I have a 29 gal. freshwater tank, and an Aqua-tech 20-40 Filter that I bought at Walmart, and I wanted to offer a review on it.

The Aqua-Tech in general is a functional, simple, hang on back filter. Not much different in construction from the Aqua-Clear. There is not a lot to it.

I have two caveats about it:

1. The big one was I really don't like their carbon cartridges. They are difficult to take in and out, get seated properly, and the biofloss holding the carbon rocks is sewed to the back of the plastic cartridge so you can't take it apart. They are more expensive, more wasteful, and more of a hassle because you can't reuse them.

However, I also have a Tetra Whisper 20 that uses the Large Bio-Bag cartridges, and you can take them apart, change the carbon, and reuse them multiple times. They fit perfectly in the Aquatech without monkey-wrenching, and are much easier to take in and out. So that solved that problem.

2. My other caveat was that the intake tube for the Aquatech is all one piece except for the end cage. I got a bit of a clog in it the other day from plant material, and it was a pain to get cleaned out because I couldn't take it apart. Thankfully the clog wasn't huge and I managed to get it pushed out by running water through it.

As I have not had this unit long, I can't comment on motor life length. All in all though, with using Bio-Bags instead of the Aqua-Tech cartridges, I'm quite satisfied with it's performance and consider it a good buy for folks on a budget.

Ive always liked the marineland biowheels for HOBs. The cartridges are the same construct as the aquatech, what i do is i take a knife cut a slit in the top of the floss, change the carbon then sew it back up with like 3 or 4 cloth stitches. You can mush the biofloss together so its really easy to sew.