I'm running a Marineland Magnum Pro 350 Cannister. Big al's has them for $ 80.00 plus shipping. I've seen them at the LFS from 155.00 - 225.00. The operation has been silent and I like the biowheels. No airpump needed as part of the return flow is aerated upon return. I found this to be a great value for the money when it comes to cannisters
 
Thanks for your replies.
Cloud 9..I had Emporers before, and you point is well made about the majority of the noise being from the water return. As they age, the impeller motors do pick up some noise, and you have to pay attention to the flow in them or risk overflow. I had good results, don't get me wrong. I ran 2 on my 50 gal. But they need replaced...or can you just replace the motors? I also want to put my tank closer to the wall than what the hang on tank filters allow..if I can.
 
filter?

Hi IMHO the best canisters are eheims but the most expensive, the rena 's are good noisey , fluvals seem to have the worst record for problems of the three.
However there are some newer brands such as Jebo. They make an excellent quality canister filter that is as quiet as an eheim, well built comes with all bio media and costs about 60.oo us. I have the jebo 828 on my 70 gallon and it has been a star. I bought mine from petsolutions.com. I 'm also injecting Co2 into mine for my plants and it still is quiet.
Kuhli
 
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