hi.

i'm going to buy a filter system for a 4' tank and i was wondering if anyone could tell me which of these is better or the pros and cons of them.

the local fish shop has hang on the side filters for sale at $20 each, the aquaclear style ones. they are 570lph and come with filter media

the other choice would be an internal power filter which is 1000lph and has a spray bar attachment and also comes with filter media

i would also have a sponge filter in there to provide biological filtration.

thanks

I'd say if those are the only options then the aquaclears. The internal filters has about the right flow, but internal filters look pretty bad in the tank. They should have larger aquaclears, though, $20 each seems like a damn good price for the smallish ones. You'd want at least two of them.

Oh, and you won't need the sponge filter, the aquaclears should do just fine for bio filtration.

AquaClears are easy to keep clean too, less mucking about than the canisters. I have an AquaClear 300 running on my 4ft, along with a large Eheim wet/dry unit. Like Ira, I think $20 sounds like a very small filter. I don't know the flow rates so don't know which AC does 570lph.

You need at least a 300 or 500 in the AquaClears. They have it written on them starting with the mini then I think they go up as 200, 300, 500 but don't know if this refers to lph.

Aquaclears go by their gallons per hour. The 500 is 500 gallons per hour, 400 is 400 gallons per hour, etc. 570 lph comes out to 150 gallons per hour, but I dunno if there's an AC150. It might be a mini. Anyway, a pair at 570lph each would be 1140 liters per hour for $40. That's almost turning the tank over 6 times per hour and would actually be a GREAT deal the more I think about it. You'd also get some redundancy if one of them fails.

Aqua clears are great filters, imop the best vlaue for money. The only thing is i replace the ammo bag and carbon with biomax or a similar biological media, i think there 1,2,3 system is a bit of a marketing scame in the long run this will save you money and be much more effective.

Even when you allow for the fact Jackx3 is speaking Aussie dollars, it sounds like a real good deal. Go for the AquaClears Jack!

I have a sponge in mine and fill it up with Siporax. Never use ammo things or carbon.

yeah, these same filters are about $45 normally i think from memory.

www.aquariumproducts.com.au has them on special. these are not the only options, but the cheapest for now. the tank is 4' and will only have 8 or so fish in it for now, so it will do until i decide what to do with the tank then i will upgrade the filtration and use these for a smaller tank.

yeah i like the AQ i have on another tank, as you said so easy to clean.

anyone here who lives in australia i would suggest going to www.aquariumproducts.com as they have amazing prices and charge only $7.50 postage no matter what the order.

(and before anyone asks NO im not affiliated in any way! hehe, just extremly happy with the service ive had so far.)

J X's3, Why aren't you affiliated.

If you join with the most exciting aquarium club in NZ, it will only cost you $15 NZ.

With that, you don't have to go to a monthly meeting, we don't have them.

And you'd only have to travel to NZ once a year

You get a free mag once every three months, now that's worth the $15 to start with.

Also you get a yearbook, it has all our addresses and email addys, so you can spam all us NZers.

Alan

(50% Oz - 50% Kiwi)

ps. by the way, that's the NZKA

Al