ok, so canister filters arent for every one, but i love em personally. well, i dont actually feel affection towards a design of aquarium filter, but its a preference. once i find a company i like, im generally fairly loyal to that company...one need look no further than my desk to see not one but two HP computers, and a badass HP calculator (only an engineering student can use the words badass and calculator in such close proximity) to see that im one of those people. the only heater for me is an ebo jager...i dont care what the others are doing, i know what i like and what has worked for me in the past...and when it comes to filters, its ehiem
its not that i never gave fluval a chance, i did...and 20 years ago i thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, despite its failings. at that time all i knew was HOBs...and had a vague awareness of something called a diotomite filter..a rare species that i have seen only once, and whose magical powder i have just recently found at a health food store, but i digress. since my first fluval purchase all those years ago (a mighty feat when i was only making $5.25 an hour), fluval seems to have degenerated to the Playskool "My First Aquarium Filter" school of design. It works for some people but not for me. API has a modular filter that looked intriguing till i looked at the media, which appeared to be no more than multiple HOB filters attached together. No thanks.
That brings me to my choice of filters...Eheim...some here on this forum may know ive been trying to get mine running. My wife bought it in germany, and so my optioned here have been have a 220 volt outlet run to my tank- although my apartment manager may frown on this...or replace the motor on mine. unfortunately no one has been selling derelict eheim professionel IIs lately. I picked up an ECCO from Ron, but still that one was only rated for 35 gallons, half my tank size...so while i was getting better filtration than the crappy aquaclear HOB that i was using (which may not be all that crappy when used for its intended capacity, 10-20 gallons, it might be just fine...on a 75? forget it...it was just the cheapest thing at walmart when all i needed was a cheap filter)
so after rons eheim is happily filtering my tank its doing its job but rather overwelmed...i have a particulate problem where crud is coating the leaves of my plants, which are growing like mad despite this and the cyanobacteria, yet i have this friggin behemoth sitting unused and empty on the other side of the tankstand that goes by the name 2026
cut to another portion of the tank, where a cheap petco powerhead is driving the sweet UV sterilizer i picked up at the aquarium swap meet to the tune of 250 GPH or so(the same swapmeet where i became aware of this group and met several of you without knowing who i was meeting). yea thats higher than i wanted, but it is what it is...
just before i was about to give said powerhead to wife so she could do water changes on her incredibly awesome saltwater tank we just bought...whithout her having to lift a single bucket...well, i take that powerhead back before i even give it to her, cuz i realize, the filter doesnt care if it gets its water from its internal 220 v motor, or an external power head....like a pimp (or the IRS), it just wants its money, @#$! ... so i do some plumbing on the fly, end up wearing a couple gallons of my aquarium, but in the end, i got my mighty 2026 running in all its 5 liters of glory!nolt only that, i have a bada$$ prefilter for my uv sterilizer to keep the internal glass clean...oh yeaaa..
now i cant wait for the seed culture i took from small eheim to propogate within big ehiem to make it the kenny powers (google it) of aquarium filters
i had a bottle of champagne to celebrate. ok, celebrate alone, which is kinda lame..especially considering im celebrating an aquarium filter...but at least i bought it @ 40% off from the local top foods thats closing
its not that i never gave fluval a chance, i did...and 20 years ago i thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, despite its failings. at that time all i knew was HOBs...and had a vague awareness of something called a diotomite filter..a rare species that i have seen only once, and whose magical powder i have just recently found at a health food store, but i digress. since my first fluval purchase all those years ago (a mighty feat when i was only making $5.25 an hour), fluval seems to have degenerated to the Playskool "My First Aquarium Filter" school of design. It works for some people but not for me. API has a modular filter that looked intriguing till i looked at the media, which appeared to be no more than multiple HOB filters attached together. No thanks.
That brings me to my choice of filters...Eheim...some here on this forum may know ive been trying to get mine running. My wife bought it in germany, and so my optioned here have been have a 220 volt outlet run to my tank- although my apartment manager may frown on this...or replace the motor on mine. unfortunately no one has been selling derelict eheim professionel IIs lately. I picked up an ECCO from Ron, but still that one was only rated for 35 gallons, half my tank size...so while i was getting better filtration than the crappy aquaclear HOB that i was using (which may not be all that crappy when used for its intended capacity, 10-20 gallons, it might be just fine...on a 75? forget it...it was just the cheapest thing at walmart when all i needed was a cheap filter)
so after rons eheim is happily filtering my tank its doing its job but rather overwelmed...i have a particulate problem where crud is coating the leaves of my plants, which are growing like mad despite this and the cyanobacteria, yet i have this friggin behemoth sitting unused and empty on the other side of the tankstand that goes by the name 2026
cut to another portion of the tank, where a cheap petco powerhead is driving the sweet UV sterilizer i picked up at the aquarium swap meet to the tune of 250 GPH or so(the same swapmeet where i became aware of this group and met several of you without knowing who i was meeting). yea thats higher than i wanted, but it is what it is...
just before i was about to give said powerhead to wife so she could do water changes on her incredibly awesome saltwater tank we just bought...whithout her having to lift a single bucket...well, i take that powerhead back before i even give it to her, cuz i realize, the filter doesnt care if it gets its water from its internal 220 v motor, or an external power head....like a pimp (or the IRS), it just wants its money, @#$! ... so i do some plumbing on the fly, end up wearing a couple gallons of my aquarium, but in the end, i got my mighty 2026 running in all its 5 liters of glory!nolt only that, i have a bada$$ prefilter for my uv sterilizer to keep the internal glass clean...oh yeaaa..
now i cant wait for the seed culture i took from small eheim to propogate within big ehiem to make it the kenny powers (google it) of aquarium filters
i had a bottle of champagne to celebrate. ok, celebrate alone, which is kinda lame..especially considering im celebrating an aquarium filter...but at least i bought it @ 40% off from the local top foods thats closing
