# Who to trust? : Aqua Clear or Marineland



## Obiwantoothri (Mar 1, 2013)

Really have to upgrade my filtration for my 55 Gallon. I want to run dual filters for max filtration. I would like to have some pros and cons from you guys who use these filters please. I feel like the marineland filters are slightly more affordable. I just want to make the right call for my fish. What models/ combinations do you recommend and why? I have a pair of german reds (3"), a frontosa Kigoma( 5.5"), and a single male brevis


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## Demasoni1 (Apr 9, 2014)

AC ( Aquaclear ) is the way to go. I would suggest two AC 70s or 1 AC110. I run two ACs on my 50 gallon bowfront, 1 AC 110 and 1 AC 70. Water stays crystal clear.


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## pablo111 (Dec 10, 2013)

Demasoni1 said:


> AC ( Aquaclear ) is the way to go. I would suggest two AC 70s or 1 AC110. I run two ACs on my 50 gallon bowfront, 1 AC 110 and 1 AC 70. Water stays crystal clear.


^What he said. When you buy Aquaclears, buy extra biomedia for them and a cheap media bag to put it in. Any good biomedia will do. Biohome, seachem matrix, eheim ehfisubstrat, sera siporax, etc. The biomedia that comes with the ac70 and ac50 doesn't fill the filter all the way. It leaves a big space meant for carbon. I don't suggest you bother with carbon and instead use the space for more biomedia.


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## Boe82 (Mar 6, 2014)

I would have to agree with what has been said so far. I have an AC110 and an Emperor 400, and while the 400 is nice so far, I am just not sure how well of a design it really is. If my power flicker or goes out and the pump stops, when it gets power again, if the water in the tank isn't at the top, even if it is a couple inches low, it will not prime itself and start running again(happen to me once already, wheels dried out and I lost the bacteria on the wheels) or when I am doing water changes, it will quit working when the water gets too low, where as the AC just keeps on going, it also moves a lot more water from what I can tell and you can set up the media as you like it, like a canister filter. 
The nice thing tho as you stated is the price, you can find them for half the price of the AC sometimes, or more. 
The 400 comes with two cartridges tho that you can put some more media in, which is nice, but still not as customizable as the AC.


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## sumthinfishy (Jan 26, 2013)

^one more vote for the aqua clear


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## Mike_G (Nov 8, 2011)

I'm running an AC110 and an old AC300 (now called an AC70) on my 55G and they work great, I use a layer of bonded poly batting in the 110 for finer filtration as the stock foam filter elements don't filter out fine particles very well.


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## kittyk (Sep 20, 2012)

I'm running both Marineland (on 30 gallon tropical tank) and AC 110 on my 55 g mbuna tank. I vote AC !!! In fact ordered AC last week for the 30 gal tank. I don't like the marineland for all the above stated reason's....mainly it doesn't have room for added media, i'm using the double wheel model and one wheel always stops and it dries out....and my water parameters have little spikes . With the AC....there is plenty room for more media which equals better water quality. I agree skipped the carbon, I got mess bags and added ceramic media.


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

The easy way to increase bio and filtration with all the ACs, but the 110, is to add a second sponge. Having two sponges also makes it easy to place a piece of polyester batting between the two sponges for finer filtration.


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## chopsteeks (Jul 23, 2013)

Marineland is more expensive to maintain as the cost of the filter cartridge adds up in the long run.

Go for Aquaclear.


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## Skie (Apr 13, 2014)

I have had both marine land and AC. AC is the way to go and 100x better. Big media basket, quieter, more powerful (300gph for AC 70) and has better beneficial bacteria media (biomax) that can support a lot of fish. The AC has 3 stages of filtration...mechanical(sponge), biological and chemical. The big media basket holds all the media you need plus leaves alot of room for adding things like purigen & matrix. I have the sponge, carbon, purigen, biomax and matrix in both my AC 70 and it fits like a glove. The intake tube can hook up to a prefilter (filter max 3). I'd go with 2 AC 110s. Having extra filtration can never hurt. *** had marineland biowheel filters for 8 years and didn't know that the AC was light years ahead. The marineland Was nothing but problems. Always failing, loud, and crummy expensive carbon pads, clunky intake so finding prefilter is hard, cheap bio media wheel that never spun and a pain to start up. Go with a AC and you will be happy.


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## Ronzo (Sep 8, 2013)

Forum;

I've haven't had both, so I cant give comparative notes...only the E400 on my 55g since the middle of last year, but I will say that I'm generally pretty happy with it. I will agree it looses prime during a WC, when level drops below about two inches from nominal (this doesn't bother me terribly...I power it down during WC, and fill it back up before reapplying power), and filter inserts need to be replaced too soon and are expensive (so I've recently developed an inexpensive, long-term solution of replacing them with standard fiber), but the BWs have never stopped, and I cant say that mine is particularly or excessively noisy, which some people have complained about. I did find the Reynolds bubbler mod elsewhere on this site to be pretty slick, so added it, using the additional filter inserts...this does work well and it gives additional biofiltration with little or no maintenance.

Greets from Connecticut!


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## jalz1222 (Apr 4, 2014)

chopsteeks said:


> Marineland is more expensive to maintain as the cost of the filter cartridge adds up in the long run.
> 
> Go for Aquaclear.


Agree %100


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## jalz1222 (Apr 4, 2014)

Mike_G said:


> I'm running an AC110 and an old AC300 (now called an AC70) on my 55G and they work great, I use a layer of bonded poly batting in the 110 for finer filtration as the stock foam filter elements don't filter out fine particles very well.


I have two AC110's with the sponge they come with and added bonded poly batting (walmart) on top of the sponge and added one bag of bio ceramic rings on each filter (total 4 bags).
Results: crystal clear water " I just installed the FLUVAL FX6" because I wanted to add more bio media since I have over 30 fish and a big tank.
So get two AC110's and install them like I mentioned above and you will be happy, and save so much money in the long run.
Crystal clear water %100 trust me I have been doing it for over two years.


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## jalz1222 (Apr 4, 2014)

Sorry forgot mention my tank is 125 gallons and the water is crystal clear with over 30 fish (peacock/hap) "before installing the FX6"


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## Electric Bluez (Apr 4, 2014)

Marineland. AC gets ruined quickly by sand.


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## Demasoni1 (Apr 9, 2014)

Only if you let it.


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## Skie (Apr 13, 2014)

A little pre-filter can go a long way in the fight against sand. The filter max III easily attaches to an AC and makes life a little easier.


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## Skie (Apr 13, 2014)

A little investment in a good pre-filter that will guard against sand getting into the filter. The pre-filter max III is 7$ and is easily attaches to the AC intake tube. Simple, Simple and very worth the $$ especially in the long run.


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## pablo111 (Dec 10, 2013)

Electric Bluez said:


> Marineland. AC gets ruined quickly by sand.


That only speaks to Marineland's inferior impeller well design. Means more noise when the filter is and is not full of sand, regardless. Marineland impellers don't even ride a proper "axle" in the filter well, they just jump around in there. Marineland impellers are terribly designed IMO. Better off with an AC and gravel than a Marineland with sand IMO.


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## atreis (Jan 15, 2013)

I tried both and ended up preferring the MarineLand filters, but understand why others don't. Mine were about the same in terms of noise (without the biowheel - with the biowheel the Marineland filters are noisier but not too bad), but I could change the filter inserts in the MarineLand filters in 2 minutes. The AC filters took much longer to pull and clean, and generally just seemed to require more fuss. On the other hand, the AC filter replacements cost less, but for me, the time was worth more than the additional expense. Both worked fine, in the sense of keeping the residents of the tank alive and healthy, and both were reliable.

I now use Eheim canisters, which I prefer in nearly every way.


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## JayD976 (Apr 30, 2014)

pablo111 said:


> Demasoni1 said:
> 
> 
> > AC ( Aquaclear ) is the way to go. I would suggest two AC 70s or 1 AC110. I run two ACs on my 50 gallon bowfront, 1 AC 110 and 1 AC 70. Water stays crystal clear.
> ...


Exactly what I do with my AC110.


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## JayD976 (Apr 30, 2014)

Also let me add I've had my tank running for about 8yrs in that time I've had to completely replace the Emperor 400 once and the AC 110 is as good as the first day I got it. Never had any issues with the AC that I can remember. The 400 on the other hand I've had every issues described here with it from, noise, tubes spray tubes getting clogged up, and failure to automatically establish a siphon after power outage, etc.


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## JGNC (May 15, 2014)

I have a Penguin and an Emporer in the closet and a AC 110 on my tank. The AC is just a better filter all around.


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## pablo111 (Dec 10, 2013)

JayD976 said:


> Also let me add I've had my tank running for about 8yrs in that time I've had to completely replace the Emperor 400 once and the AC 110 is as good as the first day I got it. Never had any issues with the AC that I can remember. The 400 on the other hand I've had every issues described here with it from, noise, tubes spray tubes getting clogged up, and failure to automatically establish a siphon after power outage, etc.


*** experienced failure to start after a power outage with emperors. They just don't prime as well as aquaclears. That aquaclear design is the right design. They know what they're doing. They're charging WAY too much for AC filters nowadays. Way too much. But that doesn't change the fact that they are superior filters. I don't think anybody who has been in the hobby for a decade or more and has owned a breadth of filters would disagree that Aquaclear is the best HOB there is.


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## dlp40 (Mar 7, 2014)

I've been using AC since 2003, I've never had to replace an impeller, I've never had to buy a new sponge(unless I wanted to run 2 in one filter), and I've never had an issue with them loosing prime. I've used ever kind of mechanical and bio media you can think of, all without issue and with great results. I run 2 110/500's on my 125gallon with about 35 adult peacock and haps. They work great. 
Same tank different fish, smaller haps and peacocks and few years ago, I ran an AC 50b and an emperor 400. The emperor was so noisy I had to noise dampen it with foam and after 2 years the impeller broke in half. Yes I ran sand at the time. Neither the AC or the emp had a prefilter and the in takes were the same depth in the tank. 
I vote AC all the way. Price is high but worth it. O have 2 AC 500's that are 14 years old and still operating just as good as my 2 yr old AC 110


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## forever_fishing (Jan 12, 2014)

Electric Bluez said:


> Marineland. AC gets ruined quickly by sand.


To solve this just use a pre filter sponge, its what I do with ac you get more options and they look nicer


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## LouIE82 (Nov 6, 2012)

I've had great luck with AC filters for a long time, I ran one AC70 on my 40 gal, and two AC70's on my 125 gal. At one point I set up a second 40 gal set up and wanted to use one of the two AC70's from my 125 gal to get the tank working fast. My brother had a good experience with a Marineland Biowheel so I picked one up to see how it would work on my 125. I had gotten the bigger one with the dual wheels since it said it could handle 90 gallons and set it up on one side, leaving the AC70 on the other end.

The ML filter inserts filled up fast, the wheels made noise and splashed a lot, I tried adjusting the tube to slow down the wheels but that only helped so much. I kept it on for about 8 months but I noticed the sand on that side of the tank getting some accumulation, with black tahiti moon sand it's easy to spot. I put my powerhead down low for the debris kick up effect and solved the problem but overall I think the AC did a better job and wish I had bought a AC110 instead. I think that is the best overhang filter there is.

AC of any size, prefilter on the tube and your possibilities are about endless for setting up the guts. I like to use the sponge, a few layers of blue floss, and two bags of the bio max rocks. I have experimented with the dual sponge approach as well, you can really do a lot with them.


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