[suman5492]

Hi there fellow fishfolks!
I have a 38 cm cubical tank with Anubias and ferns and river gravels as substrate. There are ember tetras, some lambchop rasboras, two male Endler hybrids and an otocinclus. Currently running a Xinyou xy 2810 sponge filter and a small Jeneca XP 03B HOB filter.
I want to invest in a single quality HOB filter which would be best for the long run. Eheim Liberty 75 or the Aquaclear 20 are the ones that I can afford right now. Which one should I go for? I have heard that the AC20 has an issue of not self-priming i.e. doesn't work after power cuts. What are your experiences? Couldn't gather any info about this regarding the Eheim Liberty 75 from the internet.
Please help me get the right filter keeping the
a)build quality,
b)availability of spare parts and
c)the life of the motor/impeller(the most important thing)
in mind.

Thanks in advance.

 

[somewhatshocked]

Moved your post to the Equipment section. It's a bit more appropriate and will get you more views/responses.

If it were me, though, I'd go with Aquaclear. If you search this forum, you'll find hundreds/thousands of them. Many of them in service for decades. I've had some of mine going pretty much non-stop since they first hit the market.

Have never had them fail to restart after a power failure - not even when I've screwed up and had a lower water level than I should. Spare parts are cheap and plentiful across the web - even outside the US.

I've only broken one in 20 years and that's because I accidentally sat on one this winter.

 

[Mark Fisher]

Aquaclears are very reliable and easy to maintain. I have also never had one fail to restart after a power failure, and I have experienced numerous. I highly recommend them.

 

[Leeatl]

Aqua Clears or Fluval C series .

 

[Oughtsix]

After a lot of looking around and reading we settled on a Seachem Tidal 110 HOB for my daughters 55g Axolotl tank about 3 weeks ago. We are VERY impressed with it! Love the surface skimming. Love the self priming! Really like how easy it is to remove the media box, snap it into the filters lid and carry it into the laundry room to clean.

I had decided on an Aquaclear 110 based on their reputation before I discovered the Tidal filters. The Seachem Tidal series has only been for a few years so it doesn't have near the backing that the AquaClears do. We are glad we took the chance and went with the Seachem tidal filter.

 

[Quesenek]

+1 for the Seachem Tidal series.

Aquaclears are fine filters, they will do what you need in an aquarium just fine.

The tidal's do everything the AC's do, but they also have a surface skimmer, a mid-water inlet and a substrate level inlet.
I don't know if it was user error, or just how AC's are, but I had to clean the gunk of bacteria buildup out of my AC filter motor every month or so because it was slowed down from it. I have a Tidal 110 running on a 29 gallon (not the tank I originally bought the filter for) and I haven't had to even touch the internals of the filter for the 9 months I've had it running, just pull the basket out and clean the sponges.

It's worth noting that the reason I went with the tidal over the AC 110 is because I bought the AC 110 after having an AC 30 work so well on my 10 gallon for over a year. I installed the AC 110 on my 55 gallon and even after using silicone lubricant and cleaning the motor multiple times, I could hear the grinding from the motor over my headphones 6ft away from it. Because of that issue, I exchanged the AC 110 for a tidal 110.

 

[Somefishguy]

Yeah, Seachem Tidals is the new sheriff town. Self Priming so it always starts after maintenance or a power failure, flow control from 100-20%, draws water from 3 locations (top, middle, bottom), removable media basket locks in place so it will not push up causing an overflow and flooding your floor and a self cleaning impeller.

 

[number1sixerfan]

Aquaclear is as good as it gets. I can't recommend them enough. Only warning is they aren't as quiet as people say they are lol. At least not the 110, and especially once the water level drops. Even still, love mine.

 

[Leeatl]

The Tidals look good , but I wanna see the impeller clean itself...lol

 

[Blue Ridge Reef]

Big fan of aqua clear here too. I will say that I've had them fail to prime after an outage though, today in fact! But they aren't prone to by any means, especially if you don't keep lower water levels.

 

[Somefishguy]

The Tidals look good , but I wanna see the impeller clean itself...lol

Self cleaning impeller. From Seachem Support: The self cleaning feature of the Tidal Filters can be explained by the structure and build of the impeller housing. There is a groove in the Tidal 55 that goes through the slot where the impeller stays and it will continuously clean the impeller of any debris or buildup. For Tidal 75 and 110, where the impeller goes that continuously flushes a little bit of water through the back to keep it cool and quite clean. The 75 and 110 have the same mechanism.


However, my Tidal 55 failed to start after being turned off for cleaning just 3 days ago. It has been running almost 4 years and now it stopped. So, a simple cleaning and it was off and running again.

 

[mfgann]

I have Aquaclears on tanks with HOB filters. The Tidal series looks very good, but I didn't see a good reason to pay more when I was satisfied with Aquaclear.
I've had Marineland Penguins, Tetras, etc, but all of them are focused on getting you addicted to buying their filter refills. You really want to keep the sponge if not damaged, and just replace charcoal (or put a purigen packet in its place).

 

[Sam the Slayer]

Well the eheim liberty 75 is god awful ugly lol. But I do like the fact that their return “slides” the water in over the surface even when evaporation has occurred. This is the biggest pet peeve I have with with HOBs. The aqua clear is amazing and I echo the longevity claims you have been hearing. It slides the water in as long as the water level doesn’t fall to low. If the water level dose fall low it just drops the returning water straight down like most other HOBs. My aqua clear auto starts probably 50% of the time but this isn’t a big deal as all you need to do is add a little tank water to the AQ and it’ll start right up.

If it was my money I would buy the AquaClear. If I was feeling bougie I would buy the Tidal lol.


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[nickandjess2008]

+1 for Tidals as well. I have had issues with the Aquaclear ones, they always broke on me and I tried quite a few of them. I now have the Tidals and couldn't be happier. I know people love their Aquaclears, but, I just never had any luck with them....I know that isn't a popular thought though...

Bump: edit: I also, never had them restart after power outages.

 

[Leeatl]

I don't understand the not restarting issue . I use Fluval C series , which is close to the AquaClears , and they restart every time except on water change day when I have drained the water below the intake joint so that they lose the prime . Then I need to refill them and then they start right up . My tanks never get so low as to cause this problem on a daily basis . If you are keeping the water level that low you need a different type of filter anyway , I think .

 

[Sam the Slayer]

I don't understand the not restarting issue . I use Fluval C series , which is close to the AquaClears , and they restart every time except on water change day when I have drained the water below the intake joint so that they lose the prime . Then I need to refill them and then they start right up . My tanks never get so low as to cause this problem on a daily basis . If you are keeping the water level that low you need a different type of filter anyway , I think .

Mine only didn’t restart during water changes as well. I think people keep saying that because with other HOB filters the pump is in the aquariums itself meaning it auto starts regardless of the situation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Quesenek]

I don't understand the not restarting issue . I use Fluval C series , which is close to the AquaClears , and they restart every time except on water change day when I have drained the water below the intake joint so that they lose the prime . Then I need to refill them and then they start right up . My tanks never get so low as to cause this problem on a daily basis . If you are keeping the water level that low you need a different type of filter anyway , I think .

Same, on my AC 30 as long as the housing had a good amount of water in it, it would always prime correctly. I didn't even realize this was an issue before reading this thread, to be honest.

 

[Leeatl]

I get that they won't restart when water in them is low , but if you have an average water level and the power goes off and back on it should restart . Having to fill them after a water change to restart is no big deal to me .

 

[Letsfish]

I have a AC 20 on a 10g and a 70 on a 29g they both work very well but I do have re-prime them after my 50% weekly water changes. About 2 years ago I purchase a Tidal 75 for the 29g and was using it for a couple of months and then the impeller stopped working I called Seachem and they replace the impeller but in the meantime, I put the AC 70 back on
and been using it ever since. Now the Tidal is my backup.

 

[sm1ke]

I've only got about 15 years in the hobby. So far I've had pretty good experiences with Aquaclear, only one negative experience to report. I bought an AC70 brand new about 12 or 13 years ago for my parent's fish tank. I replaced it with a Fluval C3 recently because sometimes, it wouldn't power back on after turning it off (meaning the motor wouldn't start up or anything). This would happen regardless of whether the water level was high enough, or whether the filter reservoir was full of water or not. Now, the impeller in the AC70 motor had a broken fin that caused it to rattle a little, and I think that probably contributed to the no start issue. I could have just bought a new impeller for the motor, but I got a great deal on the C3 (brand new in shrinkwrap - it came in a package that I bought second-hand).

I've also had an AC20, AC50, and other AC70s that all ran fine with no issues at all. Currently I have two AC110s on a 45g, both running great. My only complaint is that they are not as quiet as the smaller filters (small amount of motor/impeller noise). I'm tempted to try out a Seachem Tidal 110.. maybe that will happen sooner rather than later.