The cherry on top of my week (along with the Italian Exam I think I may have failed) is the fact that the filter on my seven gallon bow front has ceased to function. I opened the darn thing up last night to swish the cartridge out in the old tank water I was removing, put it back in, turned it on when I was done with the water change..... and pft! Niente! Water bubbles up into the first chamber from the intake tube but doesnt fill the side with the cartridge so no water actually goes THROUGH the filter. GRR!!

Anyway.... I knew I wanted to get a stronger filter for that tank eventually so I guess I'm just going to take the opportunity! My question to you guys is this: What should I get? I know next to nothing about them as both the ones I have came with the tanks they're on, so I dont know penguin from emperor. It is a seven gallon tank and it is used to house one goldie (let's get this out of the way now; yes I know this is not ideal, this is all I can do for her right now.... in a month or two when I get my apartment I plan on a larger tank) so I really do want a stellar system that's going to provide the optimum care for this little girl... she's my favorite. If possible I'd like to keep it under 40$.

I could just go to the store and yank one off the shelf that fits space wise (there's a 7-8 inch long hole for a filter in the hood) but I have no idea about gph.... can there ever be too much filtration? I dont want to stress her out!


Please help!

Personally, I would probably go for a penguin 100 or 150. I think that the 150 shouldn't be too much filtration, but it will give a little extra oomph and the nice thing is if you decide to upgrade to a bigger tank, you could just go buy another filter and use this one as a supplement(personally I always keep a smaller filter running with my larger one so I have an extra for quarantine).

You can get a really good deal if you have a petsmart nearby. Just go to their website and print out the page with the price of the filter(the 100 is 16.99 and the 150 is 18.99) and then take that into the store and tell them you'd like for them to price match. This is how I got my penguin 350 for $27 instead of the 40 something shelf price!

Hope this helps! I've only really had experience with the marineland filters so that's all I can recommend, but hopefully someone can add some more options for you to choose from.

I would personally recommend the aqua-clear filters, they are slightly more expensive but are by my opion the easiest to use, simple and easy maintenance, quiet. Great job at filtering. Thats my opinion though. Im sure others would argue me.

GAH! So thats how you do it! I kept looking on petco's site when I was looking for tanks and wondering why they didnt match up! Shame on them...LOL! Is the penguin the one with the biowheel in it? I keep hearing about them... my Eclipse 12 has a biowheel in it that runs along side a flat cartridge but I really dont know the difference.

petsmart will match their own online prices?

Holy cow! That would have saved me almost two weeks in shipping time if I had known that. I've got an order for new filters that is taking FOREVER to get here, because I ordered online.

Yeah the penguins are the ones with bio wheels. Like I said they're really the only filter that I've used and they've always worked for me so I haven't really tried others. I have heard the aquaclears are very good though.

Yes petsmart will match their own online price! I've done it with several things and it really is a great money saver on some of the stuff. I first found out about it on here(after spending too much on their store prices) so I try to pass that info along anytime I get the chance to help others save money I *think* petco does the same, but I don't have one close by so I haven't really tried.

I ended up going for the AquaClear 30 (150gph for a 7g, I figure it should help make up some for the lack of tank space) as it seemed like the best and simplest option in the store. I think it will really do a good job with the filtration: three layers of media INCLUDING ammonia absorbing pellets! Yay!! I set it up when I got home and its running like a dream... no mess (not like the Whisper that came with the tank- water ran out of both chambers and it was soo hard to clean... too small to really get in there). I also love that it's made out of so sturdy a material, the lid was always falling off the other. I mean GEEZ! I'm so in love with the filter it makes me wish I didnt have an eclipse for my other tank so I could have another aqua clear!!

I did look at the penguins but I've heard that the biowheel filtration doesnt do a good enough job alone for a goldie. Maybe some day when I get my apartment and have a larger tank I'll get the penguin for secondary filtration.

Thanks for all the help guys!!

Just a note with the aquaclear ammonia absorbing insert thing... if you salt your tank, it'll release all the ammonia it has absorbed, so you need to be really careful with that.

I used one in my aquaclear and it worked fine, but I know that people have had problems in the past.

You can always add extra media to your Penguin if you feel necessary. I have used both the Penguin and the Aquaclear. I am now upgrading tanks and am switching back to the Aquaclear...just a personal thing.

Thanks for the tips guys... and I really appreciate that caution L.E. I don't salt my tanks but it's good to know that if I have to I'll have to use a different filter or take out the Ammonia thing. Forewarned is.....forepaired? LOL!