Filtration Question

[bjwilli88]

Hello,

I am new to this hobby and just have a couple of questions about filtration. I recently purchased a 55g aquarium and will be using it for freshwater. I just put the gravel in and filled it with water (No fish, don't worry. I will soon be starting the fishless cycle process.)My question is, what type of filtration would you guys recommend, canister or HOB? I have been trying to research as much as I can about both types, but have not been able to come to a conclusion on which is better. I was kind of leaning towards the Eheim 2215 canister filter, or the Marineland Penguin 350B HOB. What do you guys think? Would either one of these be sufficient for my tank? Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

[rabbut]

Hello,

I am new to this hobby and just have a couple of questions about filtration. I recently purchased a 55g aquarium and will be using it for freshwater. I just put the gravel in and filled it with water (No fish, don't worry. I will soon be starting the fishless cycle process.)My question is, what type of filtration would you guys recommend, canister or HOB? I have been trying to research as much as I can about both types, but have not been able to come to a conclusion on which is better. I was kind of leaning towards the Eheim 2215 canister filter, or the Marineland Penguin 350B HOB. What do you guys think? Would either one of these be sufficient for my tank? Any suggestions would be helpful.

Canister everytime. They have greater media capacity and better flow rates than HOBs. They also require less maintanance. The Marineland HOB should be fine, but I am not familiar with the Ehiem range.
HTH
rabbut

 

[helterskelter]

You should always go with that you can afford and and if you can get a ehiem canister then their's very little else better out there.

 

[Tobigara]

Hello,

I am new to this hobby and just have a couple of questions about filtration. I recently purchased a 55g aquarium and will be using it for freshwater. I just put the gravel in and filled it with water (No fish, don't worry. I will soon be starting the fishless cycle process.)My question is, what type of filtration would you guys recommend, canister or HOB? I have been trying to research as much as I can about both types, but have not been able to come to a conclusion on which is better. I was kind of leaning towards the Eheim 2215 canister filter, or the Marineland Penguin 350B HOB. What do you guys think? Would either one of these be sufficient for my tank? Any suggestions would be helpful.

Canister everytime. They have greater media capacity and better flow rates than HOBs. They also require less maintanance. The Marineland HOB should be fine, but I am not familiar with the Ehiem range.
HTH
rabbut

i agree...canister everytime. BUT if money is an issue the penguin will deffinitely do a good job. if you are going to have a small fish community then the penguin will do great but if your going to stock bigger fish like cichlids i would wait and save for the canister.

i have a penguin 350 on my 55 and it worked great while my cichlids were small but they are getting bigger now so i'm upgrading to a canister.

btw hob filters usually have a much higher flow rate than canisters of equal tank size rating. hob's need the high flow rate because they can't match canisters in the amount of media they hold. canisters expose the water to more media therefore have better filtration but lower gph ratings. hob's have to pump the water thru the limited media they have as many times as possible to equal the quality of filtration.

 

[bjwilli88]

Thanks for the responses. This is a great forum by the way! I have about $100 to spend on a filter and it looks like I can get the eheim canister for about $105 on petsmart's website. It sounds like that's probably the route I'll take. Thanks again!