Equipment Review and Discussion :: aquaclear

[tekniq]

man...boy the aquaclear sure is a loud filter. I have a 20gal one for my 10 gal tank. I need to make some sort of device that wills top the water from falling which makes the noise. Anyways, there still seems to be debris/poop at the bottom of the tank. Is this normal, or should the filter be picking everything up?

[DavidY]

You could try attaching a piece of plastic sheet under the spout where the water comes out and slope it slightly into the water.

The filter will only pick up the debris that is floating around in the water. You will need to scoop the debris that settles on the bottom with a net or siphon them out when you do a water change. It's normal to have that.

[marisa]

I had an Aquaclear 50 (for up to 50-gallon fish tanks) in a ten-gallon tank. To make it almost noiseless, I siliconed a piece of plexiglass to the lip and had the end of the plexiglass just under the water level. If you don't use plexiglass, raising the water level will make it somewhat less noisy (less distance for the water to fall), but raising it to the lip of the filter is high enough to allow your turtle to escape if there's no barrier from preventing him from doing so...

You have an Aquaclear 20? This is a very small filter (so is the Aquaclear 50, so the model you have must be the mini?). I wouldn't expect it to pick up debris at the bottom of the tank, especially if the intake tube isn't at the very bottom (even then...). Filters are for filtering water, not for vacumming up debris at the bottom of the tank.

[ajozwiak]

Yeah, definitely attach a piece of plastic to the lip of it. I eventually did that with mine and it was SO much quieter!

[RunninWideOpen]

If you can construct an above tank basking area, then raise the water level, then it would be almost silent. If you can't, just use the highest water level possible, but make sure the turts can't get out when basking.