HOB maintenance, longevity... a tale

[lefty o]

 sort of longish story, but. my 120 is 27 years old, same age are the old marineland 400 hang on back filters. best i can recall in the first 3 years i stripped them down, had the impellers out of them maybe twice. since then i moved in 2000, at that time i guarantee i just quick dumped them out, and got the tank running as fast as possible. whole time i was in that house i never tore them down for a complete clean. 7 years ago i moved to where im at now, did the same thing dumped them out, got tank going again fast for the fish. now these HOBS you can run the disposable carbon filter things that cost a fortune, or the fill your own baskets they came with which has been my goto for probably 20 years, and i regullarily pull them and clean them while doing a tank clean. well today i notice a sound of trickling water coming from my big tank, hmmm thats not right😲 . so i investigate and water is dribbling out under the top cover for one of the HOB's, and overflowing from around the intake tube. oh boy, pronto deep clean coming. they had finally gotten so full of mulm, they were just blocked up almost solid. tore down, pulled impellers, and spray tubes and bio wheels. got the tank cleaned, and filters back together. crossed my fingers and lots of wishful thinking they would start back up, as they have been discontinued a long long time. well, it took a bit to get them primed as the baskets are pretty big on them, but holy cow do those things move some water. ive had them running full blast for a long long time, and they moved just the right amount of water for me. now i had to turn them down several notches. over the years ive read tons of people only get a few years out of their filters, have to replace the impellers numerous times, etc. well, here's my theory...people take them apart way too often. now they should probably get cleaned a little more often than i do them, but too much maintenance can often be worse than too little. you be the judge!😎

[Guppysnail]

Well this is a very heartening take.  I always feel guilty that I only ever pull mine apart when fliw becomes way to low  (since mine are actually just planters this means flow is almost non existent 🤣). Now I can proudly announce “I don’t tear them apart because I want them to last a few decades” 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[redfish]

I'm still running a pair of whisper 30-60 HOB filters from the early 90's.  They sat in storage a good 12-15 years and I recently put them back into action without any issues at all.  They fired right up and are working fine.  I was completely surprised they still worked.

[TOtrees]

Great story! 🙂

I do think there are a lot of variables here across different users, different setups and etc. Many folks consider the Aquaclear hob line to be the pinnacle of hob reliability, but I would not (can not) get the same endless service out of my ACs as you have from your Marineland. I know from experience that if I don't pull the impeller and clean out the mulm periodically, and also ensure no sand/gravel bits, the filter WILL eventually fail to turn back on after a power failure. I might only need to do that level of service every 3-6 months, but if I don't I run the risk of the filter not running after a power blip of brief failure. Not an issue if I'm home, but if I'm out (esp for a full day) that could be a problem. In reality I'm maybe exaggerating the importance of the problem/issue for me, bc the few tanks where this can occur all have sponge filters as well (out of ~15 tanks I only run 4 power filters), so I'm not going to be losing fish. In addition to 2 small ACs, I also have a couple Tidals and I've never run into this issue with them, ie they come back on after power outages with 100% reliability, at least for me.

Clearly this mode of failure hasn't been an issue for you with your marineland. If it was, you'd have had to deal with it at some point, and your maintenance practices would be different.

But, I'm impressed at the level of reliability you describe, and if I have to buy any more power filters, I'd be willing to give the marineland offerings a try. 

[Tanked]

At some point in this hobby we will occasionally kill things with kindness; this includes the filters or anything else with moving parts.  I only got a little over 10 years out of my Tetra Whisper Power Filter.  It did not fail, I broke it. Plastic parts and o-rings will prematurely wear out if we take them apart too often.  We often fail to properly separate good practice from what must be done.  I am using HOBs from Marineland and Aqueon.  The Marineland filters will not be completely disassembled and cleaned unless the impeller fails.  The Aqueon's intake tubes are part of the impeller assembly and require disassembly just to clean the tubes

 

On 9/15/2022 at 12:28 AM, lefty o said:

or the fill your own baskets they came with which has been my goto for probably 20 years,

OMG!  I am using the Marineland 400 and wasn't sure what you were referring to.  I checked the extra filter I have in storage and found them!  A coworker handed me the filter, box and all one day.  I did not need it and never bothered to open the box.

[lefty o]

On 9/15/2022 at 10:17 AM, Tanked said:

At some point in this hobby we will occasionally kill things with kindness; this includes the filters or anything else with moving parts.  I only got a little over 10 years out of my Tetra Whisper Power Filter.  It did not fail, I broke it. Plastic parts and o-rings will prematurely wear out if we take them apart too often.  We often fail to properly separate good practice from what must be done.  I am using HOBs from Marineland and Aqueon.  The Marineland filters will not be completely disassembled and cleaned unless the impeller fails.  The Aqueon's intake tubes are part of the impeller assembly and require disassembly just to clean the tubes

 

OMG!  I am using the Marineland 400 and wasn't sure what you were referring to.  I checked the extra filter I have in storage and found them!  A coworker handed me the filter, box and all one day.  I did not need it and never bothered to open the box.

glad you found them. those little fill your own baskets are great. put filter floss in them, or carbon, or whatever you like. save a ton of money over buying the disposable ones.