External Filters Users Reveiws

[CFC]

With all the external filter threads recently i thought it was time we had a pinned review thread.

Please only review external canister filters you own or have owned and please stick to the same format to make the thread easy to read through.




Filter: Eheim ecco 2231

Year of first use: 2002

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: 2007. Switched to air powered filtration

Likes: None

Dislikes: Self priming handle is fiddly and was broken after around a year. Handle also gets in the way when trying to remove the hoses from the filter body.


Filter: Fluval 303

Year of first use: 2003

Condition purchased in: Used but with new media, gasket and hoses

Year use ended and reason/s: 2004. After around 6 months the filter started to leak, was increasingly difficult to restart after maintainance and suffered from loss of flow even when the media was hardly dirty.

Likes: None

Dislikes: Double taps for disengaging hoses were stiff and difficult to use. Screw clamps on hose tails didn't do up tight and hoses could easily be pulled away from the filter.



Filter: Fluval 304

Year of first use: 2004

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: 2004. Filter leaked almost from day one, was difficult to restart after maintenance and clogged regularly. In the end i kicked the filter and broke it out of frustration.

Likes: None

Dislikes: Self priming system was a pain rather than any help and the corrugated hoses got blocked up with debris almost daily.



Filter: Eheim Classic 2215

Year of first use: 2005

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: 2007. Switched to air powered filtration.

Likes: Simple easy to use design. Little loss of flow even when the media was extremely dirty

Dislikes: No self priming.



Filter: Eheim Classic 2217

Year of first use: 2003

Condition purchased in: First one used but three others new since

Year use ended and reason/s: One still in use, others replaced by air powered filtration.

Likes: Easy simple design. Little loss of flow even when the media is extremely dirty.

Dislikes: No self priming



Filter: Rena XP3

Year of first use: 2006

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: Still in use

Likes: Self priming system actually works

Dislikes: Although the filter appears to have a good flow rate it doesn't seem to have enough "suck" and even tiny particles in the water avoid being pulled into the filter, I find it worrying that after 2 years the media still looks clean and I am sure that the water by-passes the media somehow. The hoses just push onto the hose tails with no screw clamps which in my opinion is a disaster waiting to happen should someone pull the filter or hoses for any reason.

 

[adamgreen240]

Filter: Fluval FX5

Year of first use: 2007

Condition purchased in: Used

Year use ended and reason/s: Still using filter

Likes: Nice flow rate, holds lots of media

Dislikes: sometimes is slightly noisy

Image

Filter: TetraTec EX1200

Year of first use: 2007

Condition purchased in: Used

Likes: Primes Very easily, holds a lot of media

Dislikes: Taps snapped easily, however tetra customer services were very helpfull

Image

Filter: Fluval 105 , and 305

Year of first use: 2006

Condition purchased in: New

Likes: The media layout

Dislikes: Very hard to prime

Image:

 

[SuperColey1]

Filter: TetraTec EX700

Year of first use: 2007

Condition purchased in: New (With European 2pin plug - changed myself to UK 3pin)

Likes: Primes Very easily, holds a lot of media, very quiet, easy to maintain, clean and resetup. Looks much better than the others.

Dislikes: The clear hoses and conns show algae up easily which is probs why other brands use green. Square 'U' bends alsmost impossible to clean. Replaced with glass equip now anyway

Image (stolen from previous poster. lol)

Andy

 

[rabbut]

Filter: Fluval 404

Year of first use: 2007

Condition purchased in: Used

Year use ended and reason/s: 2008, motor head failure

Likes: Nice flow rate, holds plenty of media, doesn't clogg too quickly

Dislikes: Noisy and often hard to restart after removing hoses from the tank and self primer broke weeks after being replaced. Became gradualy harder to prime as time went on. Tempramental pice of equipment at times.



Filter: Rena XP2

Year of first use: 2007

Condition purchased in: Used

Year use ended and reason/s: 2008, main seal ring failed (again....)

Likes: Almost silent running and always self primes.

Dislikes: Cloggs easily and has shallow media compartments, meaning its harder to fit all media into. It also has a poor main seal.



Filter; Tetratec EX1200

Year of first use: 2008

Condition purchased in; new

Year use ended and reason/s: still in use

Likes; first pump action primer that I have used that acctualy works. Numerous features to prevent channeling within the media, large media surface area.

Dislikes: inlet and outlet sets aren't the best quality...

 

[Maximumbob]

Filter: Eheim Thermofilter 2324

Year of first use: 2006

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: Sill in use

Likes: Means no filter or heaterstat in the tank. Excellent filtration. Silent. Media baskets easy to use, clean and remove. Good hose locking mechanism - simple and effective.

Dislikes: The only problem I had was when I dislodged a lot of silt in the tank. The filter got noisy. After following the instructions the impeller was easy located, removed, cleaned and re-inserted with no fuss, problem solved. Priming can be slightly difficult - but with practice you can become very slick at it.

 

[raptorrex]

Filter: Interpet Hydor Prime 30

Year of first use: 2006

Condition purchased in: Second Hand

Year use ended and reason/s: still in use

Likes: The smoked transparent body, self priming. wet dry bio wheel attachment. in pure filtration terms i can not fault it. cheap and readily avaliable parts,

Dislikes: takes some effort to remove the lid, only one section in the media basket, very touchy when reassembling after service, the ancillary parts/ taps are fiddly and a bit fragile, so the need for cheap readily avaliable parts.

sorry CFC i nicked your template.

 

[Azaezl]

Filter: Aqua Pro 2

Year of first use: 2007

Condition purchased in: Used

Year use ended and reason/s: Still in use

Likes: Very simple to use,completely silent,the media baskets have little handles which helps when removing for cleaning, plenty of space for media, self priming, rotating hose cocks.

Dislikes: None.

 

[DarkEntity]

Filter: Eheim Ecco 2232

Year of first use: 2005

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: Moved the 2236 to replace this filter.

Likes: Great budget Eheim Filter

Dislikes: you have to disconnect each hose separately to detach the top for filter cleaning, and always get a small amount of water poring out due to the 1-1.5" gap between the lock off and pump head.



Filter: Eheim Ecco 2236

Year of first use: 2006

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: Upgraded to and Ehiem Pro2 2028

Likes: Great budget Eheim Filter

Dislikes: you have to disconnect each hose separately to detach the top for filter cleaning, and always get a small amount of water poring out due to the 1-1.5" gap between the lock off and pump head.




Filter: Eheim Pro2 2028

Year of first use: 2007

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: Still In Use

Likes: great filter, high flow rate, loads of media space and solid as a rock build

Dislikes: Priming can be temperamental depending on the size of tank you have it attached to.

 

[jgray152]

Filter: Fluval 304

Year of first use: 2002

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: 2007. Switched to Fluval Fx5. 304 could not keep up on my 55 Mbuna tank for the 2 years it was being used on that tank.

Likes: Very reliable and worked great on my 29 gallon for many many years. Easy to clean and very quiet.
UPDATE: Recently put the 304 back on the 29 gallon and it still works fantastic.

Dislikes: Priming was a pita at time. Did not hold much media, but held enough for my 30 gallon. Only used one tray for biomedia the other two were used for fine particle seporation.

Filter: Aqua Clear 110

Year of first use: 2007

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: 2007. Used on my 29 gal but the impeller got damaged by the sandy substrate. Switched to XP4
UPDATE 3/20/08: Removed Rena Xp4 and put my fluval 304 back on. Xp4 will be moved to the 55 Gal.

Likes: 3 Stage filtration on a HOB filter. Very good water flow (400 +/- 50 GPH). Kept water crystal clear for a long time.

Dislikes: Has a little bypass when flow is to high and when it starts to become full of gunk. Other than that, none.

 

[fozziebear]

Filter: JBL Cristal Profi 500

Year of first use: 2008

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: havent yet and i hope i never do

likes: great design, sedement seperation chamber at the bottom of the filter, 3 huge baskets, great turnover, corner fastening and a really strong lock, swivel taps, flow control, includes all needed media

Dislikes: just one thing, they dont include the lilypipe fitting for the 500 model wheras they do for the other models.

 

[rdd1952]

Filter: Fluval 304 (no longer made, replaced by the 305)

Year of first use: 2005

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: Still in use, almost 3 years old.

Likes: They (2 of them) have been very reliable so far. Extremely quiet and easy to maintain.

Dislikes: Self priming was a pain, especially when you're laying under the cabinet with no room to move. Also the interior hoses rotted and had to be replaced.

 

[Egmel]

Filter: Eheim 2213 Classic

Year of first use: 2006

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: Still in use.

Likes: Classic design means there's less to go wrong, has been reliable and quiet since I first started using it. I find it relatively easy to prime even though there's no self priming method. Flow rates seem to stay high for ages and I usually end up cleaning it because I feel 'it's about time' to rather than because the flow rate has dropped off. Easy to get at all the parts for cleaning.

Dislikes: No media separation - solution, an old pair of tights to bag the media together. Sometimes gets air bubbles after cleaning which make it noisy - solution, turn off filter and rock the unit back and forward gently a few times before turning on again.

 

[Bastables]

Filter: Fluval 305

Year of first use:2007

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: 2007. leaking became progressively worse

Likes: DVD walkthrough was excellent. Forcing the water through the foam is a brillient bit of enginnering

Dislikes: Self priming is pretty much irrelevent as it is so fiddley that i just resorted sucking on the outlet to prime the filter Nosier than my eheim 2078 which pushes 1850lph.


Filter: Eheim Pro 3e 2078

Year of first use: 2007

Condition purchased in: New

year ended and reason/s: Still running it

Likes: Filter will tell you through beeping that flow is so restricted that now might be a good time to clean it. LED lights will always inform you if the filter is maintaining it's flow and will compensate up to a point to keep anywhere from 700 to 300l/h. Pre filter tray is brilliant water enters hits a wall and has to travel through a sponge before coming in contact with bio media. Excellent design. Self diagnostics means it will clear the air build up when initially starting up.

Dislikes: It's pretty heavy to move on to the deck for cleaning. Big filter holding 8 liters of media plus about 14.5 liters of water means it's a pig of a thing to move around relative to my old 305 or the Eheim 2215. Does not come with media.

Filter: Eheim classic 2215

Year of first use: 2008

Condition purchased in: New on special

Year ended and reasons: Still running it's only 4 months old.

Likes: simple, quiet, and easy to pack. Comes with media and double taps. Brought to replace my 305 and it has not disappointed

Dislikes: smaller diametre hoses means that i have to disconnect from the double taps so my hose brush can fit through.

 

[Colin_T]

Filter: Fluval 303

Year of first use: 1988

Condition purchased in: second hand and working with everything it needed.

Year use ended and reason/s: 1997, moved house and sold big tank so didn't need it anymore.

Likes: simple and easy to use and maintain.

Dislikes: can't get them anymore. The newer models have way too many features and aren't the same.

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Filter: Aquaclear 610 external hang on back (HOB)

Year of first use: 1986

Condition purchased in: new

Year use ended and reason/s: 2003, I killed it. It was on a pond and the water level dropped due to evaporation. We were having lots of power failures at the time (damn power company) and the pump couldn't restart after a power failure because the water level was too low. And being a somewhat lazy fishkeeper I didn't check on it and after a day of running dry it stopped. It actually happened a few times but the last time was just too much for it.

Likes: simple and easy to use and maintain. Reliable

Dislikes: can't say I have any dislikes. The new models are just as good as the old ones and are a bit easier to clean.
I spose the main drawback to them would be the fact you get a sponge, ceramic beads, carbon & ammogon with the new filter. The ammogon is pointless unless you have a quarantine tank to use it in, and I never use carbon. I usually buy a couple more sponges and have 3 sponges running in the filter, sometimes with the ceramic beads on top.

 

[sharpshark]

Filter: Hydor Prime 20

Year of first use: 2005

Condition purchased in: Used

Year use ended and reason/s: 2005, aquired a Fluval 304

Likes: Transparent body, very simplistic in design, easy to maintain, no nooks and crannies in the body.

Dislikes: Priming was difficult, and the motor was very noisy (this could be because it was 2nd hand) and had tendency to trap air in the body.


Filter: Fluval 304

Year of first use: 2005

Condition purchased in: Used

Year use ended and reason/s: 2008, became noisy, purchased Tetratec EX700

Likes: Efficient, easy to maintain, plenty of accessories available and relatively inexpensive.

Dislikes: Priming was a massive pain via the priming rod especially in tight confines of a cuboard, I always had to revert to manual priming, became very
very noisy, but again was second hand.


Filter: Tetratec EX700

Year of first use: 2008

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: In use

Likes: VERY quiet, the fish are noisier! Cheap, came with filter media, very easy to prime even in a cupboard.

Dislikes: Its already been said, the pipes and inlets/outlets are clear and not of the best quality.



Filter: Fluval FX5

Year of first use: 2006

Condition purchased in: New

Year use ended and reason/s: Still in use

Likes: Completely self priming, large media capacity and surface area, good quality fittings and accessories, shuts off automatically every day and lets
out any trapped air (if there is any), can be used to pump water in/out of the tank, has a convenient third bottom outlet, allowing a regular purge
of any trapped particles. Quite quiet, and relatively cheap to purchase.

Dislikes: Heavy when full, the lid fixing screws seem a little OTT when every other pump has clips, the bottom of the canister has alot of grooves to aid
water supply, but these are a magnet for debris (such as sand) and the size of the canister itself makes it more difficult to clean than a regular
sized filter.