i have penguin 550 in my tank, 145gal/hr, my fish love it, but i got africans though.
Never heard of the penguin 550. what is the setup like?
the emperor is a fantastic series. due to 2 independednt motors your bio wheel is always going even if you slow down the intake to factor in for slower fish. Marineland has doen a great job with the bio wheel.
[quote:3b16faa0aa="mk_ultra"]Never heard of the penguin 550. what is the setup like?
the 550 is jsut a powerhead, not a filter unit, although you cna add some media, like i have, and turn it into a mini filter. i use it as a biological fltration unit, only rinse it with aquarium water.
anywyas, emperors are alright from what i hear, only problem with meriland, is that ehnever you need to medicate your fish, ifu ever do. their cardridges already have the charcoal in there, so you gonna un-plug the filter. but they are ggreat filters though, i got a penguin 330 myself, when i had a 60gal.
i was confusing the filter and the power head.
why do you unplug the filter? you can operate it with the media pulled out? Plus this will help keep the water flowing.
[quote:049bc9477d="mk_ultra"]i was confusing the filter and the power head.
well, if u take out the filter cartiredge out of the filter in the penguins or tetras, or the emperor's. wha5ts the point of filtering thew water?...its not really being filtered, jsut all the mess is being thrown around in the tank.
thats why AquaClears are da best:) you cna put in or take out whichever media u need.
Know I disagree. :) although you can mismatch on aquaclear the flow setting is horrible for one thing. and the bio-sponge stays submersed in water. no oxygen to the bacteria and acts like a plug as far as mechanical filtering. no to mention that the bags somewhat floats around causing a lot of water to bypass the media altogether.
I see your point about pulling the cartidge out of marienland filters. it nulls the effect of the mechanical filter. but an easy fix with carbon mesh or filter cotton. plus on the emperor system and the penguin 330 you get 2 extra refillable cartridges that can be refilled with anything.
Just curious about what you mean about the flow setting. The AC500 can go from under 200gph to 428gph with a touch of the finger. And if there's no oxygen in the water for the bacteria, you won't have to worry about the filter since the fish are dead anyway (unless they're labyrinths). An underwater sponge filter has plenty of biological filtration and it's never exposed to air.
I've got 2 Emperors and 5 Aquaclears and I'm definitly a big fan of the AC's. They're all I buy now when I'm looking for power filters. As far as acting like a plug, if you clean the sponges when you rotate them they're fine.
Ok, this will help. if you get the emperor buy 2 extra cartridges. when your first 2 are used up add the new ones. as for the old ones cut the pad off. I order from pet solutions at least once a month good and fast servce. get some cartridge pads and reuse them. they come in a 10 pack $3.69, so that should last awhile. and if you need to medicate the tank, make yourself a new cartridges without the carbon. you'll be good to go.