New 40B planted tank replaces the previous 36bow and 20long planted tanks. Most of the contents plus some more. And some discussion about the fluval c3 as well.
I like the Tidal on a planted tank. The skimmer is great to grab those floating bits and torn leaves, where the AC's intake just gets clogged. On the Tidal, you can increase its performance If you use a coarse pad on the bottom, the bio-bag in the middle and another coarse pad floating on the top. The floating pad eliminates the bypass and will even out the flow of the return. Makes it so much quieter.
I just replaced my AC70 for the Tidal 55. More bacteria area due to the inside basket and more water flow to move the water over the bacteria. Your media bag is too big. Remove about 25% or more and you most likely won't have the overflow. You are restricting the water which is bad. You want to move more water over less media then using less water over more media.
Use the AC as designed and it works great. The lifting... is actually a good thing. Initially I'd get pissed when it'd lift. Well DUH!!! Media is (or getting) clogged, restricting water flow and causing the lift which should ALERT the aquarist. In hindsight, I was a dumbass and lazy. An overstocked 40g in which I was feeding heavily, growing out. I was trying to get by on the weekly water change. I still do 4-7 day water changes (depending on stocking and feeding) but now any time a lid starts to lift, quick floss change. Easy!! I rinse the sponge out in tank water siphoned off on water changes.
Yeah when the basket lifts it means that the sponge needs cleaning. Clean it out with aquarium water till no debris comes out. And boom it’s fixed no more rising. People need to stop being so lazy and maintain their filters lol
@@theholt2ic219 I agree. I have an Aqua Clear 110 on my 75 gallon tank and it was on my 125 before that back before Hurricane Katrina. That filter is over 16 years old with original parts and still going strong.
I don’t know what people have going on with aqua clear I never have had lifting issues but I never have much media restrictions . I use the standard foam and a medium/fine foam only and a little generic fluval bio rings . Never have lift but I clean it once a month and it’s double the recommended tank size
It's less about having an issue and more that something better is out now. I have an aquaclear 70 that doesnt lift on me but a 50 thatll lift each and every time without trying. Its luck of the draw. I'd rather just a lock on the basket. Better design
I have both filters th fluval and the tidal the fluval is about 7 years old and I just bought the tidal its just as good at filtering.so well just see if it lasts
I've since had one of my fluvals motors burn out. My tidals (55 and 75) are both still going strong. I've had an occasional jam-up that required cleaning but never a failure to date.
Great looking plant life. Val's, water sprite and annubias I think? I have heard from a number of users that the Tidal"s came out of the gate as an improvement on AQ, but after testing, they stay behind AQ as the Cadillac of filters. I have watched a number of videos touting the "good points" of Tidal, but in the end, they do not really measure up in my testing. I looked forward to them being an improvement on the best on the market, but I was disappointed. Are your results different thus far post video? One thing I had an issue with in my Goldie show tank is the top feed...goldies love duck weed and the Tidal tried to filter it off. And after about 15 months...the motor crapped out on me on a simple community. I am sure, like all things, it is application specific, but I will not be testing or using Tidal anymore. One sign this may be the trend is if you track the price on Amazon (I hate them with a passion, but they are a good yardstick of the market), the Tidal's are dropping in price faster than a rock in water. I am thinking Seachem should have stuck with the "chem" part of their name. Thoughts?
No, my results are no different today. I still love tidals and stand by them as the best general purpose hang on back filter, to date. I've only had the motor clog up maybe once, and it was a quick fix. Never had a failure, still have my same two tidals going strong all this time. I still don't think aquaclears are as good, and I feel to this date that the internet keeps pushing "Argument ad populum" with aquaclears, it's popular, and people spread lots of bad information about it, as well as about tidals. To be frank here, I'm concerned you're one of those very people, as I'm immediately attributing your first problem to user error. I'm not trying to be offensive here, but I really REALLY hate bad information being spread. If you PURPOSELY INTENDED to keep duckweed on a tank that you then attempted to run a surface skimmer on - you don't know what you are doing, please don't spread bad information. Please re-evaluate the situation: if you're trying to keep duckweed, why would you run a surface skimmer: Or for that matter, a hang on back, with a built in surface skimmer? Or say, one of those skimming attachments that attaches to a canister? Or an overflow or weir of some sort? You wouldn't do any of those things if you were actually trying to keep duckweed alive, as you surely would clog your filter, or suck it all down into the filter, weir, or what not. Exactly what you had happen. That said, I'm sorry if you expected me to agree with you here in some way, but I thoroughly disagree with your assessment here in nearly every possible way. Regarding price - I had numerous stores pricing them super high and numerous stores that had them priced somewhat reasonably - from the start. I have not noticed a major trend in price difference in terms of the price various retail stores in the area would sell me one for. My cheaper stores had them cheaper, my pricer stores had them pricer. I don't really go on internet pricing because that's often based strictly on MAP and I can almost always get better than that if I haggle with my stores, but I digress. I feel you're reading into this a little bit too much.
as a followup to this video -i actually later ditched the aquaclear 50 after it kept flooding on me. It's now an aqueon 30 + the tidal 55, and I like this combination much better. I loaned this aquaclear 50 to my friend for his quarantine tank and it actually seized up on him. I later managed to get the motor running again while playing with it, but it's no longer reliable, I don't use it anymore. I have my AC70 still going strong on one of my own QTs. I have not had nearly as many issues with that one, but, I still like my tidals way better. I believe the motor is made by sicce in the tidal, and the aquaclears are likely made by fluval/hagen now. I've had more than my fair sure of failures from either brand so I couldn't really call that either way. The main issues are basically the same as with any other magnetically driven pump, if they seize up with debris and you don't catch it in time, it's gonna melt and deform, then it's usually trashed. For your situation - if you were looking to replace the aquaclear and wanted to keep duckweed alive (no surface skimmer) I'd maybe consider the aqueons, similar motor in tank design to the tidals, but it draws from the bottom - but I'd make your own filter pads for it for sure. It's not a bottom-up flow design, but I hate to say it - that design is the very flaw of the aquaclear. Alternatively, you could just super-glue something over the slots of the tidal. I've actually glued a giant acrylic baffle onto my tidal 75 to prevent my eels from jumping back and forth into it - true story. It's been ages since i've posted videos, but needless to say, I've had plenty of fun since then. In this hobby - sometimes you need to just DIY and make stuff work if you're 90% there anyway.
Yep it starts great
Nice video. I enjoyed listening to your thoughts on the different filter advantages and problems. Thanks for posting!
I have a tidal55 and works amazing after 1year, no regrets, a lot of space for media
I like the Tidal on a planted tank. The skimmer is great to grab those floating bits and torn leaves, where the AC's intake just gets clogged. On the Tidal, you can increase its performance If you use a coarse pad on the bottom, the bio-bag in the middle and another coarse pad floating on the top. The floating pad eliminates the bypass and will even out the flow of the return. Makes it so much quieter.
I just replaced my AC70 for the Tidal 55. More bacteria area due to the inside basket and more water flow to move the water over the bacteria. Your media bag is too big. Remove about 25% or more and you most likely won't have the overflow. You are restricting the water which is bad. You want to move more water over less media then using less water over more media.
I find with tidal 110. You got to have it level good. Or it may start getting noisy
Use the AC as designed and it works great. The lifting... is actually a good thing. Initially I'd get pissed when it'd lift. Well DUH!!! Media is (or getting) clogged, restricting water flow and causing the lift which should ALERT the aquarist. In hindsight, I was a dumbass and lazy. An overstocked 40g in which I was feeding heavily, growing out. I was trying to get by on the weekly water change. I still do 4-7 day water changes (depending on stocking and feeding) but now any time a lid starts to lift, quick floss change. Easy!! I rinse the sponge out in tank water siphoned off on water changes.
Yeah when the basket lifts it means that the sponge needs cleaning. Clean it out with aquarium water till no debris comes out. And boom it’s fixed no more rising. People need to stop being so lazy and maintain their filters lol
@@theholt2ic219 I agree. I have an Aqua Clear 110 on my 75 gallon tank and it was on my 125 before that back before Hurricane Katrina. That filter is over 16 years old with original parts and still going strong.
I don’t know what people have going on with aqua clear I never have had lifting issues but I never have much media restrictions . I use the standard foam and a medium/fine foam only and a little generic fluval bio rings . Never have lift but I clean it once a month and it’s double the recommended tank size
It's less about having an issue and more that something better is out now. I have an aquaclear 70 that doesnt lift on me but a 50 thatll lift each and every time without trying. Its luck of the draw. I'd rather just a lock on the basket. Better design
Tidal’s are great…..must take apart and clean the motor / propeller every month to keep it quiet though
I got my tank full.
I would just use the. Tidal. If worried about flow just get a 75 or 110. Tidals are the best hob filters
I have both filters th fluval and the tidal the fluval is about 7 years old and I just bought the tidal its just as good at filtering.so well just see if it lasts
I've since had one of my fluvals motors burn out. My tidals (55 and 75) are both still going strong. I've had an occasional jam-up that required cleaning but never a failure to date.
the tidal was made by 2 or 3 people saying how can we improve on the Auqaclear.
Mind tank is a 55gal
On a 55 gal would you recommend Titan 55 or a Titan 75 filter??? Thanks! Good videos.
Tidal.
75 or 110
Great looking plant life. Val's, water sprite and annubias I think? I have heard from a number of users that the Tidal"s came out of the gate as an improvement on AQ, but after testing, they stay behind AQ as the Cadillac of filters. I have watched a number of videos touting the "good points" of Tidal, but in the end, they do not really measure up in my testing. I looked forward to them being an improvement on the best on the market, but I was disappointed. Are your results different thus far post video? One thing I had an issue with in my Goldie show tank is the top feed...goldies love duck weed and the Tidal tried to filter it off. And after about 15 months...the motor crapped out on me on a simple community. I am sure, like all things, it is application specific, but I will not be testing or using Tidal anymore. One sign this may be the trend is if you track the price on Amazon (I hate them with a passion, but they are a good yardstick of the market), the Tidal's are dropping in price faster than a rock in water. I am thinking Seachem should have stuck with the "chem" part of their name. Thoughts?
No, my results are no different today. I still love tidals and stand by them as the best general purpose hang on back filter, to date. I've only had the motor clog up maybe once, and it was a quick fix. Never had a failure, still have my same two tidals going strong all this time.
I still don't think aquaclears are as good, and I feel to this date that the internet keeps pushing "Argument ad populum" with aquaclears, it's popular, and people spread lots of bad information about it, as well as about tidals.
To be frank here, I'm concerned you're one of those very people, as I'm immediately attributing your first problem to user error. I'm not trying to be offensive here, but I really REALLY hate bad information being spread. If you PURPOSELY INTENDED to keep duckweed on a tank that you then attempted to run a surface skimmer on - you don't know what you are doing, please don't spread bad information.
Please re-evaluate the situation: if you're trying to keep duckweed, why would you run a surface skimmer: Or for that matter, a hang on back, with a built in surface skimmer? Or say, one of those skimming attachments that attaches to a canister? Or an overflow or weir of some sort?
You wouldn't do any of those things if you were actually trying to keep duckweed alive, as you surely would clog your filter, or suck it all down into the filter, weir, or what not. Exactly what you had happen.
That said, I'm sorry if you expected me to agree with you here in some way, but I thoroughly disagree with your assessment here in nearly every possible way.
Regarding price - I had numerous stores pricing them super high and numerous stores that had them priced somewhat reasonably - from the start. I have not noticed a major trend in price difference in terms of the price various retail stores in the area would sell me one for. My cheaper stores had them cheaper, my pricer stores had them pricer. I don't really go on internet pricing because that's often based strictly on MAP and I can almost always get better than that if I haggle with my stores, but I digress. I feel you're reading into this a little bit too much.
as a followup to this video -i actually later ditched the aquaclear 50 after it kept flooding on me. It's now an aqueon 30 + the tidal 55, and I like this combination much better. I loaned this aquaclear 50 to my friend for his quarantine tank and it actually seized up on him. I later managed to get the motor running again while playing with it, but it's no longer reliable, I don't use it anymore. I have my AC70 still going strong on one of my own QTs. I have not had nearly as many issues with that one, but, I still like my tidals way better.
I believe the motor is made by sicce in the tidal, and the aquaclears are likely made by fluval/hagen now. I've had more than my fair sure of failures from either brand so I couldn't really call that either way. The main issues are basically the same as with any other magnetically driven pump, if they seize up with debris and you don't catch it in time, it's gonna melt and deform, then it's usually trashed.
For your situation - if you were looking to replace the aquaclear and wanted to keep duckweed alive (no surface skimmer) I'd maybe consider the aqueons, similar motor in tank design to the tidals, but it draws from the bottom - but I'd make your own filter pads for it for sure. It's not a bottom-up flow design, but I hate to say it - that design is the very flaw of the aquaclear.
Alternatively, you could just super-glue something over the slots of the tidal. I've actually glued a giant acrylic baffle onto my tidal 75 to prevent my eels from jumping back and forth into it - true story. It's been ages since i've posted videos, but needless to say, I've had plenty of fun since then. In this hobby - sometimes you need to just DIY and make stuff work if you're 90% there anyway.