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January 5, 2006
New Year, New Filter...
Decided to take some time during the New Year break to replace the Hagen Elite Stingray 5 underwater filter that I had in the planted 5.5 gal tank with the new Hagen Aqua Clear Mini power filter that I had purchased a while ago but just never got around to installing. While originally I thought the Stingray 5 was a pretty cool filter for a small tank, that thought quickly dissipated after one dead fish too many that I discovered in the small gap between the filter and the back wall of the tank. Plus having to yank the entire filter out for a thorough cleaning every few weeks turned out to be a drag.
The Aqua Clear, while much larger than the Stingray 5, only has the transparent intake tube actually located in the tank. So what I lose in space behind the tank I make up for with more room for the fish and plants to grow out in. And less chance of the fish being caught behind the filter and not being able to get out.
I'm not that impressed with the setup of the Aqua Clear though. It comes with 3 filtration material: a foam filter, an activated carbon pouch, and an ammonium remover pouch. The foam filter is fine, the carbon pouch is a little too big for the area you're supposed to cram it into on top of the foam filter and the ammonium remover comes with a separate mesh bag that you have to pour the remover into and then cinch and cut off by yourself. In this day and age, why? How hard is it to come out with a pouch that has the ammonium remover in it already (like the activated carbon pouch).
Maybe I should have stuck with a Marineland Biowheel filter. Only reason I chose the Aqua Clear was because it has a basic flow control mechanism so you can sorta adjust the size of the flow coming back into the tank. And even that doesn't make a huge difference. Ah well, it works so far so not much I can really complain about. Hopefully, using the Aqua Clear will also break up the weird film that I was seeing on the water surface and which seemed to be inhibiting my salvinia growth. Not that having a major infestation of salvinia is that great either but at least it's more natural than that filmy thing that I was seeing.
Posted by ronin at January 5, 2006 3:46 PM