Aquaclear110 or emperor280

[Jake42393]

I need a fast reply

Which one for a 20high

[IMaNoob]

I need a fast reply

Which one for a 20high

 

AC

[livingword26]

AC

 

+1 on AC 110

[moneyman6891]

AC 110 FTW!!!!!!!

[Nano#9]

AC

[Sea Keeper]

I've used both for years and I can give you a few points to consider about both.

 

MY Emperor 400 didn't produce as much flow, was ultra noisy ,and produced too many bubbles in the tank. Not good especially for saltwater. If you take out the bio-wheels, which is the first thing you'll want to do with a reef tank since they are nitrate factories, you'll have even more bubbles and water noise to add to the impeller noise.

 

THAT being said, it is one tremendous work horse of a filter and what does go through the cartridges, which are easier to change/clean than AC110 media, doesn't get around it, it goes THROUGH it. In essence everything that goes into that filter gets filtered.

 

My AC110 is much quieter, just as reliable so far, and produces no bubbles. It did, however, have two small drawbacks. There's bypass around the huge (read: nitrate factory if you don't rinse it well enough) sponge media and that media isn't as easy to change or clean.

 

Now just to give you some food for thought, this is what I did. I modded the AC110. I epoxied strips of plastic down into the side walls of the filter housing so that it made a "slot" for a filter cartridge to just slide down into and there be no water bypass around the media. It worked and I use an Eclipse 6 cartridge that fits it almost perfectly.

 

This way I was able to take out all the harder to change/clean "default" media and just use a cartridge that I could clean or replace very easily. I then had more than enough room for my ball of cheato and heater to come out of the display tank and into the filter. I was also able to take out the two koralias I had since I had more than enough flow now.

 

Click below to see it;

 

 

 

Wow! I just saw that you asked about the Emperor 280 not the 400. In that case DEFINITELY go with the AC!

[disaster999]

not sure what you are talking about. the AC is not hard to clean. and the water is forced through the sponge not around it. ive used AC filter for all my tanks and loved everyone of them. besides, no one uses the media basket, most will mod it and turn it into a fuge.

 

and not to mention they probably have the largest water capacity out of all HOB filters.

[Sea Keeper]

I was just giving a few points to consider. The AC isn't hard to clean, just more inconvenient than the Emperor. There's more involved in taking out the media of an AC vs taking out a cartridge on an Emperor, as the AC media doesn't slide out perfectly due to the tabs on the inside side walls being in the way. While you're fiddling with getting around those tabs and getting the media out, dirty water drains out of the sponge and right back into the filter. The only way to get THAT debris and water out is to siphon it out somehow.

 

Then there's cleaning it all.

 

All you have to do with the Emperor is slide out the cartridge and give it a little scrub under the sink, unless you're replacing the cartridge completely which then makes it even easier.

 

Have you ever stopped to closely examine your filters? There IS a lot of bypass around the sponge media. If it were forced right through the sponge where does all that water come from at the top of the impeller and at the bottom of the sponge? What does the bottom have to do with anything? Well, look straight down into an AC sometime and you'll see all the way to the bottom on the sides of the sponge. You can also note that the media basket is not shaped like the rounded corners of the AC housing. This creates bypass as well.

 

Again, I was giving points about both of them to consider. Since the OP was asking about an Emperor as an option, I considered the possibility one might be using filter media, as that's the big plus of using an Emperor. Its not like most people consider them seriously that are going to build a big fuge.

 

Also, speaking from a lot of experience, the AC110 only holds a little more water than the Emperor 400. This is a provable fact.

[disaster999]

i think you are not all that familiar with the AC filter. water is forced from the bottom up. not from front to back or side to side. hence water at the bottom.

 

if you look at the media basket, there are holes near the top which allows water to flow to the impeller area. the reason behind this is when you reduce the water intake flow, you are not actually blocking the flow to the motor. full filtration still takes place and the rated flow is still pumped into the filtering media. the filtered water is partially recirculated into the motor through those holes i mentioned thus explaining why water is present in the impeller area.

 

http://www.hagen.com/uk/aquatic/manuals/aquaclear03.cfm

 

this is why i love this filter. also, it has the largest filtering media compared to any other hob filters in the market. probably dont mean much to the reef population, but for FOT or fresh water. this means more area for beneficial bacteria to grow which leads to better filtration. sure its doesnt have the slip and drop filter basket, but with all the advantages of this filter, it out weighs the "inconvenient" you mentioned.

[Sea Keeper]

i think you are not all that familiar with the AC filter. water is forced from the bottom up. not from front to back or side to side. hence water at the bottom.

 

(Again) Used them for years and have modded my latest one.

 

if you look at the media basket, there are holes near the top which allows water to flow to the impeller area. the reason behind this is when you reduce the water intake flow, you are not actually blocking the flow to the motor. full filtration still takes place and the rated flow is still pumped into the filtering media. the filtered water is partially recirculated into the motor through those holes i mentioned thus explaining why water is present in the impeller area.

 

http://www.hagen.com/uk/aquatic/manuals/aquaclear03.cfm

 

this is why i love this filter. also, it has the largest filtering media compared to any other hob filters in the market.

 

Anyone familiar with these filters knows there is media bypass. the media basket is not "sealed" from getting water from all directions. I'm also aware that water does come up through the bottom, as I made the statement about debris falling from the bottom of the sponge back into the filter.

 

Just because it seems bigger and has a big sponge that soaks up all those nitrate producing goodies doesn't necessarily make all that better for a reef tank. So saying that is kinda useless here.

 

probably dont mean much to the reef population, but for FOT or fresh water. this means more area for beneficial bacteria to grow which leads to better filtration.

 

Not a discussion for the reef forums, but FWIW - if you have scientific proof for AC having the best biological filtration out of all other filters I'd definitely like to see it.

 

sure its doesnt have the slip and drop filter basket, but with all the advantages of this filter, it out weighs the "inconvenient" you mentioned.

 

Which is why I modded mine to have such and got the best of both worlds.