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I absolutely love this filter for my 29g tank. Unfortinatly, I have went through 3 of them in 9 months and I don't want to keep shelling out $30-35 just to keep filtration. I purchased a Whisper 40 and I want to see how this one goes. I do have to say the Wisper is astoundingly quiet. lol

My questions are:
What filters do you recomend and why?
Does anyone else have a problem with the life span of the Penguins?

Hi!

I definetely had the same problem with the same filter as you and ended up getting the same whisper. I have not had a promblem since... The bio-wheel seems like a good idea but just did not work out for me. IMO you made a good choice.... Oh well... *shrugs*

Any ideas what's going wrong with the Penguin? I've had a 170 on my 30g for quite a while with no problems; I also have a 125 on my 29g.

I have Whispers on my 10g tanks. The only issue with them is whenever the power goes out (a bit frequent here in the summer ) I have to play around with them before they'll restart.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

I sure will agree with you there Theresa (about the restarting after power failure) I always have to fidgit with my 20g (has whisper) but never my 10g (also has whisper and have never had problem with restarting). I don't usually have a problem with power failures.. I think maybe has happened twice since I had it. All in all that has been less trouble for me than the other filter.

DMDYNE...do you have plants in your tank??? Just curious.

I've never had a problem with my Penguin 125. I've had it for almost 11 months. What kind of problems did you have with the Penguins?

No live plants in the tank. Just plastic ones. lol

As for the "problem" there really isn't one. The filters just stop working. I'll go to bed or to work and the filter is pushing water like normal, then when I check on it next....it's dead as can be. I would love to crack these things open and see what is happening inside there, but they don't have any maintainence access.

The Whispers you guys have had little trouble with...what do you mean you had to "mess around" with it after power outages? I just want to know what to do to my Whisper if my power goes out. lol

A good example is the other day I noticed my clock blinking and I went upstairs because it was time to feed the fish (the power had obviously gone out sometime during the day). The Whisper in my 10g was running as usual but when I went to the 20g the motor was humming but it wasn't pushing any water out...it had lost it's prime. Once I poured more water directly into the filter it primed itself again and worked as normal. This is the second time this has happened but so far I would rather deal with that on occasion than the stress that I incurred from the Bio-Wheel.

The impeller, the heart of the motor, is indeed accessible for cleaning and removing anything that may stop it from spinning...

Pull up on the little plastic shaft where you remove the filter intake tube and the unit will come out revealing the impeller that also removes for cleaning.

You may have three good Penquins after cleaning.

Customer Service at Marineland: 1-800-322-1266.

--garyroland.

Gary I sure hope that works, but I had taken my bio-wheel completely apart and cleaned it inside and out, with no luck. I had even stuck the whisper filter on while the Penguin was on so I could continue to troubleshoot the issue without jeopordizing my fishies. I tried drying it out, buying a new biowheel, it just didn't work. I know that not everyone must have this problem or else they would not be in business. I had often wondered if it was the plants...the bioload of my bristle nose...etc, that could have been causing the troubles, maybe I just happened to even get two bad bio-wheels. Good luck DMDYNE.

OMG...I'm stupid. I did exactly what you said and it still didn't work. So, I break out the owners manuel....clean it exactly as the owners manuel says and all 3 work....
So I guess I don't need to buy another filter for my 55 gallon when I buy it. lol

"I would love to crack these things open and see what is happening inside there, but they don't have any maintainence access."

I based my reply on this comment.

--garyroland.

"Pull up on the little plastic shaft where you remove the filter intake tube and the unit will come out revealing the impeller that also removes for cleaning."


Great advice, garyroland! When my brother's Penguin filter stopped pushing water, I took a look at it. Somehow the impeller became dislodged. All I had to do is push it back down into place, and it has worked great since then.

If you have a problem with a dvd player, what do you do? Look at the owner's manual. Why should it be any diffent for aqaurium supplies? That's why the companies include a manual with every filter.

I have five 330 Penquin bio filters running on two large tanks...

I am so incredibly lazy that instead of removing the filter to clean the impeller assembly, I just shut down the filter, lift the assembly out, brush out the impeller sink hole, clean off the impeller, drop it back in, replace the plastic housing and replace the output tube.

Is that lazy or what??

--garyroland.

Cool! I sure hope that lasts for you! GR we all have those moments...at one time or another....

I've been running a 330 for almost 3 years on my 45 with no problems at all. I pull out the impeller every couple of months and it usually has a good coating of slime on it. I could see not cleaning it could cause it to not run.

I'm now thinking I will change my aquaclear 150 for a penguin 125 on my 20. Been very pleased with the penquins.

Now if the filters would just clean themselves..........

Mike

[span class="edited"][Edited by fish479 2004-09-06 11:42][/span]

I have the Biowheel 170, up and running for... I don't even know how long now... at least 6 months. Haven't had a single problem.

My aqua clear 200 on the other hand... I wish that thing would just go straight to....