My Canister Debacle

[Arbee]

When I got my 75 gallon I bought a Filstar XP-M  had good reviews...blah blah blah.  Well it leaks, called the customer service number and it took me 36 hours to get a return.  I did what the guy told me, and guess what!!!   It's still leaking from the power cord from water in the motor housing.  So today I am going to return it, the manager where I bought said he would switch it out and I could keep my media.  Which is fantastic, but do I want another Filstar when they have such crap customer service?    
 
Do I get the Fulval an just cut my losses?
 
Do I tell my husband that I changed my mind and he needs to set up a sump....well theres another topic I know way too little about.
 
End goal with this tank is heavily planted
 
Any opinions are welcome
 

 

 

 

[SamB]

Setting up a sump will require you to drill your tank I would stick with a canister which should give you awesome results!

 

[Arbee]

Nope, don't want to do that.  Canister it is!!!
 
Thanks

 

[Ruskull]

I'm running (2) Rena Filstar filters on 2 separate tanks of mine and I have nothing but compliments for them & their customer service.  I do know they recently switched ownership or something along those lines so you may have caught them between.  I run an XP2 & a XP3, which are now known as XPM & XPL.  I bought the XP3 first, used on craigslist, and the XP2 brand new from Amazon.

Every brand has a lemon every now and then, that's probably what you ended up with.  

 

[Arbee]

I hope that is the case!

 

[Arbee]

I returned the filter yesterday, so far so good.  No leaks!!!

 

[Ruskull]

Good news!  

 

[Arbee]

Ruskull do you have trouble with your Rena canister sucking air?  The new one is sucking a ton of it, at about 45 sec intervals.  It is full and I primed it correctly.  Good news is, its still not leaking!!

 

[Ruskull]

There are a few videos on Youtube of a trick to get all the air out.  It involves priming normally & then releasing one latch just enough to make sure the water inside the canister is completely full, as in no waterline.  The case of the filter is translucent so it's pretty easy to see if there's a waterline.  I've only had this issue with the Rena XP3 which I bought used on craigslist.  I haven't had that problem since.
 
You def. don't want you filter running long term that way.
 
Here's one of the videos, you can skip to about the 5:00 mark to save time:
 
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSpBSM23YHM

 

[Arbee]

Thank you!

 

[Ruskull]

No problem!