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Coral Vue Hydros

Best HOB Filter


zak.payne

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zak.payne

In the past, I've heard Aquaclear is the gold standard. Is that still the case? I've read reviews of concerns if the power goes out that the filter will not prime itself back up and burn the motor out.

 

Nevertheless, I'm open to all opinions on what people have liked.

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Aquaclear has lots of accessories made by a few companies, the seachem tidal seems to include everything most people want it to do without buying extras.

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I had never used HOB filters until I tried Aquaclear. Never used one on a saltwater but they have a great turnover for their size.  

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On 5/4/2019 at 9:48 AM, ksadam said:

Aquaclear has lots of accessories made by a few companies, the seachem tidal seems to include everything most people want it to do without buying extras.

Best hob I ever used is the Tidal. 

 

I know many like aquaclear but compared to the tidal, it just can't compare.

 

Tidal is silent with a sicce pump, fully controllable, huge media basket, and best part- built in surface skimmer.

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Superdave

Everyone above has made great points and I basically agree with all of them.  I spent weeks (yes, weeks) reading and researching this very thing.  

 

I have a 5.5 (and will upgrade to a 9.6 this summer) and decided to go with the AC70 (over the Tidal and other options) for the following the reasons below.  It was a tough call for me to make, but for personal preference (not necessarily performance) my setup the AC70 was one for me.  

 

--I wanted to be able to keep heater, media of my choosing in back of filter.  AC has TONS of space and is nearly a cube, so flexibility there was key for me.  

--Tidal seemed a bit "bulky" in terms of the skimmer intake portion which also houses the pump.  I understand the benefits of this design and ideally like it as well as the color over the AC70, but in a smaller tank the big intake seemed to clutter display area more than I would like.  

--AC70 has many sources where I can find cheap replacement parts.  I have already gone through two of their media "baskets" as well as intake pipes as I have tinkered with my DIY setup.  You can buy the main housing, pump, lid and separately is so desired.  This is a plus to me.  

--AC70 is popular and thus lots of mods, add on items (like InTank media basket I purchased) that are designed for this filter.  

--AC70 has super high volume/turnover.  I use a piece of filter floss and the pump on half speed and it still turns white side of floss brown every few days.  

 

I still think the Tidal is a great product and I probably would have gone with it if I was using a bigger tank or if the intake portion of theirs was configured differently.  I could not find a single negative review/post about the Tidal so I do not think you will be disappointed by it.  

 

Good luck!

 

--Superdave

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1 hour ago, Clown79 said:

Best hob I ever used is the Tidal. 

 

I know many like aquaclear but compared to the tidal, it just can't compare.

 

Tidal is silent with a sicce pump, fully controllable, huge media basket, and best part- built in surface skimmer.

Best HOB I ever used was Tidal 55, Marine S Series Slims are not too bad either

I never got on with the Aquaclear filters, always had issues 

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blasterman

To be honest I don't see why you would need a HOB on a small tank, or any other SW tank for that matter unless you are running bare bottom.  If you have a larger tank with SPS a skimmer > HOB anyday. I feed the #$%^ out of my softie / lps frag tanks and the water is always crystal clear if I have substrate. Bare bottom tanks can get nasty because there's nothing to trap deitrus so that's why HOBs do work good on bare bottom.

 

What I *do* find functional with big HOBs like the aquaclear is they make great HOB sumps and utility boxes. You can park a heater in a there, a small skimmer, maybe macro algaes and lots of anything else. I'm also increasingly adding wooden airstones to my smaller tanks and blasting them with air at night to eliminate pH issues and a big HOB is a good place to do this. I actually think there's a good product potential here for such a gadget dedicated for small tank owners. The problem with current big HOBs though is they push too much water for small tanks. 

 

I just find mechanical filtration to be a solution in search of a problem on a SW tank that isn't bare bottom and I do prefer crystal clear tanks.

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On 5/8/2019 at 7:43 PM, blasterman said:

To be honest I don't see why you would need a HOB on a small tank, or any other SW tank for that matter unless you are running bare bottom.  If you have a larger tank with SPS a skimmer > HOB anyday. I feed the #$%^ out of my softie / lps frag tanks and the water is always crystal clear if I have substrate. Bare bottom tanks can get nasty because there's nothing to trap deitrus so that's why HOBs do work good on bare bottom.

 

What I *do* find functional with big HOBs like the aquaclear is they make great HOB sumps and utility boxes. You can park a heater in a there, a small skimmer, maybe macro algaes and lots of anything else. I'm also increasingly adding wooden airstones to my smaller tanks and blasting them with air at night to eliminate pH issues and a big HOB is a good place to do this. I actually think there's a good product potential here for such a gadget dedicated for small tank owners. The problem with current big HOBs though is they push too much water for small tanks. 

 

I just find mechanical filtration to be a solution in search of a problem on a SW tank that isn't bare bottom and I do prefer crystal clear tanks.

Most of us don't want to use our sandbeds for detritus collection.

 

That's why we use filters and overflows to collect the detritus in filter floss plus vacuum our sand.

 

It's not necessarily about crystal clear water, my pico was crystal clear without an hob but things certainly ran better with a filter.

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