eclipse hood
- Thread starter skamps
- Start date
hey skamps!
man. that sounds familar. oh wait. my first tank was a 29gallon w/ an eclipse3 hood! want to buy mine? it's in teh garage just sitting there right now. haha.
anyways. that was my first filter. i thought it was pretty good for what i had in there...gravel and some plastic plants and fishes.
then the plant bug bit me and i realized the lighting i had wasn't enough to keep most plants. then the more-fish bug bit me and i wanted more fish..u can see where this is going...
so to make a long story short...it's a great filter to start out with...but once u want to start keeping plants (i'm talking about med-high light ones - u can still keep plants with that setup) you'll find yourself just buying a canopy and getting new lights. and don't think about modifying it. the eclipse hood is pretty compact so it's a bit of work to try to upgrade the lighting w/ the same hood.
;D
man. that sounds familar. oh wait. my first tank was a 29gallon w/ an eclipse3 hood! want to buy mine? it's in teh garage just sitting there right now. haha.
anyways. that was my first filter. i thought it was pretty good for what i had in there...gravel and some plastic plants and fishes.
then the plant bug bit me and i realized the lighting i had wasn't enough to keep most plants. then the more-fish bug bit me and i wanted more fish..u can see where this is going...
so to make a long story short...it's a great filter to start out with...but once u want to start keeping plants (i'm talking about med-high light ones - u can still keep plants with that setup) you'll find yourself just buying a canopy and getting new lights. and don't think about modifying it. the eclipse hood is pretty compact so it's a bit of work to try to upgrade the lighting w/ the same hood.
;D
Overall it's a good hood, I have it on my 25 gallon and don't really have any complaints except:
1) the filter cartridges are expensive (on my budget) and you can't use anything but theirs
2) the filter cartridges clog up after about 2 weeks, and rinsing only helps the problem for a few hours
3) it has a nice waterfall noise that keeps you awake at night if you haven't topped off the water to the limit of the tank.
okay that's all. good hood overall, just those few things bug me
1) the filter cartridges are expensive (on my budget) and you can't use anything but theirs
2) the filter cartridges clog up after about 2 weeks, and rinsing only helps the problem for a few hours
3) it has a nice waterfall noise that keeps you awake at night if you haven't topped off the water to the limit of the tank.
okay that's all. good hood overall, just those few things bug me
i don't have one of these but my friend does and they she had the same complaint about the filters and i did thisfor her well i read this somewhere all u need is a filter sponge and a filter baggie i dunno what they'recalled i think filter bag saver or something and carbon or whatever u need and just cut the sponge into size and put it in and the carbon bag in where after the water has been through the sponge... how simple is that? lol saves u alot since all u need to buy is the carbon *celebratesmiley* hope this works for u
ditto on every ones post they covered just about everything. i am big on space for bacteria so i add a piece of cut to size filter media and put it under the cartridge cause the cartridges just stink IMO.mine runs hot too but mine is 5gal. not 29. just buy 55gal. or larger,your going to anyways eventaly so better to get it out of the way now before you spend your money on all this other stuff,i know i wish i did 30gal. just isn't enough(must have more tanks!!!)but if you can live without more fish and more plants than this is the tank for you.
My Eclipse 12g bow front came with only a 13w fixture. When I went to plants, I easily upgraded the light to a 36w power compact. The upgrade took 10 minutes, tops. *thumbsupsmiley* (There are many sites you can get lighting, if you want, I 'll give you the info I gathered on Eclipse tanks and lighting upgrades)
I do agree on those filters. They are not that great. *thumbsdown2* The cheapest I have found is 3 for about $5.50
The tank has been up for 6 months, the BioWheel looks dark. Haven't had ammonia or nitrites in months. Would it be safe to stop using the Eclipse filters and go to a simple self cut fiberous material (aquarium grade, of course) and forget the carbon? Is there a particular grade of material (small, fine, medium pore) that would be better than others if carbon wasn't going to be used?
I know I've asked about the carbon before - and folks said ditch it, but I am unclear what to use instead...
I do agree on those filters. They are not that great. *thumbsdown2* The cheapest I have found is 3 for about $5.50
The tank has been up for 6 months, the BioWheel looks dark. Haven't had ammonia or nitrites in months. Would it be safe to stop using the Eclipse filters and go to a simple self cut fiberous material (aquarium grade, of course) and forget the carbon? Is there a particular grade of material (small, fine, medium pore) that would be better than others if carbon wasn't going to be used?
I know I've asked about the carbon before - and folks said ditch it, but I am unclear what to use instead...
i wish i could find the web site i read this at,but i can't so don't quote me.i read once that activated carbon is good for removing heavy metals but doesn't work that great on most other pollutants that can get in your tank,like ammonia,detergents dissolved organic compounds etc... so carbon is best used to remove meds.and ohter stuff and would be exausted quickly and shouldn't be left in the system.