I agree,research the pros and cons of them all,on many different sites.Write down the good and bad and compare,and pick which one you like the best!

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http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

I had an eheim 2213 once because I was told eheims are the best. They may be, but I found the directions for maintenance and changing media daunting. (When you start to talk about percentages of this or that, I'm lost). I switched to Rena Filstar xp 3 on my 75 g about four years ago and am quite happy with the ease of cleaning, etc. The quick release mechanism plus separate baskets for each filter medium was just what I wanted. Also, the spray bar of the xp3 can be adjusted to spray at various strengths, not so with the eheim I had.

Sorry to all you eheim lovers!

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10g lightly planted with vals, crypts, anubias and one female betta.

75g lightly planted with 8 neon tetras, 7 black-skirt tetras, 7 Swartz' cories, 1 Bolivian ram, dozens of rcs, hundreds of mts, and four assassin snails.

i am curious what was difficult about the media changes? the eheim comes with shut off valves for both input and output tubes making it easy to disconnect and take the canister out easily...

also for the spray bar i found mine was too strong so i simply drilled a few more holes in the bar with a drill and it solved the problem

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Tank
125g african cichlids making it work
75g rimless Reef in progress

I can tell you are one of those people who intuitively 'just know' when it comes to mechanical type stuff. The directions for the eheim I had were four pages long and suggested each medium be a percentage of the other medium. Once you introduce math into the equation, I'm done. I seem to remember there were complicated charts too. Oh yes, and those german words for each medium that are impossible to spell much less say out loud. Sure, ehiems come with a type of shut off valve but the Rena xp line has a simple 'lift' and both tubes detach and shut off at one time.

Drilling holes? I am strictly a 'plug n play' type of person and the Rena XP line was made for people like me!

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10g lightly planted with vals, crypts, anubias and one female betta.

75g lightly planted with 8 neon tetras, 7 black-skirt tetras, 7 Swartz' cories, 1 Bolivian ram, dozens of rcs, hundreds of mts, and four assassin snails.

plug and play haha very good.

never tried the rena and im not bashing it at all, i guess filters always boil down to personal preference

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Tank
125g african cichlids making it work
75g rimless Reef in progress

I have the Cascade 1000 on my 90 gallon for over a year and it is a awesome filter. It runs absolutely quiet and is not hard to service. I thought it was priced fair and never had any problems with leaks or parts breaking.

i love my marineland c360... easy to clean and maintain... comes with a DVD (instructional)
quiet as hell!! nice looking...

Cascade Canisters are some of the best... I've had one for over 4 years and hasn't shown any problems. Just make sure you're on top with the water changes and media changes.. or else your water chemistry will be a disaster

I am also looking for a filter. I just bought my son a new aquarium and I want to have it up and running today by the time he gets off of school. It's his birthday, FYI. I need to run out and get a filter but wanted to check online for some recommendations and also wanted to know if I needed to get water filters with it, as well. I am a little clueless. While I was looking at the pet store a man offered me some advice and said that refrigerator water filter would also do the trick. Is that the right kind that I would need? and how do they fit into the filter? Ah. SO confused!

I have never heard of anyone using refrigerator filters for a fish tank,though I am sure stranger things have happened.That being said you can choose from Hand on back or canisters or internals,depending on tank size and stocking load.

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http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

Canister filters are the best but they can be a bit pricey. If you get a hang on back filter, they are horrible, you will regret it. They always keep fish tanks cloudy. Cascade canisters won't disappoint u. I guarantee it. If u got a 20 gallon tank, get a bf-700 cascade. It's a little strong but it keeps water crystal clear and 0 on all levels due to its circulation of the bacteria and it also stores a great amount of bacteria inside of it if u get those ceramic rings

Most people say to get a "sump" but if ur tank is smaller than 30 g I wouldn't recommend a sump

This has been an interesting thread to read today. I set up a 75 gallon tank last summer and bought a Magnum 350, my first canister filter. It was a bit difficult to set up - lots of measuring and cutting and lots of parts to figure out where they go, but since I didn't have any experience with canister filters I figured this was the norm.

I have to say it did a wonderful job of keeping my tank crystal clear and giving me good water chemistry. The first medium change was a little messy but I figured I would learn as I went. The next was messier and then I started having problems. Over the past few months it seems to stop working. The pump would still be running but no water was being exchanged. The first couple of times I blamed it on the water evaporating and falling below the ridiculously high discharge tube output. Hubby and I did some reconfiguring to lower the discharge tube and thought everything was fine but it stopped working again recently. I do have one extremely large, messy gold fish (long story of a baby gold fish from a fair who has long out lived his welcome) that is taxing my ecosystem.

I don't know whether to continue to play with the magnum or chuck it in favor of a new canister. When I compare gph, the Magnum wins hands down, of course that doesn't count if it's not working at all. Has anyone had any experience with the underwater filters? I saw a selection of Fluval underwater filters at a regional pet store today and it peaked my interest.

If anyone has any suggestions on why my pump stops pumping, I would appreciate it.

Dulcie

I like my penn plax. have a 1200 (purchased used, only ~ 165gph instead of 300+) Purchased new 1000 and it's gph is 240 vs 265 advertized (much better) Seems to be doing the job.



I won't buy/mess with fluvals anymore.

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100 Dirt + Stuff. To be Angel baby tank.
37 Planted. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/pla...nal-20774.html
29 Tall community tank. 5+ Years up and running.
15 Soon to be RCS tank.

I have a Marineland Magnum 350 (thanks majerah1!), and I love it to death. The media changes are easy, and the filter runs quietly and very smoothly. I don't need to change the media but once every 4-6 months (I don't use carbon). I also find it fairly effortless to change the media - lift the outlet clear of the water in your tank, then the inlet, and let the canister drain about halfway then turn off (removing the inlet and outlet from the tank prevents back-siphoning down into the canister).

In addition, I see used Magnum 350s selling on my classifieds for $50 or less (I'm buying another one for $25 tomorrow). Not sure if that's indicative of the quality, but I think it's a steal.

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

Everyone certainly seems to have their favorites in regards to filters.
I am now kind of leaning toward a H.O.T. Magnum. I may also try to keep my Whisper 60 but use ceramic rings in it. I am just leery of leaks. Doe anyone know how much clearance I need between the tank & the wall for this type of filter?

Deb

Don't do a magnum, they are a joke. I wouldn't use one if you gave it to me. Just get a Fluval and be done.

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Biologist-Professional Aquarium Care-Published Author (Aquarium Fish International Magazine)

Stocking has NOTHING to do with tank volume, it is all about water changes.

I love my Eheim, but if something does break the parts are pricey and hard to find; ( I broke my ceramic impeller rod, i ordered a replacement but super glued the other back together until it arrived, the super glue worked so well I just left it alone and now I have a back up.) I love the quality of it and I trust it not to leak.

I too am interested in the canister filters I never had one but I am thinking that is the way to go on my 90 gal tank I am working on. My biggest fear is a leak, that's really it, but reading this worries me I see a lot of leaking issues here and looking at reviews of canisters. The only thing is I know usually people are more likely to post with problems before they post of success.

I thought about that too before I purchased one, my choice to get one that was NOT made in China.

I too have a API Rena XP2 on my 35 gallon hex. It is very quiet and comes with spray bar or power head type ends. The intake has extensions it can be easily configured for any tank style. The thing I like best about it is it does not loose its prime during power shutoff or outages. In fact, when you clean the canister, the intake and outflow hoses have built in check valves with quick disconnects, you don't need to prime your filter if you disconnext to clean it saving you time. The baskets allow you to put in all different kinds of media. The spray bar is black, it becomes almost invisible in the tank and does not show algae or buildup. The flow rate on the API's impressed me, the Rena XP1 has a flow rate of 250gph. For a heavily planted 55, the XP2 would be fine.