anyone use a Penn Plax cascade internal?

Kuhlifan

AC Members
Mar 28, 2007
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Ohio
I'm looking for a small, cheap powered internal filter. Anyone here have first-hand experience with these?
 
yes I do. I use the large Cascade 600's on my goldfish tanks. I love them. Cheap and workhorse like.
 
I use the 300. Works well, creates a pretty strong current, includes a spraybar.

The only thing is - and I'm not sure if this is just the 300, or if it applies to all models - the water isn't forced through the sponge, and can just completely bypass it and go through only the carbon.
 
Maybe I'll get a photo of it later. It's that tube that runs through the center of casing, which the sponge "wraps" around. Instead of going through the sponge, the water can just simply go up the tube and skip it altogether.
 
Here's the whole bypass thing.. not counting the motor housing, the filter body has two sections - a bottom one, which contains a sponge. The bottom part attaches to a smaller top section, which contains a refillable cartridge. And the top section snaps onto the motor housing.

This is the bottom section. As you can see, there's the tube in the middle, which allows the water to just skip going through the sponge altogether.

820294b6.jpg


And this is both filter sections attached together. The top contains a refillable cartridge which contains carbon by default. It comes directly before the impeller, and the water is forced to go through the cartridge.

3f64e72b.jpg
 
Hmm I never noticed that on mine! Thanks for the heads up, this looks like it could easily be remedied by stuffing some floss or sponge down inside
 
I don't think the 600's are configured exactly the same. I will look at it when I rinse it tomorrow.
 
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