Alright, so after 20 year of solid use, + or -, noticed my old Whispers are just kinda loosin' efficiency this time around. So after lookin' at all the major brands and lookin' at pros and cons decided on Marineland Emperor and Penguin filters. Couldn't find a bad review anywhere. I like the bio wheel technology and the relatively easy maintenance. The fact I have two Magnum 350 canisters that are as sound today as they were when I bought 'em in the early 90's put me over the top.

The funny thing is, I remember when the bio-wheel came out and I sincerely figured it would falter and fall into the realm of gimmick filters that you'd see in everybody's yard sales. Today with a helluva lot more experience and knowledge and years of testimonials supporting their effectiveness, I find myself buyin' 'em.

Gonna take the Whispers, piece together the best of them and have several filters in reserve as back-ups.

Also updated the filtration on the 225 to four Magnum 350 Pros. Was lookin' at two Fluval FX5's, but the aggravation I've had servicing the Fluval canister I have convinced me otherwise. I'll tell ya, when that Fluval was runnin', she ran like a charm, but I had a helluva time gettin' her back together every time I cleaned/changed the media. German ingenuity my a--! If the Germans had as hard a time servicing those tiger tanks as I had with that Fluval, no wonder the Allies won WWII...

WYite

I've had very good luck with my Emperor HOB's. I have a 400 and (2) 280s. No complaints.

I am interested in the Aqueon quietflow filters. I saw a demonstration on them at my fish club meeting and they look like a nice filter and the pump sits in the water for better startup after power failure or waterchange. No priming needed. Never used one though.

The Emperors are pretty sweet. I've beat them unmercifully plus there's all sorts of neat mods you can do to them.

Dude you will love the emperors. If I ever buy any more HOB's, which I likely will eventually, I won't hesitate to make emperors my first choice.

Already do, MC, LOL.