Best Canister Filter?

[lyotim88]

so im in the midst of building a new tank and i've decided to go with a canister filter. I was looking at the Eheim Classic but i'm not positive. I would like the best machine out there. Can i get some opinions on this subject? Thanks

 

[rdd1952]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Eheims are considered by a large number of our mebers to be the best external filter available. I have 2 Fluvals on my 75 gallon and have been very satisfied with those but some consider them not to be as good as the Eheims.

 

[rabbut]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Eheims are considered by a large number of our mebers to be the best external filter available. I have 2 Fluvals on my 75 gallon and have been very satisfied with those but some consider them not to be as good as the Eheims.

People like me for example, who have had electric shocks off Fluval exturnal canisters, suffered high noise levels and less than great performance from the outset. I also have a mate whom has had one leak. Personally, having ran Eheim Ecco's, Fluvals, Tetratecs and Renas, The first two are the only ones I would leave on the shelf... Tetratec's and Rena's are goos filters IMO, though so-fay the seals of the Tetratec's have been better than Rena's...

The Ecco's are made under the Eheim brand name by JDA, one of Eheim's sister companies, and they are not a scratch upto the other Eheim canisters that are made by Eheim apparently... Some people have 30 year old Classics that are still going strong, so they are deffinately reliable. Relative to modern filters though, Classics (and Fluvals IMO) are harder to prime than most competitors...

In a 50g, I'd be considering;

Tetratec EX1200
Eheim Pro2 2028
Rena XP3

In that order...

You want a Classic model Eheim, but they aren't realy something that I would likely buy... If they still interest you, a 2217 would be best for your tank

All the best
Rabbut

 

[andywg]

Just regarding priming an Eheim classic; the easy way I found was to have the inlet down low in the tank and to have the Eheim detachable taps fitted on the inlet and outlet hose. You just turn the filter off, turn off and disconnect the hoses and then clean out the filter. Connect it all up and open up the valves and it should sort itself out nicely. I never had any issues with my Eheim classics when I used to use media and emptied them out (one remain in use but purely for water movement so has no media and hasn't been cleaned out in over two years).

On whether Fluvals are any good, I would like to add that I have had two fail, CFC has had at least one fail (all wet carpet fails) and my respected lfs refuses to stock Fluval cannisters due to their poor reliability.

 

[8inary]

ive been running a couple of fluval fx5 since they first came out. i have never had a single issue with them, they are monster filters and do the job better then any eheim at removing debris from a tank. i do however appreciate theres more to a filter than just clearing up debris.

i have many friends with tanks, who swapped out their eheims for a fx5, and they have never looked back, they also have had no issues at all with their filters.

i do however think, if money is no issue, then look around and see whats out there, i dont think overall eheim filters would win the day compared to other makes.

 

[lyotim88]

thanks for the input everyone

 

[jgray152]

i have many friends with tanks, who swapped out their eheims for a fx5, and they have never looked back, they also have had no issues at all with their filters.

Fx5 all day long.

 

[T1KARMANN]

for tanks bigger than 55g 2080 all day long

 

[markandhisfish]

eheim pro2 2028 i run 1 its the nuts.

 

[lyotim88]

so i think im going with the eheim 2217 since i found it for $140 shipped. i plan on putting 12 or 13 Lake Malawi Cichlids in my 55g tank, will this be sufficient?

 

[rabbut]

Should cope with that waste load fine, but I though Malawi tanks were always more heavily stocked than that

 

[TropicDan]

Should cope with that waste load fine, but I though Malawi tanks were always more heavily stocked than that

i read that to see their true nature it's better not to heavily stock. Is this true? im going to make plenty of rockwork

Should cope with that waste load fine, but I though Malawi tanks were always more heavily stocked than that

i read that to see their true nature it's better not to heavily stock. Is this true? im going to make plenty of rockwork

 

[lyotim88]

sorry, that last reply by tropicdan was supposed to be under my name

 

[8inary]

running fx5 on my near 1000ltr tank, does the job perfectly

 

[rabbut]

Malawis in captivity need to be heavily stocked to spread agression, or they will likely kill each other Lightly stocking a Malawi tank would lead to disaster sooner or later I believe, but I'm not a Malawi keeper...