post, tell me what u think

Hi Jackson,all I can tell you is that all my 30 gal. tanks have used aqua clears for years,and I've never had any trouble with them.

Definately the Aquaclear. I've had two whispers (albeit the smaller ones) and they were terrible. I've got two Aquaclears now, and they are great (a 300 and a mini).

I have never had a Whisper, but the Aquaclear that I have is subject to spilling out the back, does not auto prime after power glitches, and is prone to "plugging" up. Mine also does not have sufficant room for "bio-stuffing" which I regularly do. (It is one of my vices).
JMO

I do have to agree with the power glitch thing on the Aquaclear filters. We've had bad thunderstorms on and off all week,and I've held my breath on the filters until I could check on them.I lost one before for that reason.

Mine both restart fine unless the water level in the tank has gotten very low. The Whispers were just as bad or worse about that. My whisper slowed down to barely a trickle when I stuffed some biomedia in, not an issue with the Aquaclears. I haven't seen the bigger Whispers in person, but my Whisper had NO room whatsoever for extra media. I already don't use carbon and still did not have room for the coral I use b/c of my soft water if I wanted to have any biomedia.

No filter that cheap is going to be problem free, you get what you pay for, but an Aquaclear is a far better deal at the same price than a Whisper.

my aqua clear always does that same thing wont restart have to make it start, plugs up badly @2 days after tank cleaning, very slow trickle even onHIGH(+), BUT my whisper is awsoome, never plugs, auto starts does spill over the back, has a big media area, IS quieter, I love the way the water flows out.But everyone has their own opinion LOL. I have BOTH on my tank, But If I had to remove 1, it wouldbe the aquaclear, If U go with the aquaclear i wish u luck, and maybe u will have NO bad experiences out of it !!!!!!.

I've had a whisper 30 and 2 aquaclear 300's and heres what I think about them:
I didn't care much for the whisper. There's no room in them for anything other than the little sponge and the floss insert, so you won't be able to put any extra bio medias or crushed coral or anything in it, except inside the filter floss where the carbon goes. My whisper also made an annoying noise, like plastic vibrating against plastic, and the lid didn't fit properly. Other than that it ran fine. I like the aquaclears better than the whisper. They have a big basket for adding extra sponges, bio medias, etc. They run fine, and while I haven't had any power outages, if I unplug them they start right back up for me when I plug them in again. I don't understand how they could overflow out the back, since the back is much higher than any other part of the filter. My one major quibble with my aquaclears is that they don't fit properly over the plastic rim of my tank (the rim is a bit fat for them) and I have to get creative with some pieces of cotton between the filters and the rim of the tank to adjust the fit. (The tank they're on is a 50 gal -- I think they would fit fine on my 20 gal, which has a skinnier plastic rim). They run quietly and I haven't had any problems with them. If I were you I'd go with the aquaclear instead of the whisper. Also, the aquaclear 200 will give you more gallons per hour filtration than the whisper -- 200 verses 150.

I haven't had experience with the aquaclear but I have the Whispers. I have had all of them, the 20, 40 and the 60. I have had problems with them continually. If it is not the back flowing problem, it is not having enough room in the media like the others have said. I recently have upgraded to the Emperor 400 (it isn't here yet) I ordered it online at Big Als. If it is a $ thing, in the end you get what you pay for. Check out Big Als prices their pretty good.

I wish you luck with what you go with.
Laurie

ok, guess a will go with aqua clear, thats for all ur inputs...