What's happened to Wisper?

[colesea]

Okay, maybe some of you more product buff folk will know.

Amazingly, the Whisper line of filters is slowly disappearing off my shelves. I caved in and bought myself a Whisper 30 two weeks ago for my 20 gallon high because I just didn't have the money for a Penguine, and the Penguine 330 would be too strong for the little babies I have. The other Penguines (125 and 170) did not have the long tubes I like to get the intake down to the bottom of the tank (tall tanks suck), nor did the Aqua Clears, but the Wisper 30 did. So I got the Wisper 30, the last box on the shelf, and wouldn't you know it, I get home, put it together, and I'm missing the impellor. It wasn't in the box. So much for loss prevention. Go figure, you get what you pay for.

That was two weeks ago, and none of the stores around me have gotten Wispers in at all. Maybe some 10's but none of the larger ones. Is the Wisper line being discontinued?
~~Colesea

 

[Matt Nace]

I saw them for sale at my LFS and a wal-mart. They are still sold online as well. Whisper.  

 

[ChazECJr]

Cole, I get the impression you are not crazy about Whisper.  Is it not one of the, uh, top of the line filters?  Not as good as a biowheel?

I kinda get that impression in part because of the prices I have seen for Whisper anyway...

Charlie

 

[colesea]

I'm not too crazy about Whispers for several reasons:

1) The bio-bag concept is a hassel and waste. While I enjoy DYI filter media because it is cheaper, Whisper has made a mockery of it by selling the concept. If I wanted to DYI my own filter media, I wouldn't spend the money on replacement cartriges, which is what the bio-bag is. Aqua-clear at least has the media all packaged for you, but the way it fits into the filter box can make replacing it a mess. Penguins are easy to replace, slide out-slide in, media cartridges with little mess or fuss, although I don't like the way they skimp on the carbon filler itself because they are dependent upon the bio-wheels. I've taken apart the Penguin cartridges and packed them the way I want to. They're still easy to change that way, and cheaper since I don't buy replacement cartridges, just filler carbon in bulk.  For customers who want an easy replace filter media concept, Marineland Penguins are best for that, and people are willing to pay for convienance.

2) You have to put it together. Whispers come with a bag of parts, which is another hassle, and 90% of the time customers don't put it together right, or the parts are missing (as in my case) because someone has opened the box. Aqua-clear and Penguins come with the impellor and motor already installed in a way that can't be broken, so the only part you really have to attach is the intake tube. Penguins are pretty much take out of the box and plug in set ups, and you can't argue with the ease of that, especially with the less technically inclined customer (like me).

3) Many people attempt to take Whispers apart to service them themselves, and break the damn thing, or when they put it together, it never works the same again. At least on a Penguin, you can't figure out how to take it apart because it is put together so well in the first place.

4) I don't like a clear filter box. The black box of the Penguin keeps algae from growing in it by blocking light. Not only that, I really don't want to see what is going on in my filter box, that's messy.  Can't say that for a Whisper or Aqua-Clear.

5) Whispers are reputed to have weak motors to begin with. Customers are always returning to the store asking for replacement parts for their Whispers. They burn out easily from what I'm told, and may have a lifespan of six to eight months. Since most people don't take care of their filters correctly anyway, why sell them something that's gonna break from neglect and mis-use? Penguins just seem to stand up better to abuse. I've had my 330 for almost a year now, no problems, even when I accidently ran it dry. Same with my System Six Eclipse.

6) The reports that they just don't seem to work as effiecently as most people want them too. You buy a Whisper ten for a ten gallon tank, it doesn't keep the tank as clean or pretty as a Penguine mini (although I always reccomend Penguine 125s). With Whisper you have to purchase one up for what the filter is rated for (ie a 30 for a 20 gallon tank) where as with as a Penguine 125 or Aqua-clear 150 could do a better job on the same volume of water.

7) You just can't top a biowheel. You just can't. Except maybe with a wet-dry trickle.

The only good thing about a Whisper is that the cost is cheap. But, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for.
~~Colesea

 

[Matt Nace]

When I was first into fish, Whisper was the thing to get. I had 3. The dual cartige one...which I still have and is still ok. I also has two #2 that are single cartrige.

These two are junk. Cole, you are correct on the week motor on this model IME. Both motors after a few years were trash. Loud , clunky, and took many tries of screwing around with the intake tube and impellor to get it to spin. There wasn't even any scale on the impellor.

Both were thrown out (because I was mad), and never restarted if there was a power outage.

The old cartiges had a black plastic part that I could wrap my own floss around, the new ones look like they try to prevent this.

What do you use carbon for btw? I stopped using it years ago. My tanks are still perfectly clear. I do keep some on hand for sucking up meds, but I see no use and it being an added expense.

Bio-wheels do work nice ...it helped me out of a cloudy tank when i had a very overstocked 55 gallon. It also is nice for HOBs because you can clean them well, throw out the floss, and not worry about losing the bulk of your good bacteria still on the wheel.

 

[colesea]

My system six is way overstocked and probably over water changed as well (2 gallons 2x a week) so I just replace the carbon on it once a month out of habit because I do worry slightly about an ammonia spike (although it hasn't happened yet). Since the system six is a horizontal filter, it makes it easier to keep the carbon in a homemade bag (a knee high wrapped around the orginal cartridge stuffed with bulk carbon).

The un-doctored cartridges I have in the 330 (29 gallon tank) are probably inactive, I just keep them in there as a prefilter for macroparticles. The cartridges are easier to run under the facucet than floss, and have yet to loose their "fluffiness" the way floss sometimes does after multiple washings. I still have some slight cloudiness to this tank (it's only been running two weeks) but I suspect it is just some fine microparticles left over from the descimation of some flake food (piggy goldfish) that a little accu-clear will get rid of nicely (I feed them flake from my fingers, sometimes they leave crumbs).

At work, all my freshwater systems are run carbonless. Instead of carbon (which you're right, in retail it is just an extra, unwanted expense), I have the media trays double-stocked on floss, which I change every other week (they do get very groddy really quickly in a retail situation, and when washed, they loose their filtering capacity because of the "fluffiness" loss). The "proper proceedure" wants me to use carbon for one week a month, for whatever reason I can't decern, but I just use that time to do water changes instead (since everybody but coporate seems to know that carbon does not suck out nitrate toxcitity, only water changes do). I still use carbon in the marine units to suck out whatever left over chlorine might be residue from the inefficient clorine scrubbers they give me (along with the cup of auqa plus daily, which really annoys me because it creates this strange parcipitate whenever I use it that makes the water cloudy for about 30 mins). I figured it can't hurt anything.
~~Colesea

 

[tabby360]

colesea you work at petsmart right.

 

[colesea]

I'd prefer to leave the company I work for unnamed. I'm a little worried that slandering my job-place on the web could cause my dismissal. I really enjoy my paycheck, ya know? Nor do I really want customers comming to my store going "hey, aren't you that chick on the web?"  Things I discuss on the web I don't usually advise to customers because, well, if you knew some of the people who walked into that place.... :
~~Colesea