Im hopeing to get 45 by the end of the month, or next month. and Im on a budget, but i do wanna get a good filter. it will be holding my 4 fancy's (2 orandas, 2 ranchus) I was thinking a penguin, but at my work, i noticed that penguin is changing some of there filters... are they as good? do they use the same cartriges? anywho... so should i go with a penguin or an aquaclear, which is what Im currently using. and what size?

thanks for any help

For a 45 gallon tank, you are going to need something greater than a Penquin 330 -which is the biggest I know about.

I did notice that they were changing their filter line, but I have not seen what is being done or offered in the new line.

I am not as fond of any Penguins that are smaller than the 330 - the reason is that they depend entirely on the biowheel and the cartridge to carry all the beneficial bacteria for your cycle. A Biowheel is a great invention and works well, but is not as efficient as bioballs, sintered glass, ceramic cylindars, etc. It takes a bit longer to colonize and seems to be a bit more finicky in holding solid. I fill all my Penguin 170 cartridges with extra biomedia to supplement their abilty to bio-filter.

Emperors - in the same line - have a place for extra bio-media - even in the smallest 280 they have a nice basket to put stuff in. The 400 has two baskets. These work wonderfully, and I think are well worth the difference in price between and Penguin and an Emperor.

For your 45 gallon tank, I think I would recommend two Emperor 280's if you want to stay in the Marineland brand of filters. A 400 is still not enough by itself. You could do an Emperor 400 and a Penguin 170 .....

I am not fond of AquaClear filters. I have not, personally, had a great deal of luck with them. They are prone to overflow out the back and on the floor, I have had motors quit with no warning, and they are not self starting. Perhaps the line has been improved in the last 3 years since I had my last Aqua Clear - but I would not waste my money on another, myself.

I am sure others can tell you of other brands that are the equivilant to the Marineland filters......

Whisper has a great line of filters.

Penguin 350B Power Filter

There's some info on the new line of Penguins. I'm hoping to get a new tank and was thinking about getting 2 of them. But I think I'll just follow this topic along and see if I can find a better one.

i was thinking of getting one filter till i can save up the cash for a fluvel. I know most people around here like the other canisters, but in my experiance, I LOVE MY FLUVEL!! for my turtle.... its just awsome.

im not a fan of whispers, but just from my experience. we had nothing but trouble with our old one, and our little duetto 100's did a better job, at only 90 ghp!