Cleaned 4 hang on tank filters today, 2- Aquaclear 70’s & 2- Tidal 75’s… comments on filter components

[Magnum Man]

1st… I like both filters… both foam pre filters get good marks from me, imo, both are close enough to the correct coarseness, to filter, without plugging up too soon… the Aquaclear’s foam is about 1/4 inch thicker, and the Tidal’s have a couple square inches more surface area… long term, I expect the Tidal to be harder to cut your own replacement foam, as it has a “dog leg” and is not fully rectangle like the Aquaclear…

The Aquaclear’s mesh bag is functional, but just seems cheap, being a plastic mesh tube, heat sealed on one end, with a cheap plastic clip for the other… the Tidal has a sewn mesh bag, with a zipper, but imo, is too fine a mesh… mine needed cleaning, and the indicators said so… but the bags were blinded over with waste, so very little water was actually flowing through the bio media…

.which brings up the bio media, both had what looked like ceramic chunks… the Aquaclear’s were smaller, and more porous, but again, imo, both had less than half of the bio media the filter box could effectively hold…

Both filters have media trays that hold the components, so they are easily removed from the filter, while it’s running ( a plus with the Aquaclear’s operating system

There are functional differences, you can review for yourself… in the end, I replaced both bio media bags, and supplemented the factory bio media, with twice as much of a ceramic donut, that has much more surface area… I can add pictures during the cleaning, if there is interest..

And since I normally over stock, and over filter my tanks, I’m interested n comments of other filters similar to these two

A picture of the 2 bio media bags, top is Tidal’s, middle is Aquaclear’s, and bottom is the bag I replaced them with…

 

[Ceez]

Tidals come with seachem matrix. I added more. I also added chemi blue, purigen and pot scrubbers. The storage space is more than ample, flow is adjustable and there's tons of it and the removable tray is a decent idea.

They sell replacement pads for fairly cheap. I saw some today, 10 for $12.

I also agree, better bags are a good idea.

Haven't tried to aquaclears before but everyone I know says great things. Don't think I've ever heard a complaint. Ive used pretty much every other HOB there is.

Tidal is my choice from now on though, sicce pumps inside, lots of storage, great flow, easy to clean

 

[MaloK]

When my MTS was untreated, I used Aquaclear on all my tanks, from the Mini to the 500.

I really love the "2 minutes maintenance done" that they have and the silent operation... I use 1 coarse sponge over the intake, 1 coarse sponge in the first basket and a medium on top. Filtration media can be customized in a flinch.

The fact that it cannot be easier to maintain gives the ability to rinse the media often without problems and remove decaying matter quickly before they clog and provide peerless bio filtration.

I have a mini running on my shrimp tank at the moment, it's 42 years old and kicking. Water looks polished all the time. If I blur the water doing maintenance, it takes 20 minutes to get back to crystal clear every time.

So I commit as an Aquaclear fanboy.