# Marineland® Penguin® 150B Power Filter?



## Dragonbeards

OK, so, I am just not satisfied with the job that my Whisper 10-30i is doing in my tank. Granted, it is a bit... overstocked while I wait for my 75g, but still. 

Anyways, I have been looking at other filters, and on one of the other websites I frequent (fishchannel.com) I have an opportunity to get a filter for free (for points that is, which you earn by doing various activities around the site). 

It is a Marineland® Penguin® 150B Power Filter, "Certified flow rate of 150GPH, for aquariums up to 30 gallons." Would this be good in my 20g high (planted soon)? Is it a good quality filter?

Dragonbeards


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## emc7

I have a few, they work and are quiet, suprisingly. The media has an even smaller area than the whisper 10. It also has a little bio-wheel. The cartridge are less trouble than the whispers, but more money and you can't take the carbon out to medicate easily. I guess I would use it on a 15gallon tank, but not alone on a twenty. That and the whisper and on a 20 should work.


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## Toshogu

if you're worried about watr quality in your 75gal. I suggest turning your 20gal into a sump/refugium. Buy a emperor 400 and stick it in the 20gal.


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## mousey

Hi, I have a question about using a 150 marineland in a 20 gallon tank. The tank I inherited has the 150 and it seemed to work ok until the last few months. The fish are breathing somewhat faster than I think they should and this past week I have had it apart twice to see if I can improve it.
I have placed 2 filter pads in frames in it and until the other day I had a piece of floss in there. I also have a bag of biobeads sitting on top of the area where the tube fits over the impeller.
As I say this setup has worked fine until the last few months. I have treated the tank for flukes- just in case as I had outbreak in other tanks.
I have removed the floss. today I took the darn thing apart and cleaned the impeller tubes etc.
i have tried 1 pad in , 2pads in, remove this ,etc and I just find that the water is not coming out as quickly as I think it should. 
The 150 is rated for up to 30 gallons.So EMC you say it is only satisfactory for up to a 15 gallon??
Tank contains a full size BN pleco, a couple ofguppiesss, a couple of palties, 2 cardinals 2 blackskirts and a 2 year old angel fish as well as 3 full grown cories.
The breathing improves with the addition of a bubbler.


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## emc7

Its a little filter. I would put in a 15. Thats a 10x turnover rate. Less then that makes me nervous. Lots of people keep tanks with 4x turnover rates, I always assume they have a heavily planted tank with a few little fish.

If you have trouble with low oxygen in the past few weeks, I'd guess heat is a factor. I've had some issues with hot tanks here. And much less oxygen is dissolved in water that is only a few degrees warmer. Keep the bubbler and drop the water level so you have a nice, noisy waterfall to aerate the water. 

Flukes and meds can both cause breathing troubles (by attacking gills and lowering oxygen, respectively). 

I would probably replace the bubbler with a sponge filter to get you a bit more filter capacity without breaking the bank.


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## mousey

so I added another marineland filter today so I have now got enough filtration for 30 gallons. So hubby says "the water flow from the 'new' penguin mini is better than from the marineland 150-- why don't you buy a new filter that is big enough. "So feeling cheap I said I didn't want to spend another 50 bucks on the tank.
Anyway along comes a flyer this morning from Petsmart for $10 off anything over $40 spent and when I went in I got another 20% off for having a Petsmart membership so my $54 filter came to about $32. I bought the Aquaclear 50.
I note that it has a 7 watt motor on it. I took all the different brands out of the boxes to compare motor sizes. it is quite annoying that some put the motor size in watts and some in amps.
My new penguin mini has a .13 amp motor which I believe is 15 watts?? Compared to all the other brands that are about 6-7 watts I wonder if my math is correct? how can marineland use such a heavy motor on the mini?
I have not yet put my new Aquaclear together yet but am curious to say the least as to what size motor is on the old 150.
There are a few new filters out there now. I thought the Aqueon looked interesting. It has plastic inserts instead of foam or web type filter media, as well as a filter containing charcoal. I thought the replacement media was pricey. I have gotten used to putting my own media in the aquaclear baskets.
Tomorrrow when I is cooler in the morning I will replace the 'old' filters with the new. it is going to be 'fun' as I plan on cutting the old filter stuff off the frames and inserting it into the new Aquaclear basket.


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## emc7

I have one Aqueon filter. No complaints, but I haven't really done a comparison test and its not the only filter. Its hasn't clogged on me yet. All the cartridge media is pricey, but you can make your own or buy a 3rd party replacement like Ken's fish sells for the most common brands. 

The Aquaclears are decent, but clean them when the sponge starts to float and don't wait until you have water on the floor off the back of the filter.


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## mousey

been there done that with aquaclear leaking all over the floor.
The filter was ok in that case but the filter was tilted backwards instead of forwards.
What do you think of the plastic parts in the Aqueon? And do you have to scrub them?
Our Petsmart had a few AQueon to choose from but no replacement parts.


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## emc7

Oh i keep losing the little piece of plastic that keeps the aquaclear from tilting. I need to order another one. Really kind of annoying. 

I haven't had to scrub the aqueon plastic yet, rinsing has been enough. I have a big sponge filter in the tank, so I can't judge if it holds biology like it says. thatpetplace has a sale on aqueon filters and cartridges now.


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## mousey

Crap, crap!!:chair:
Tried to set up my new Aquaclear and found the threads on the motor were broken in an unopend box.
went back to the store. Clerk said they had already had 3 others returned.
Opened a new box with clerk, tried it out and the motor didn't work. However the motor in this package was inserted onto the filter and the box had packing in it.
So opened another box and motor was not installed. Clerk installed motor to try it out and the threads on the filter snapped.
We then made up a workable filter from the parts in 3 boxes!
Got it home and when I went to put the u intake tube onto the frame a piece of plastic on the frame snapped off. the size of a fingernail.
Am not returning it but have emailed Hagen about it.
By the time I go back and forth to the store and fool around it is a real hassle- however I sure do not want to be taking this filter apart for maintenance. hubby says he will file the place where the tubing snaps on but it will have to wait for a few weeks. Can't believe the plastic is so brittle- must be a manufacuring error.
I have started up the new filter and have it on full blast. It has enough suction that my free floating java fern babies have risen off the bottom of the tank to attach theirselves to the intake tube.

So I check the motor on the marine land and it is a 15 watt motor compared to the Aquaclear's 7 watt.
A very big difference in pwer levels. I wonder Why?


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## Toshogu

ecm7 your advice is great and makes sense. Butttttt... I personally am having issues conceptualizing a 10x turnover rate in a tank. All I see is plants, fish, and gravel pushed up onto the glass. I can see 10x working for "coldwater fish like trout" or "saltwater tanks" But for a tank with goldfish, platy, betta, I would think it wouldn't work to well. I'm doing about 4x-5x turn-over rate in my tank right now, and the current produced is substantial.

Toshogu is just having a hard time visualizing how this would work. Help please.


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## emc7

10X can be a bit much for bettas. But you often need a 10X rating to get a decent flow out of filters that don't meet their ratings. I know eheims suggest a much lower rate, so a better filter could work with less flow. Most of my tanks have 2 or 3 filters that together make 10x, so its not all in one place. But my cichlids don't mind the flow at all, either. 10x is a rule for overstocked cichlid tanks, I know you can get by with less in planted tanks that are lightly stocked. But I like to have enough filters that one can go out while I'm not home for 3 days and the fish will still be alive when I get home and notice. With 10x, any kind of filter does the job. Its what I do, its not necessarily the best thing. My planted tank buddy with a 20 galllon tank, 2 killies and 20 cherry shrimp has a much lower turnover rate.

Its amazing how many people buy a 10 gallon rated filter, put it on a 10 and things are fine for a year until their guppies have fry and they start feeding more and suddenly they are having 'new tank syndrome' type problems because filter can't handle the load. I always suggest starting with a bigger filter or 2 filters. It just prevents problems. If the manufactures ever get their recomendations in line with actual use, I won't have to push bigger filters. I have seen some progress on that front. the Whisper 10-20 is back to being the Whisper 10 and the 20-40 the 20. Sure you can put it on a 40 if you stock it like a 20, but who does that? 

Some of the new filters seem nice. The little penguins seem to be an improvement over old ones.


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## Toshogu

... why didn't I think of that multiple filters/outputs =P I kept imagining one output nozzle that was like a firehose


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## emc7

Wow, mousey. Either they got a bad batch of plastic or cooked the box in shipping or they bought a box of 'new' 20 year old filters. I've heard of small cracks in aquaclears, but only after a few years in front of a sunny window. Probably outsourced the manufacture to China.


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## COM

10x filtration has been fine for every fish I have ever owned. I actually go a little heavier that 10x now because the 'rated' flow on the filter box is never even close. About a year ago a buddy of mine and I played with a flow meter from his old job at the water dept... The Emperor 400 was running around 285.


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## Toshogu

Okay cool. Now for the fun stuff. My current set up as it is now I have the main tank and a sump. input from the main now dumps directly into the sump where the emperor 400 draws from. Then get's push back up into the main through the fluval 305. How would you calculate your turnover rate? would you just add the two filters together? or just the rate at which the fluval pushes the water back up? Cause in the sump the emperor would be turning the water over in it about 8-9x. While the rate of turnover from the sump to the main would be about 4-5x.


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