Buying Used Canister Filters?

I have my canister in a baking dish. It's not going to catch a huge amount of water, but if someone's home, it'll at least buy time. You can also buy new hoses, just to make sure the fits are tighter. Other than that, I don't know what you should check. If cost is a factor, why not try Sun Sun HW 304 or AquaTop CF500UV? They're in the neighborhood of $120, new. They may not be as good as an FX 5, but you can get two, or one and an AC 110. My CF400UV needs to be opened up and filter media cleaned about once every 6-8 weeks, which, while more frequent than I hear people may do with the FX5, isn't too bad, and the sponges are *filthy* when I clean them.

I bought my fluval fx5 used off of eBay. When you buy one, male sure that the clamps aren't broken/ cracked/missing at all. Mine came with about 5 clamps that had cracks in them, I have already had to replace 2 so far. If one clamp is broken or missing, the canister will leak when it powers off/turned off. Also make sure that the O-ring is in good condition. I would just keep a close eye on it after installing for a few days.

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here's a tip.. put your canister filter in a rubbermaid tub under the stand...I did for my mag 350 which for some reason started leaking.. I reseated the hoses and it stopped..I'm replacing it with a sunsun 302 since the tank has 2 filters on it.

I have never had a canister filter leak. I am using Eheim's and Sun Sun's. If buying one used, I would want to see it working before buying it. With that said, I have sold several filters, that did not leak and worked fine, and no one asked to see them running. So go figure.

I emailed Aquatop's customer service, got a response in 4 hours. Yeah, it took over a week to resolve the issue, but that was mostly delays on my end (having to go home and try troubleshooting), because I always got a response within a couple of hours, after the initial email. Frankly, I'm happy with mine. I don't know if I'd be happier with a more costly canister (this is my first) but I'd have to be a *lot* happier to be happy with the difference in cost. Oh, and the Marineland C-360 seems to be, aside from color and the lack of a UV filter, the *exact* same filter in every dimension, size of attachments, clamp, clip, and shape, the Aquatop CF400UV. I mean it's so similar, that I can use C-360 media without a hitch. Even some replacement parts seem to be the same size. I'm of the opinion that the filters are made in the same factories, just some use gray plastic, and some white, and that the lack of UV filter on the Marineland brand is just to make it not *too* apparent that they're charging more for the more familiar name.

user_name said:

how hard was it to replace the clamps?


Took everyone's advice, and I'm headed to walmart now to try and find a rubbermaid for my current filter. It's not neccessarily that I think it WILL leak, it's just the possibility which scares the crap out of me.

I'm going to check out a couple used FX5s and see if they work (before buying them), butif that doesnt work out I'm going to bite the bullet and buy a new marineland 530. Aquatop seems relatively cheap and I've read that their customer service can be crap so unless I can snag a fx5 that's my best bet.

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The clamps are super easy to replace, they kind of pop into place and you screw them down. You can find replacement parts online.

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