Today is National Hang on the Back Filter day at my house. I've scavenged all the parts I can from HOB filters, and there is nothing left to rebuild with. So today, I receive two no known name Chinese filters and two used Aquaclears, a 1200 and a 70.
All of my tanks under 75 gallons have air driven sponge filters of various sorts, and with regular water changes, they are healthy environments with long lived, breeding fish. I'm happy with how they work, cycle wise.
I like fish from rivers though, and the cycle alone doesn't cut it. Power filters serve a useful purpose for my flow and current loving fish. I have all sorts, brand names, no names, canisters, HOBs, home made internal filters, undergravels... if it works, I keep it working. My longevity filters are aquaclears. In spite of their tendency to need a manual restart after power cuts, they're great. Usually at about 15 to 17 years of continuous use, they've needed to be combined - the parts from 2 or 3 filters become one and I get a few more years. That process has reached its end, as all the parts I have here have worn out.
A second type of HOB I like is a no name I'll never see again. A local store that went under in 2016 imported them for a decade and sold them under their own brand. I bought a bunch of these then $16 filters, rated for 50 gallons, and ran them on 20 gallon tanks for about 18 years max. They started dying at 12, and where I had 10, I now have one. They far outlasted the marinelands I had - proof that being well made beats being well branded every time.
And so, today, the newest no names will get the media from oft repaired filters and be running by this evening. The used Aquaclears are from a guy who just built a central sump system, and are still only 2 or 3 years old. They'll be workhorses. I'll keep scouring the used equipment listings online, and try to add a few more. When you enter my fishroom, you see a tank running on a 1970s aquaclear that came from a barn sale of stuff from an aquarist who died in the early 1980s. It sat in a box for decades, being perfectly good and from the look of it only used for a short time. Granted, it was boxed for around 40 years, but it runs like a charm, as antique plastic.
I pick my filtration for the fish in the tank, and for their needs. That, and I'm a cheapskate too.
All of my tanks under 75 gallons have air driven sponge filters of various sorts, and with regular water changes, they are healthy environments with long lived, breeding fish. I'm happy with how they work, cycle wise.
I like fish from rivers though, and the cycle alone doesn't cut it. Power filters serve a useful purpose for my flow and current loving fish. I have all sorts, brand names, no names, canisters, HOBs, home made internal filters, undergravels... if it works, I keep it working. My longevity filters are aquaclears. In spite of their tendency to need a manual restart after power cuts, they're great. Usually at about 15 to 17 years of continuous use, they've needed to be combined - the parts from 2 or 3 filters become one and I get a few more years. That process has reached its end, as all the parts I have here have worn out.
A second type of HOB I like is a no name I'll never see again. A local store that went under in 2016 imported them for a decade and sold them under their own brand. I bought a bunch of these then $16 filters, rated for 50 gallons, and ran them on 20 gallon tanks for about 18 years max. They started dying at 12, and where I had 10, I now have one. They far outlasted the marinelands I had - proof that being well made beats being well branded every time.
And so, today, the newest no names will get the media from oft repaired filters and be running by this evening. The used Aquaclears are from a guy who just built a central sump system, and are still only 2 or 3 years old. They'll be workhorses. I'll keep scouring the used equipment listings online, and try to add a few more. When you enter my fishroom, you see a tank running on a 1970s aquaclear that came from a barn sale of stuff from an aquarist who died in the early 1980s. It sat in a box for decades, being perfectly good and from the look of it only used for a short time. Granted, it was boxed for around 40 years, but it runs like a charm, as antique plastic.
I pick my filtration for the fish in the tank, and for their needs. That, and I'm a cheapskate too.
