When I started in the hobby about 3 years ago, I researched all the canisters available at the time. I was leaning toward the Eheim, but ended up buying the filstar. I chose the Filstar because at the time, it was the only canister filter with easy pull out baskets for easy cleaning. The Eheim didn't appear to have that, and it looked like a real pain in the butt to clean and for a beginner like me at the time. The Filstars are also self priming, extremely quiet, and I like the shut off feater if the motor starts to over heat. 3 years later, I have an XP2 and XP3 running on my 100 gal. tank with 2 very messy oscars, 1 jack dempsey, and 1 large common pleco. They've never let me down, and I would buy another one tomorrow.