Promising Products?

I like the look of that filter.powerful and compact.I did however have a chuckle at the robosnail.Def not for me though.
 
That filter uses a cartridge one must replace. I will stick with nature's tried and true methods. They work just fine.
 
The Robosnail is a joke, imo. $375 for an algae scraper that can only clean on side? I wonder how many plants it can uproot in a well planted tank?
 
These two products strike me as just silly and are more than likely to be a waste of one's money than a useful tool. Just one man's opinion as always.
 
I never even liked the manual magnetic ones. You need a grabber or get your arm soaked when they fall.
 
The filter i'd probably use, like any other filter things need replacing.
 
The robosnail. nope, that would never be put in my tank lol
 
 
These two products strike me as just silly and are more than likely to be a waste of one's money than a useful tool. Just one man's opinion as always.
Make that 2 men's opinions.
 
Heh, thats what i thought about the robosnail too!
Im probably going to use the filter for one of my new tanks
 
 
The filter i'd probably use, like any other filter things need replacing.
 
That is a very broad statement and it is not quite accurate. Kets start with the fact that I have had as many as 27 HOBs running on tanks at the peak. So I am familiar with filter media and replacements. Most of those filters have two sponges and some floss in them. The sponges get replaced when they start to fall apart. This is about every 7-10 years and they cost a few dollars. Those that use floss have it replaced every week.
 
The Cata-Pure cartridge must be replaced every 9-12 months and rinsed regularly the same way my sponges are rinsed. The directions say to clean the cart when cleaning filtration. Does this imply that this filter should not be the only filter on a tank?
 
An Aquaclear 110 which moves 500 gph costs about $80 the big Hydra filter costs about $120 and moves about 1/2 that hourly flow.
 
But here is the biggest downside I see. In an established tank there are nitrifying bacteria all over the tank as well as the filter. So in a power outage some bacteria is at work even when the filter stops. We can remove the filter media and float or hang it in a tank and using a cheap battery powered air pump, we can keep things safe for some time. But what happens with the Hydra filter which is preventing bacterial colonies from establishing because it is taking away ammonia? When the power goes out it stops working.
 
And then lets consider the technology. One is electronic and subject to all the failings connected with that, but it still must have a mechanical component to move the water. Most other filters work only mechanically (for the most part) they just pump water. If you have owned a cars for a few decades you know about all the electronics they now include. When was the last time you had to have something mechanical in your car replaced vs something electronic?
 
But here is what is boils down to. After reading the information about the Hydra filter, who among the folks reading this thread plan to buy one?
Before jumping up and down about this thing you might want to read their literature and do some pricing. I would not use one of these things for free. I do not think I would even use it if I were offered money to do so.
 
Have a read here https://fishkeeper-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2015-01-16/35e39ecbcc46924400e1679262dcd8c5.docx
 
I dont really care what you think of it TTA....and nowhere was i jumping up and down lol

As i stated i would look at using the filter...............
 
Alasse said:
I dont really care what you think of it TTA
 
That is just plain rude and unnecessary. I don't think his comments were not directed at you in any way. He was just providing information as usual. He has some good points. If you choose not to listen, that is up to you.
 
IMHO, that filter is interrupting the natural processes that occur in an aquarium. If that filter failed, it could be catastrophic. Be warned.
 
I inadvertently created a double negative in my second sentence. Sorry to the grammar freaks. I should have omitted the second one.
 
There is information on this filter out there. There are considerations involved that the marketing material doesn't want to discus. Their materials try to hide all the downsides. And their is contradictory information in their literature.
 
Next, this is not a brand new product by any means. You can read a review of it in the December 5, 2012 edition of Practical fish keeping here http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=5376 However, more interesting is a thread on their forum which was a follow-up on the article and is a good read http://forum.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/showthread.php?t=117475
 
So, as I am inclined to do, I began to research the processes involved and based on my reading, I would actually advise one not to use this product. But the most interesting part of how it works can really lead to a major disaster during a power failure.
 
Hydroxal radicals will only have an effect on NH3 but not on NH4. This is important in terms of cycling related issues. The Ammonia oxidizing organisims in our tanks consume NH3 not NH4. In most water when NH3 is created by fish and organic decomposition, most of it almost instantly become NH4. This equilibrium will be maintained until both forms of ammonia are removed. The higher the pH of the water, the greater the portion of the total ammonia that will be in the form of NH3.
 
If you believe what has been written about the filter, you find that it tends to remove ammonia from a tank pretty fast. So. there will be very little NH3 available for very little time. This is one of the biggest selling points for this filter. But there is another aspect to this. If the NH3 is removed from the water rapdly, it is not available to feed the ammonia oxidizing bacteria. The result is there is little or no nitrogen cycle established in a tank. When there is a power outage, the toxic NH3 will stop being converted to NH4 by this filter and it will build up because the tank has very few of the bacteria needed to handle it.  if it works as advertised, the Hydra filter has assured that will be the case. We all know how fasttoxic  ammonia can build up in fully stocked uncycled tank. How long of a power cut can any tank relying on this filter withstand?
 
I have had electrical outages that lasted for many hours, even a day, and as long as I aggitated the water surface using battery powered air pumps, all went just fine. You do not need a constant application of an air stone to do this, Using two units rotated between 15 tanks worked fine for me. I moved the pumps from tank to tank.
 
But perhaps some of the better threads I have seen on this filter can be found here http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/ocean-free-hydra-electro-plate-filtration-thoughts-please.35913/ And the best one of all is here http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=242062 The most amusing thing in this link was the posting of a sw tank pic after it had been made clear the forum is for fw only, so sw info is not relevant. The poster stated the sw reef tank in the pic got no water changes for 6 months, only topped up for evaporation. How often does the normal reef change w/o this unit get water changed? I can find lots of threads where people say do them once a month or every two months, but I also find many who say they are doing no changes for between 6 months to several years. Here is an example of this sw dichotomy http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f190/riddle-me-this-batman-no-water-changes-for-3-years-80768.html 
 
However, since Alasse seems willing to give this filter a try, I assume she has done bit of research herself into the processes involved and the potentials for both good and bad things that they might cause. I assume she has considered the costs involved too. So I, and I assume other readers of this thread, would be very grateful if she could better explain the science behind the product since the literature from the maker is light on this aspect and somewhat confusing. I would be happy for her to explain why some of the objections raised in the links I provided and the opinions I have stated in this thread are of no concern. Please, Al, can you show us why you think this product is worth "looking at" rather than merely saying you do not care what I think about it which gives no help to anybody in understanding the product and why is should be considered. If you need to get a bit scientific, we can start a thread in the scientific section if you prefer?
 
One last thought here. The Hydra filter is not all that new. It has been around for several years. If this was an amazing product which did all it boasts, why is it not being rapidly adopted all over the place in all sorts of tanks. There are many, many, many millions of tanks all over the world. There have to be 100s of millions of filters from simple air powered sponges to sophisticated sw systems and everything between running on them. As far as I can tell there are only a few 100,000s of these filter that have been sold worldwide in that time?
 
 
In the United States, as of 1996, aquarium keeping is the second-most popular hobby after stamp collecting.[28] In 1999, an estimated 9.6 million US households owned an aquarium. Figures from the 2005/2006 APPMA National Pet Owners Survey report that Americans own approximately 139 million freshwater fish and 9.6 million saltwater fish.[29][30] Estimates of the numbers of fish kept in aquaria in Germany suggest at least 36 million.[28] The hobby has the strongest following in Europe, Asia, and North America. In the United States, 40% of aquarists maintain two or more tanks.
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarium
 
RobRocksFishTank said:
 
I dont really care what you think of it TTA
 
That is just plain rude and unnecessary. I don't think his comments were not directed at you in any way. He was just providing information as usual. He has some good points. If you choose not to listen, that is up to you.
 
IMHO, that filter is interrupting the natural processes that occur in an aquarium. If that filter failed, it could be catastrophic. Be warned.
 
Actually they were directed at me....
 
Alasse said:
 
I don't think so. He said a lot in that post but never mentioned your name. I saw the major flaw in that filter from the manufacturer's description. TTA gave a very detailed analysis of the functionality of that filter. He will do that no matter who is asking about such things. Again, I see nothing that singles you out.
 
TwoTankAmin said:
However, since Alasse seems willing to give this filter a try, I assume she has done bit of research herself into the processes involved and the potentials for both good and bad things that they might cause. I assume she has considered the costs involved too. So I, and I assume other readers of this thread, would be very grateful if she could better explain the science behind the product since the literature from the maker is light on this aspect and somewhat confusing. I would be happy for her to explain why some of the objections raised in the links I provided and the opinions I have stated in this thread are of no concern. Please, Al, can you show us why you think this product is worth "looking at" rather than merely saying you do not care what I think about it which gives no help to anybody in understanding the product and why is should be considered. If you need to get a bit scientific, we can start a thread in the scientific section if you prefer?
 
 
What is the problem here?

I state i would use the filter? I was not the only one who stated this, but you feel the need to single me out it seems.
 
I have no need to defend my stance on it, as you seem to...nor am i inclined to. I am in no way saying everyone has to have one, that is up to every individual person, i feel no need for them to have to explain it to me either.

I was merely answering a post to the OP
RobRocksFishTank said:
 
I don't think so. He said a lot in that post but never mentioned your name. I saw the major flaw in that filter from the manufacturer's description. TTA gave a very detailed analysis of the functionality of that filter. He will do that no matter who is asking about such things. Again, I see nothing that singles you out.


TTA quoted my post lol
 

Most reactions

Back
Top