Hi, first off I would like to say that you guys have a great forum here, and I have learned alot over the past month or so I have been coming here.

I have 2 questions, and I'm hoping your input can help me make the right decision. I'm currently in the process of setting up my new 75 u.s. gal tank and plan on the the following for filtration: an eheim 2028 canister and an HOB filter. As far as the HOB is concerned I'm conflicted as to which filter to go with. I like aqua clear but with no bio wheel I'm not so sure they will do as good a job as an emperor would do. My other concern is any insert you buy for an emperor contains carbon and from what I have learned I want to stay away from carbon. With that said can you make your own inserts, if so how?

Thanks in advance, this is a truely a great forum with alot of excellent advise, keep up the great work!

you should be able to buy filter media from your LFS, i can get bits of foam sort of stuff that i can cut to the right shape for the filter. you can also get different levels of thickness and porusness

Hi and Welcome!!!

I have several HOB filters and I use the fiber cartrage for them and just don't add the carbon... Hope this helps!

since you are going to use a canister as well as ah hob filter i would leave the bio filtration to the canister to handle and focus on mechanical filtration for the hob. and for this purpose the aquaclear is far superior to the emperor filter.
also the bio media storage in the canister should be more than adequate for your 75. and the abilty to customize the aquaclear to suit a specific role imho makes it a shoe in for secomdary filter.

jsut my 2 cents


btw welcome to the site

Personally I am very pleased with the old-tech but otherwise flexible, quite noise free, easy to service AquaClear 110 (I could say the same of the 70). I have no experience with the Emperor/Penguin Bio-Wheel filters myself since I am a somewhat noise-sensitive person.

For your set-up with the Eiheim 2028 Canister as main filter, the AquaClear 70 will likely be a great back-up/complimentary filtration.

As far as the biological filtration capabilities of the Bio-Wheels, I can tell you that I have read interesting research challenging its alleged superiority. In somewhat controlled conditions, the old sponge filter is likely to work better than the bio-wheels as biological filtration. Fluidized Bed Filters seem to be the best biological filters but there are risks inherent to their design.

Please check this article on Bio-Wheels: www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2006/12/do...els-really-work.html

I've been running my Oscar tank with three AquaClear 110 as the main filtration system (I have other systems as complimentary) since I set that tank in July 2008. Never have I had an issue with ammonia and nitrites.

I keep extra seeded media stashed in the AquaClears in case I need to handle a nitrogen cycle disruption in other tanks (e.g. after dismantling and thoroughly cleaning a established tank due to disease).

Pepe
Santo Domingo

Since you have the bio filtration taken care of in the canister i would say aquaclear. I Have a penguin 350 bio-wheel and i find it to be a pain to keep the wheels spinning. Also they are very noisy and when enough water evaporates i find it hard to sleep with the noise.