Are These Filters Good

[rdd1952]

Even though the filter is cheap, by the time you buy a good air pump strong enough to run it off of, won't you still have just as much money in it as a good HOB?

 

[Dorkhedeos]

If you want all your fish to be healthy and not have to worry about maintaining them like crazy, spend more money. If you want to spend like 10 bucks, be prepared for a hell of a lot of maintenance and some fish in decent condition. Thats pretty much the truth and you cant really escape it unless other people give you equipment or you build your own, then you can probably spend a lot less.

From my experience, when you buy equipment, its best not to buy the cheapest thing. I always buy the mid-high or high end stuff. My dad always taught me that if you buy something, buy the best or you will end up paying for the best and getting the worst. In other words, if you buy something cheap to start out with, you will end up buying that thing many times. With all that money you spent buying that, you couldve gotten that high end thing you shouldve gotten in the first place. It is like that with any kind of equipment.

 

[Tolak]

Even though the filter is cheap, by the time you buy a good air pump strong enough to run it off of, won't you still have just as much money in it as a good HOB?

This is why they work so well with multiple tank setups. My $200 pump is running around 50 outlets atm, with air being bled off. This pump is rated for 60-75 outlets, with plenty of pressure. So it end up being about $3 per outlet for the air, $1.40 for the brass valve, and about $0.50 or less for the pvc & air line. Add $5 to the price of the box filter for the air & hardware leading up to it. This is how you get them to beat a power filter.

I was running Aqua Clear 20's & 50's on most of the tanks, they pull 6 watts each. My air pump pulls 60 watts, and filters more than 10 tanks. Those filters are $20 to $30 each now, though they were cheaper when I bought them long ago. Between selling the old filters & saving on the electric bill I've already paid for the pump & such.

Maintenance is much easier as well. All it takes is hoisting the filter out by the air line, pulling the old floss, stuffing in new floss, and tossing it in the tank. It took longer to type that than it takes to actually do it. I run mostly bare tanks, if the filter wasn't keeping the tank clean I'd know real quick.

The biggest drawback with box filters in any setup is that they are plain ugly. The only way to make them less ugly is to hide them with decorations, or just get used to their cheap useful ugliness.

 

[rdd1952]

I can understand the economics of your situation Tolak, but for his one tank, it just seems like it would almost cost more for the airpump to run the box filter than to just buy a HOB. You can get an Aquaclear 20 HOB for less than $14 at Petsmart. That's a lot cheaper than a good, quiet airpump.

 

[Tolak]

If you've already got the air pump it beats running just an airstone. If you want to filter a single tank, or perhaps a few I would go with a different type of filtration if the pump isn't already bought. Once you get to around 6 average size tanks located near each other you can run them cheaper on air.


BTW, nice price at Petsmart. I guess Hagen recently increased the prices on the AC filters, Petsmart didn't jack the price too bad. It looks like most everyone else kicked it up about 30% from what I'm seeing, Petsmart used to have them for $12.

 

[Straydum]

i had one of those for awhile, and i didnt like it.

 

[grimmy]

ill get a sponge filteror 2 of the corner filters i already have an air pump thats good for 40 gallons