emperor 400 filter questions

[Balloon Fish]

hey everyone, i've decided not to get a canister fitler cause i still have a emperor 400 in storage that i'm gonna use instead of the penguin 300 i have. My question is, does anyone have any comments about this, is it a bad filter or a good filter? has anyone ever had any problems with them?
Also is the spraybar driven biowheel better then the normal water flows under the biowheel?

 

[Cutlass]

Emperors are great filters. The spray bar doesn't help a whole lot because it ends up being just another piece to take apart and clean out. But it will keep a constant flow of water on the biowheel for constant turning. Penguins will do the same thing as long as you keep them clean and close to the max amount of water flowing through it.

 

[Balloon Fish]

cool, i just put the emperor in today and i remembered why i took it out in the first place cause of the noise and the spraybar and it didn't fit into the little area that was precut on my acrylic tank for the filter so i just cut the filter a little on both sides allowing it to fit snuggly into the opening and instead of shooting the spray bar in the direction of the wheel i shot it back so the water wouldnt spray outside towards my light and the wheel wouldn't go so fast, is it good for the biowheel to go so fast? and also when i stuck the old biowheel on my penguin 300 into the tank it sunk to the bottom of the tank is that alright?

 

[Cutlass]

Well with the cover over the filter, there shouldn't be any spray getting on other stuff. On a brand new filter, the wheel will spin pretty fast until it gets covered and heavy with bacteria. It should slow down. You can kind of moderate the wheel speed by adjusting the spray bar to barely hit it.

When you have an established bacterial colony like you probably did with the Penguin, the weight would probably sink it. You can dip it in some dechlorinated water to wash off the loose junk.