Canister Filter - Which one to pick???

B

bristlenosekarl

Catfish Rock!
Oct 15, 2006
41
0
6
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Mississauga, Canada
Hey everyone,
I'm new to this forum, as well fairly new to the fish aquarium world. For the last 18 months I was keeping a very small 6L tank stocked with a few swordtails, guppy's and bristlenose's at work. This kept me from going insane during those tough days at work!!!

I then managed to pick myself up a 300L tank from a friend a few months ago and have since started to stock my tank after my cycling.

When I got the tank it came with a Fluval 4 Plus internal filter, which has actually worked quite great for me, but more designed for up to 215L tanks (so the specs say). I would like purchase a canister filter as I've heard such good things about them.

Can anyone give me some good advise on canister filters for a 300L tank. Different LFS give me so many different opinions on filters, and I find it hard to know where to look or which one to buy.

I know Eheim are the best, but I've also heard that they are a bit difficult to clean, is this false misleading info that the LFS guy told me to buy his filter instead, he mentioned Sera which he thinks are good.

Also...anyone living in australia with advice would be great...that way I know what's more readily available here.

Cheers
 
If you can swing it as far as the money goes, I would go with the eheim filter. I have them on two of my aquariums and I cannot say anything bad about them. They are as far as I know some of the best canister filters on the market today. They are extremely efficient and super quiet. When I say quiet, I mean silent. I virtually do not even hear these filters running. If you do not want to go with an eheim, I hear that the filster xp2 or the filster xp3 are also very good canister filters even though I have never used one.

Hope this helps.

Marinemom
 
eheims are definately regarded as the best canisters by the majority of aquarium keepers, but in my opinion, you get better bio-filtration with a bio-wheel set-up, if your set on a canister filter, i'd highly recommend running it through a bio-wheel or if you're flexible, i'd go with a bio-wheel filter like the emperor series
 
I just bought an Eheim pro II and i must say, so far no complaints at all. Right now it's running on my 30 gallon to "pre-seed" with bacteria but in a couple weeks its going on my new 125 gallon. I'm AMAZED at how quiet it is, the whisper 30 I have running on my 7.5 gallon is MUCH louder. Like i said, i havn't had this filter long, but first impressions are very positive.
 
If money is an issue I'd look into either a fluval 405 or rena xp-3 for that size aquarium. I've never had problems with my fluval and I've heard enough good things about the rena filters to say they are good also. If money isn't an issue then you can't really go wrong by buying a eheim. If you do decide to go ahead and spend the money on an eheim you should look at the 2026 or 2028 or maybe look into the thermo filters (built in heaters) 2126 or 2128. I can't comment on Sera filters as they don't have them here. Avoid odysea and jebo filters as they are generally knock offs of eheim filters made from cheaper materials and with inferior pumps.

Cleaning a cannister filter shouldn't be a problem unless you are overstocked with fish that are known to be messy. Even then it shouldn't be a problem, but it will have to be done more often. To be honest with my light fish load I only open my filter once every 6 months. My sponges are currently about 3 years old and holding up fine, but I do change about 1/3 of the bio media every 6 months.
 
Yeah that's great. I was actually looking at the Eheim 2028 or 2128, as well as the Fluval 405. Does your fluval make much noise?
Thanks for all the advise so far. At the moment I've got ich, so I'm in the middle of treating that, on the 3rd day of medication, so we'll see how that goes.
 
There isn't any solid proof that exists saying bio-wheels are best.
 
Actually I perfer the canister filteration over the bio-wheels. Everything is tucked away under the cabinet in the stand which gives you more room inside the tank and hides a lot of the look of the filters. This on top of the fact that if you buy a decent canister filteration system they are real workhorses and super quiet, especially if you buy an eheim. I have eheim filters going on two of my aquariums and they are super silent.

Marinemom
 
i can barely tell my fluval 405s are even on, with the cabinet open and my head right next to it. they are a good step up from rena filstars and are very customizable as far as media goes. if you want the biological of a bio-wheel the fluval will save space on the back of the tank to get the bio-pro setups, just a biowheel (or two) run by a powerhead. that way you get the biological of the biowheels and the fluvals, plus the other media of the fluval.
 
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