Emperor 400

[ambushman2j]

I Have decided that all marineland filters are complete and utter crap, after turfing my magnum 350 pro system for poor performance and too much trouble and cost, I picked up a emperor 400 and I am very dissappointed in it's effectiveness and it's maintanence is a pain, I have never used a filter harder to start back up after a waterchange then this peice of junk.

[dpatte]

i prefer my marineland filters. and i seem to have no problems with them at all, though I admit the HOT 350 is a pain to clean&start.

I have a 350 like yours and i think its great. did you sell yours?

[PDP]

hahahaha i can just see drew getting all huffy while he trys to clean it

I like fluvals but i hear good things about ehiem??

[saltydog]

I could not disagree with you more, Drew!

"very dissappointed in it's effectiveness"- Its biological filtration is peerless. If you are referring to mechanical filtration of detritus, etc, there are better filters but perhaps your filter cartridges are becoming clogged. This will result in drastically reduced water flow. Try cleaning them more often, for instance once a week. If this seems like a lot take into account how easy this can be. Read on.

"it's maintanence is a pain"- Regular maintenance (ie. not cleaning the impeller or interior of spray bars) can be done 'on the fly'. Leave filter running & simply pull out the filter cartridges & put them into a container to contain water drip. Then either rinse them under a sink sprayer (you don't have to worry about killing bacteria in chlorinated water because most of the bacteria resides on the bio-wheel) or shake them well at different angles in a pail of aquarium water if you are also performing a water change. Reinstall. If biowheels are not turning you can unplug clogged holes in spray bars with a tooth-pick (or wooden kebob skewer, my preference). Again, this may be done 'on the fly' while the filter is in operation.

"I have never used a filter harder to start back up after a waterchange then this piece of junk."- If you only perform 30% water changes you can leave the filter running throughout the water change process. However, to restart an Emperor 400 (or 280) which has lost suction I have learned to twist the spray bars so that the holes point downward into the filter box. Then I add water from the tank by means of a small plastic container until water begins running out of the filter box & back into the tank. After about 20-30 seconds of operation the filter will have reprimed. As soon as the sucking & gurgling sounds have subsided I then twist the spray bars back so that the holes are facing the top of the biowheel once again. You can perform this entire operation with the filter running if you wish.

Lastly, ensure that the flow-control lever is pulled up all the way. The down position is for reduced flow during feeding or when in use with small tanks.

Hope this helps, Drew.

[artw]

I agree with Roger.

[PDP]

art man can you please answer me i have pmed you twice thank you

[artw]

I have no new messages...

[PDP]

wierd i keep sending them maybe its not working

ok i'll do it here then *waits for posting police after * hehe

art we talked about some wild caughts in super pet if you could posta pic of them and show me so i can see them i have money to spend on them

here just e-mail me them

[ambushman2j]

I am dissappointed with it's effectiveness because it doesn't get the job done, I have seen crystal clear tanks, my 50 is crystal clear with the fluval and my 77 WAS crystal clear when the 350 pro system was actually working, but this emperor has it very grungy..

I tried to clean the impeller last night and found no way to actually get to it, is there a way to remove it from the filter?.. and the filter media itself is only 3 days old so that cannot be it.  

I always perform a 45% waterchange to induce spawning in my cichlids, since it always shuts itself down during my waterchange I decided I might as well unplug it to begin with this time, so when I was nice and full back up again, I plugged it back in and nothing.  horrible noise, so I did what you suggested with the turning the spray bar back and filling it with a cup and nothing, the water level would just go back down as fast as I would fill it.  eventually I had to take a whole segment of my intake filter off so the intake strainer was closer to the filter, this eventually worked, but I shouldn't have to sacrifice the bottom half of my tank just to make this filter work.

Filters are like cars, you buy them to suit your lifestyle and marineland filters are just too much maintenance for my lifestyle I am too busy to be having to do all this stuff weekly, my fluval filter I have maintenanced maybe twice in 1 1/2 years and it still works great, I still have crystal clear water, this is a good filter for me.

personally I am glad they have discontinued the emperor 400

David, yes..I sold the mag 350 about a month ago

[artw]

huh?
they have discontinued the E400?

what are they replacing it with?

[Marc]

Drew, maybe it's just SuperPet that stopped carrying it?

The Marineland website still lists it as one of their current products.
Marineland - Emperor Filter

Personnally I like the Emperor 400 and don't find it difficult to clean the impeller.  Check out the user's manual for instructions about how to get at it.

Marc

[saltydog]

How to remove the impeller for cleaning is covered in the Emperor 400 manual. Perhaps, you bought this filter used & did not receive one. In any case, you have to remove both spray bars first. These are locked in by light grey locking rings on each side of the outside of the filter (remember exactly how these were attached for reassembly). Once one has the spray bars out one might as well clean the inside of them with the brush provided (or a cotton swab). Now you can remove the impeller assembly by lifting it up out of the filter box.

I understand why you do not clean your canister filters often. It is a messy & time-consuming operation. (Not to mention that mouth-full of tank water that may be the result of having to reestablish the siphon if one does not operate the shut-off valves correctly when disconnecting the filter from the hoses!) When one uses a canister filter that is cleaned every nine months all of the grunge to which you are referring is trapped in the canister where it eventually decomposes. It is in contact with the tank water for this entire period of time. In the case of an Emperor filter the grunge which collects on the filter screens may be readily removed without any disassembly & without shutting the filter off. Why not give these filter screens a quick cleaning every time you do a water change? Grunge which is removed in this way is 'out of the system' & is no longer in contact with your tank water. Maybe then you could get by with 30% water changes (perhaps less often) so you would not have to shut down the filter at this time? Something to think about.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to swap your Emperor 400 for a Fluval canister.

[artw]

hmm.  it always helps if us aquarists read the instruction manuals.

[ambushman2j]

Well, I don't think it's just superpet as the bergam rep is the one who told me it was discontinued, being an entity outside superpet he would deal with all the stores who carry marineland products not just us.

what size fluval canister would you be willing to trade..I definately might be interested in that swap.

I do 40-50% waterchange regardless of the need, the fresh water almost ALWAYS induces my cichlids into spawning.