Hangon vs canister

Hi guys

I am looking at removing the sump in my tank. I want to change to either a hang on or canister. Looking at aquaclear 70 vs Seachem Tidal 75 or Dophin c1000.

My tank is a standard 4 foot planted aquarium.

What are your suggestions and experiences with the above options?

 

Done a lot of reading and locally I find the Fluvals to be excessively expensive, although they seem to all be great filters. Problem in this hobby is one usually takes a beating on resale, and other canisters will do a fine job. Ultimately my research led me to Eheim Classics as the best overall compromise between cost, quality, efficiency, longevity and resale value for canisters locally. A Dophin canister works well too for instance, for less money, but falls short in the overall criteria.
Each to their own, I’m just sharing my research.
As to HOB, it’s very much a split camp between Aquaclear and Tidal. Pros and cons to both it seems. I have an Aquaclear 20 on a small tank and it works great and is very quiet. Also starts up after power failures every time even though I read they don’t- comes down to how the media is packed.

 

People seem to be also ignoring the Tetra Ex range of canister filters. I would say they are on par with Fluval and Eheim when ti comes to build quality and reliability but at fraction of the cost. I have the ex 600 and it's been running flawlessly for over 2 years now.

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Avoid Dolphin, also why not both? I run a canister and a HOB in my tank. Tetra Ex 600 and Seachem Tidal 55. My canister is my biological filter while my seachem is mechanical.

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Going the CO2 route? Otherwise there is no advantage to swapping a sump for a canister or HOB filter.

 

Not going with CO2. Just wanting my tank to look more aesthetically pleasing. The internal sump is an eyesore and I also want the extra space in the display.

 

Ah an internal sump. Completely agree with changing this up then. Never liked them either

 

I have only worked with the Aquaclear 110 HOB on my 4ft Juwel tank. Took out the internal built-in filter as it was not as efficient.

I bought another AC110 for a backup as mine is running for 5 years with no issues at all. Canister filters are yet efficient. Won't go with Tetra as the seals always perish and leak..

Goodluck!

 

I had my dolphin 1000 or 1300 (Not sure which one, but 4 trays) for 3 years now, runs super quiet and not a day of problems. All spares are also available from local shops.

I also added a pre-filter to my setup, so I can just add Bio media in the filter (Only reason why I take canister over HOB is aesthetics as well as volume of Bio media)



On my HOB, all of them i took out the standard filter material and just added some sponge and BIO (Aquaclear has the best sponges though)

 

Every brand has its horror stories, there are just some brands you need to avoid completely.

 

+1 I have the new v2 version and it's going for 3 years strong. I have the tetra ex1200. The older version was prone to leaking through the gaskets

You must also consider the media volume of a filter. A canister can hold way more media than a hob.

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Yes

 

Yup, i think you already have a great looking tank but removing this will just make it so much better. Canister for me.

 

Thanks for the idea. Gonna start looking for a second hand one. They are expensive.

If I were to go this route, I would cut out part of the canopy