Best hang on back ever

Best filter for a hang on back. Been using Aquaclear since forever and never had an issue. For those reading bad reviews, consider the source of where those reviews are coming from. People who have the IQ of a pine cone and have no business keeping fish are writing reviews about how the filter leaks or kills fish, all of that is user error from incorrectly leveling the filter and not using a pre filter over the suction inlet. People do not take responsibility for their stupid actions. Not the filters fault.. Stupid people will always outnumber smart people.

Best HOB Money can buy!!!

Ignore the idiots giving this filter bad reviews, as they are just that, IDIOTS!

Don't Buy This If You Value Your Home.

I've had one of these filters running on my Aqueon 29 gallon aquarium for some time. I came home yesterday and heard the sound of water running and found that my tank was missing about three gallons of water. The water was running out of the filter onto my wall. I'm going to have to repaint the room and might have to replace the drywall.

Going from not working to working again

I got this filter about 1 month ago. I have sand in the bottom of my tank. The filter stopped working. I then decided to clean the impeller and I found that sand had gotten in and was binding up the shaft preventing the impeller to work properly. I now know that I can do simple maintenance by cleaning of the filter and its parts ensuring that I have happy fish. I am new to the world of fish, so the fact that I can do it, anyone can do it.

High Flowing Filter

This Aquaclear 110 is set up on a 55G African Cichlid tank holding 16, 2-4" fish and it is doing very well at moving water and keeping it clear. Pump had been near silent for the first few hours but has since kept just a slight hum or knock from the impeller that I can't get rid of. The lid makes this sound resonate when it's on but still is quieter than my other brand 400gph filter. Priming is self starting too as long as the tank is at andgt;90% full. Flow from the output reaches to the bottom slightly blowing the sand and moving waste from that whole side like a circulation pump would be doing. The filter basket is pretty nice being all in one and easily removable. There's just enough room for the included sponge filter about 3" thick, a few sheets of polyfil floss about 1/2" thick and than the bag of included bio-max sits perfectly a hair under the water level. Filled in this way it offers great filtration and supports a big bioload great for heavy stocking or dirty fish. Would recommend and buy again.

YOUR FILTER ISNT BROKEN

This filter is amazing but apparently you need to be a rocket scientist to work it because everyone thinks this thing is “breaking”, no. The propeller got put in wrong or got jumbled in the box. The propeller spins into place if you drop it into the pocket instead of just plain inserting it. If you start the filter with the propeller not in place it’ll get water under the propeller and shut off after a couple minutes or upwards of a couple hours, but it will fail. If this happens to you, don’t panic. Pull out the propeller and blow the way from out of the pocket and drop the propeller back in. I did that and my filter has been running non stop for over a month. If it still doesn’t work after that, then you have a problem.

Not impressed, noisy

I just bought the Aqua Clear 20 and it is not vey quiet, it has a rattle like the impeller is not balanced. I am a first time buyer of these filters and I'm not impressed at all. It sounds just like a tetra with the noise it makes. I was expecting a lot more with the price and hype of these. I don't know why it is so hard to get a good and quiet over the back filter anymore. I have an old Petco power filter 20 on one it is awesome. Wished they still made good ones like those.

Kills small fish be careful

This filter worked good it just really does kill fish . I found my beautiful balloon molly sucked to the filter when I came home to work one day . It ripped off one of his fins and he was still alive he had a red mark in his side and he would hop around the bottom of the floor he still ate and loved maybe 5 months after . I just couldn’t kill him and then I came home one day and he passed. He was so beautiful and his fins were soooo long. I was heartbroken. Everytime I see the filter I hate it

Helpless in the face of brief power outages :(

I had one of these on my 20 gallon and LOVED it, as it was easy to replace the filter media with sponge blocks for better biofiltration. And then the power went out briefly, and the non-self-priming motor burned out. Replacing the pump and/or filter unit after every middle-of-the-night power outage or buying a battery backup unit for a guppy tank aren't really high on my list of things I want to mess around with, you know? If they fixed the self-priming issue this would be dang near the perfect HOB filter.

Don’t let the rating fool you!!!

I have now had 2 of these filters. At first they work amazing and are very quiet. But then out of the blue they just quit working. When it happened the first time I thought there’s no way, fluval is one of the best on the market. By the way that only lasted a week. Brought it back and got a new one got home set it up. Again ran great for about 2 weeks and woke up this morning and the motor was burning up and filter wasn’t working. Will be going back for a third time but won’t be making the same mistake and going with fluval again.

Its AquaClear from here on out!

I have always used Marineland Products, and have used Marineland Penguin and Emperor HOB filters. I had a 55 Gallon Saltwater tank with a Penguin 350 and an oversized skimmer but still couldn't keep my tank clean. I planned to add another HOB filter, and settled on the AquaClear based on feedback from fellow reefers. Once I received the product I was skeptical because it looked cheaply made. Turns out it was just a simple design. Within 4 hours of installing this filter my tank has been cleaner than it's ever been! I removed my old Penguin 350 and it still keeps my tank sparkling! I can't believe I never used AquaClear before, I will never by another HOB filter unless it's an AquaClear.

BEST FILTER I’VE HAD!!

When I first decided to buy my red eared slider (turtle) a pet store set me up with supplies along with a filter. I’ve had the other filter for about a year and it just wasn’t doing the job. My water was constantly murky, even when I cleaned the tank once a week along with the filter! I was tired of seeing my turtle living in this condition and started researching for a new filter. Some reviews under this filter on this website or other say, “it came broken”, “missing pieces” or “don’t buy, didn’t work”. That was not the case for me. The filter came with everything, including one back up intake in case it broke! After only 12 hours of the filter running, my tank has NEVER been so CLEAR! This filter is definitely a must. I don’t usually write reviews, but after seeing the progress it’s done to my tank along with how happy my turtle is I couldn’t resist. I would 100% recommended this filter!

Dependable most the time

I have used these AquaClear power filters for years. They run a long time before they need to be taken apart and cleaned. The only thing I don't like is that if you loose power for more than a couple seconds, the filter will run its self empty. Then if power comes back on, the pump has lost its prime and impeller will sit and spin in what ever little water that is left. As the water heats up from the impeller coil, it starts to evaporate to the point where the water becomes a sludge and impeller stops moving. This design needs a check valve in the tube before the water goes into the filter box. Also, every time I do a water change and have to turn it off, I have to prime it again before I plug it back in. Models 20, 30, and 50 are the only ones I have tried so far, and they all do the same thing. If it wasn't for that, I would give 5 stars.

Long Lasting

So I don’t have the aquaclear 20, but the mini, the predecessor to the 20. This filter is at least 20 years old and still running! All I do is keep the motor clean and maintained, and keep it out of direct sunlight to avoid uv rays damaging the plastic. It just keeps going. I also have an aquaclear 200 which is the predecessor to the 50 I think, that one is easily just as old if not older and is still running as well. If the new ones are still made like the old ones, these filters last! Aquaclear also has an extensive parts catalog if anything does happen to break. I’ve never needed parts for these filters though, except a couple o rings I have to order for the motors (they are starting to dry rot from age). Overall great long lasting filter. Will recommend to anyone looking for a good, reliable filter.

Could have killed my fish or burned my house down

I bought this a couple months ago for a 30 gallon grow out tank for my 3 inch flowerhorn. I came home from work last week and smelled something electrical. I looked over at my tank and my filter wasn’t flowing. I realized the filter had stopped and when I touched the motor, it burned my hand. I unplugged it and removed it from the tank. It was so hot I am surprised the plastic hadn’t melted. The water in my tank was over 90 degrees and my fish was not doing well and swimming sideways. I immediately drained most of the water from my tank and added cooler water, which helped my fish start to recover. I replaced it with another filter I had on hand. I don’t know why this happened, because I had just cleaned the filter and impeller the weekend before and changed my media, and it had worked fine for 4 days after that. I am so glad I got home when I did, because it could have killed my fish or even worse, started a fire and burned my house down. I will NEVER use another Aquaclear filter again. It took a few days and lots of clean water and Stress Coat for my fish to fully recover from flashing and swimming crooked, but he finally seems back to normal.

Best HOB for the money

Like the title says, I think this is the best non-canister filter out there. The huge media chamber allows you to pack in whatever you want, and the flow rates are more than adequate to produce good mechanical filtration and good flow in the tank. The media is somewhat interchangeable, too, which is nice. I leave a small bag of ceramic in my AC110 and drop it in my AC20 when I need it for the 10 gallon quarantine tank. The only modification I do is to cut the sponge into smaller pieces so it doesn't lift up when it gets full of debris. Leaving it intact causes it to rise and push the lid off after a few weeks. The water level rises in the filter, too, and can cause flooding. Cutting the sponge prevents this.

Aquaclear 50 Aquarium Filter

I have 2 of the of the 50 model, and while they’re great filters, both started quiet and became loud, like there’s a piece of plastic rattling around somewhere (the motor, maybe?), hence the 3 stars. I do like that they come with everything you need to get started on cycling your tank, and they do not skimp on the sponge, carbon, and ceramic balls. The pieces are easy to remove and clean. You can easily adjust the flow from the top, which is helpful if you have fish that don’t do well in strong currents, or if you just want to adjust the flow during feeding time so that food doesn’t get blown around the top making it hard for certain fish to eat. For how much these filters are, I wish they also came with a pre-filter sponge so that debris won’t get sucked up and trapped in the motor, but that’s an easy fix since you can buy one separately from almost any pet store. Plus, if you have small fish or shrimp, the filter is so strong that they may get sucked up, which is what happened to a couple of my Pygmy corys when my pre-filter sponge accidentally fell off.

Best HOB filter I have ever used!

I had sworn off HOB filters in the past for reasons such as noise, leaks, overfilling/clogging and troubles keeping the filters running over the years. When one of my internal Fluvals started putzing out (not to mention getting sick of it taking up valuable space from the fish), I tried the AquaClear after reading many positive recommendations on various fish forums. I thought I was going to be disappointed again but how could so many people be wrong?? Turns out this is one of the best filters I have tried and I am slowly outfitting most of my tanks with AquaClears. I totally love the efficiency, the fact they are so quiet and they are very flexible as far as filter media goes. I would recommend this filter to anyone! PS.. I wonder if one of the poor reviews were for Aqua-TECH or Aqueon filters as I have only seen those in the "starter kits" and I do agree that those two don't last long.

Mediocre product with multiple design flaws

I have this filter for 5 months now and I'm rather disappointed. Couple of major design flaws is that the bulk of the water flow from the pump entirely bypass the filter, making the actual filtration very weak. This because the pump does not inject the water at the bottom of the three stages filter but to the side. The water follows the path of least resistance which is above the filter. Ugh!

One of best filters Ive ever bought!

I absolutely love this filter as I've had it running for well over a year now without a single problem. It has always worked and been virtually care free, not to mention its incredibly quiet, I almost never hear it unless its eating a granule of sand that my sharks have kicked up. Even then I've been very impressed having expected it to die rather quickly from some of the sand buildup, but I've been continually impressed as it just flushes out the sand and keeps on going. I also love the fact that it wasn't made in china and as such isn't designed to break like other filters I've owned that cost more and break after a mere 8 months of use. I also love the flexibility this filter affords me as I can simply remove the cartridge stack and easily insert new and different media for it when I need to. The options are great for media and parts. I also love the clear plastic as it's neat to watch it run sometimes. It keeps my shark tank very clean and in excellent balance with the good bacteria and removes the ammonia and other toxins from the water. It also has a nice waterfall type affect that can be adjusted depending on what fish you have in your tank, you can keep it on full strength for fish that like a more stream effect or tone it down for fish like Betta's that enjoy a slower running environment. Another helpful aspect of the filter is the wide availability of the media for it at my local pet store, a competitor website website, and a competitor website too so its the ideal filter for me. The only one I've ever had outdo it is my Magnum filter which has worked flawlessly for 5 years straight. I would highly recommend the AquaClear filter to anyone that wants a high quality, quiet, easy and simple filter that just works.