Fergranadino

Hello, after back and forth, clogging and propeller issues, I ended up going for a canister filter. The Fluval 107. I’ve had 0 issues since December. The greatest thing is the reduction of maintenance frequency. Due to my tank being a heavily planted one with great filtration, water parameters are spot on all the time. I still do water changes and clean the filter every two weeks out of habit more than becase it’s needed. Canisters are a drag to clean but visually they’re non existent haha

This was the filter I got from Buceplant when I ordered my tank. The 500 to be exact. That thing was huge and took up almost half the length of my tank so I returned it cause of this. Didn’t even try it out. If the tidal doesn’t work I might try it again and get the middle sized 240. I have a 9.3 gal tank so I’m stuck right in between filter capacities. More than the max 8 gal for the 240 but smaller than the minimum 10 gal for the 500. Regardless of this, I saw a video where this Dymax was self priming. Can you confirm this?

It seems it is a very coming thing with the tidals. Based on my experience, I have to change the filter floss everyday and it’s not even clogged before I have to do it becase the maintenance indicator pops up. I’ve read putting your floss vertically instead of horizontally fixes the issue. Vertically for it to still be the last media the water goes through before reentering the tanks through the water fall. If this works then it’s biggest flaw is fixed. I really want this tidal to work though.

Hello, so I’ve been having this debate myself. I recently changed my AC 30 for a tidal 35. Everyone raves about the tidals but I’m not so sure I’m going to keep it. Both have great pros, and annoying cons. It all depends what you’re willing to put up with. Here are my thoughts based on my own personal experience. The AC is pretty much perfect but for two things. 1) not self priming which is a huge problem if you have power outages often and 2) no real water flow control. It’s either strong or slightly less strong. I have a black water planted tank with lots of floating plants and this was a serious issue Every. Single. Day. Floating rings were never an option for me cause of protein films forming wherever there was no surface agitation and I had to find ways to dissipate the flow. Soap trays, driftwood, plants…I tried everything and nothing was a good enough solution. My floaters would always end up being pushed underwater. I switched to the Tidal about two weeks ago and these are my cons so far. 1) it’s a visual eyesore. If you care about visual aesthetics, then this bulky black box will the a rock in your shoe on your daily walk. 2) It seems to get clogged every day so the water bypasses the filter and straight back into the tank. This is a serious problem. I don’t know if have too much media inside the basket maybe or what but this shouldn’t happen. I use the same matrix bag I used in my AC and the Sponge it came with a little filter floss. These are my 2 biggest cons of each. So which to chose? It all depends which of these you’re willing to put up with. I feel the point of the “upgrade” to the Tidal was the piece of mind of self priming. However, if you have to clean the media almost everyday to avoid clogging, then there’s no real piece of mind is there? You go from hoping the power doesn’t go out ( a few times a year) to can’t leave home for more than a day or the filter stops working. Based on the above I’m undecided. Thoughts?

How about a wifi plug? You connect it to the filter, turn it off /on with your phone and no need to unplug or plug back again.

Hi! This is good stuff. Thank you very much. I ordered this same filter as well as the Aquaclear 30 and currently use the AC30 for my 10gal. However I’m not entirely happy because a) the flow is too strong on either setting and I have to find hacks to reduce it all the time b) if the power goes out the AC empties out restarts dry which can burn the motor and c) Look at attached picture. Notice water overflowing the first chamber and going right back to the tank along the intake tube. This could be due me adding too much media in the chamber though. I have a few questions on your experience if you don’t mind. Did you notice any difference in water quality after filtration vs the AC? Would you say the Dymax holds the same amount of filter media as the AC just separated into two compartments instead of one? Aesthetic wise, does it look less bulky once installed? My biggest fear is it won’t filter as well as “the all powerful AC”. Thanks in advance. Any additional user experience info would be greatly appreciated. Cleaning, usage, noise etc. thank you and thanks for starting this thread!