![]() A dial on the side of the filter adjusts how much flow comes from the underwater intake versus the surface skimmer. The surface skimmer will capture the water from just below the surface, where excreted fish oils accumulate, and deeper in the tank removing floating debris. The adjustable telescoping intake allows water to be taken from any level of the tank without the need to stop the filter or bother with spare parts.A heater can be attached to the side with an optional heater clip, allowing for better dispersal of heated water through the aquarium.The basket is designed with raised slots which catch detritus rather than allowing it to fall through back into the filter when flow is stopped.When this happens, the redirected water pushes up the blue maintenance monitor on the top of the filter, letting the aquarium keeper know that the filter media needs to be cleaned out. When this happens in the Tidal Filter, water is redirected around the filter and back into the aquarium through an outlet to the side. Over time, filtration media can become clogged with detritus and prevent water from flowing through.The pump is also insulated and silent, making it excellent for office or dining room aquariums, and has extremely low power consumption for the amount of output – the large Tidal 110 filter uses only 12 watts.A bottom-to-top flow ensures that water comes into contact will all filter media, and cannot go around or over filter media as with hang on back filters with a back-to-front flow. The pump pushes water up into the basket of the filter, entering through the bottom of the basket and being pushed out the top.Ventilation slots in the lid of the filter and aeration grooves in the outflow ensure that water returned to the tank is fully oxygenated and maximize gas exchange during filtration.So far as I can see, you can get a new impeller for the Tidal without too much trouble and no doubt a new motor if you ever needed one but perhaps not quite as easily as you can with AquaClears, though I’ve had no need so far to see about replacing parts for a Tidal. Given the general culture we have of ‘use/dispose/replace’ rather than Use, repair, keep using, I find the wide availability of parts for the ACs a huge plus. They are very serious, plain looking workhorses that almost never break down.Īnd if you drop the intake tube and it breaks or it finally fractures due to age degradation ( only the very oldest filter I have has done that) or the motor dies ( only one has done that, no idea how old it was, it was used) then all you need to buy is the new part. I got a lot of them used at auctions and at least one has to be 20 years old, it’s brown instead of smoky grey like they are now and others are easily more than 10 years old. I have a lot of them, multiples of every model from the 20s, 30s, 50s to the 70s, in fact, the only one I don’t have is the 110. I’ve never had an Aquaclear do something like that. I have to find my registration before Seachem can do whatever they’d do as it is still under warranty. It makes a racket every so often and no amount of cleaning the impeller or reseating the motor to make sure it’s properly in place seems to work. The other two Tidal models have an intake tube so they would not have this limitation. ![]() If you needed to lower the water level, say to compensate for higher temperatures if you were treating Ich, you can’t do that with the Tidal 35. Intake tubes extend well below the filter while the motor and impeller on the Tidals is actually in the water and since the Tidal 35 has no intake tube, there’s no wiggle room in terms of lowered water levels. The one thing about it that bugs me some is that it one must not allow the water level to drop much. It’s not as easy to switch up media in it though and I could wish the filter box itself was a bit wider back to front, but it’s a minor issue. I have a Tidal 35 and it has amazing adjustability. I’ve used an impeller from an AC30 in an AC50 successfully, to reduce the flow and one can baffle them if need be as well. However, you can meddle with them a bit, use an impeller from a smaller model on a larger model. ![]() No question about it though, the flow adjustment on an AquaClear is not as good as one might hope. For most of my tanks, I like the Aquaclear over any other brand I’ve used, primarily because they are so customizable in terms of the media one can use and they are so freaking reliable, plus it’s very easy to find parts when you need them, as impellers and impeller shafts do not last forever.
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