Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My home's power blinked yesterday morning. It was not even long enough to reset the VCR clocks, so I didn't give it a second thought. Last night I fell asleep about half an hour after dinner, so it was a rare night when I didn't go to the basement to feed the fish. Tonight I went down and saw that both of my AquaClear filters failed to restart after the power interruption. Both motors burned out. This is not the first time this has happened. I discovered it at 8:50 tonight, so it was too late to go to the store and get replacements. First thing tomorrow. Fortunately, the fish are OK.

So I'm done with AquaClear. Can anyone recommend a hang-on filter that will self-prime in such situations? I don't want to deal with cannister filters -- I have a $200 Fluval sitting unused. I prefer hang-ons for the ease of cleaning and media replacement.

Any suggestions before I go out tomorrow morning? Thanks in advance!

That's awful!! I can see why you want a different filter. I had the Aqua Clear when I had fish tanks (I need more space in my apartment so I can get a tank going again), and I had no issues, but I think I found a filter to solve your problem.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752390&lmdn=Product Type (This is the marineland penguin bio-wheel aquarium power filter). "Automatic Self-Starting Feature Restarts automatically. No messy siphons or valves."

My expertise isn't really in filtration, but I think that filter will solve your problems. Be sure to ask a customer service representative in your local pet store, or if you are a regular at your pet store like I am, I know the manager at my LPS, so I would ask him. I found that Petsmart is my favorite pet store in my area, but your favorite may be different in your area. Hopefully no matter which store you go to, there's educated people there to help you. That's not always the case. I've had plenty of people on Aquarium Hobbyist tell me what the people at the pet store told them, and they were completely wrong.

I really hope you find an awesome filter that won't burn out on you. Let me know what you go with, and how you like it. I'm always interesting in learning the good products.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."