Canister Filter Offerings?

[rob taft]

I had a OASE Biomaster 350 Thermo on a 50 gallon reef tank for 2 years. It worked flawlessly. I liked the built in but removable heater as well as the pre-filter. It was easy to maintain and very quiet. Funny thing, I also owned a similarly aged Rena Filstar on my 20 gallon quarantine tank and the same thing happened. The first generation of that filter was well made. I got my monies worth out of that filter. I replaced it with a Fluval and that filter lasted year. I recommend you check out the Oase.

 

[Lovergasoline]

Just so you Know Eheim has a customer support number 888 893 4346 call them and speak with them.They are based in Canada and are serving North America. They have ALWAYS been very helpful and they have all replacements should you need parts. Good luck.

Good to know. I do think the Eheim Classic will be too austere for non-aquarium folks to manage easily vs. a more feature packed and convenience oriented design.

 

[Lovergasoline]

We have two fluval 307, one for a 40 gallon FOWLR salt and one for the large fresh.

They both cracked in the exact same area, right around the gasket. However, both were quick to be sent replacements after just a bit of blaming us for not following the directions properly. Use their name brand lubricant, do NOT follow the directions that claim you can use vegetable oil.

We think it was a bad batch, as the replacements work perfectly. Having two meant that, when the saltwater cracked, we took the replacement part from the freshwater, as it can survive with water changes and a sponge filter for a few days.

They've been very easy to clean, and provide a great home for both beneficial bacteria, and bristleworms. So many bristleworms...

Oh dear ... cracks at the gasket sound like a nightmare. I'll keep you tip in mind regarding the use of veggie oil. Recently looking at the Rena website at their spare parts there's a mention of using petroleum jelly on the main gasket; many other aquaria sources warn against the use of petroleum jelly o-rings, esp. on rubber, while others suggest it's ok for silicon o-rings.

 

[Lovergasoline]

I had a OASE Biomaster 350 Thermo on a 50 gallon reef tank for 2 years. It worked flawlessly. I liked the built in but removable heater as well as the pre-filter. It was easy to maintain and very quiet. Funny thing, I also owned a similarly aged Rena Filstar on my 20 gallon quarantine tank and the same thing happened. The first generation of that filter was well made. I got my monies worth out of that filter. I replaced it with a Fluval and that filter lasted year. I recommend you check out the Oase.

That's timely feedback as I'm just about to pull the trigger on the Oase Biomaster 600. At the moment it costs $228 on Amazon's Oase store, the same as other name brand canister filters of the same capacity, for ex. the Fluval 407; and it's cheaper than the FX series. One feature that's a nice concept (the removable Pre-filter) is also going to present a challenge as removing it is going to be difficult. The pre-filter tube looks to be about 18-19" tall (similar to the height of the filter) but my cabinet has an interior height of only 26.5" so to service the pre-filter will likely require the entire filter to be removed (and not merely tilted as it seems water could spill from the pre-filter area when tilted). That will complicate servicing (esp. for me as occasionally I'll have non-aquarium friends - likely with low mechanical aptitude - looking after my turtle whenever I'm away. Removing/replacing the tank weekly just introduces another variable for something to go wrong . It appears that Oase has addressed this issue in their Euro cabinets as they feature a sliding base for filter maintenance (as demonstrated in video below):





Rob, do you recall if the Biomaster in/out valves rotate independently of each other (like the Rena Filter) or are they in a fixed orientation to each other on the module they're mounted on? My cabinet is built-in and has a top larger than the aquarium, with in/out hoses exiting the cabinet's top at opposite sides of the tank: independently swiveling valve would allow easier hose routing in the limited cabinet space.

In general does routing input/output hoses in a loop and/or routing hoses beneath the level of the filter in/out valves have an impact on filter function?



[My Rena FIlstar - of 17 years and the only filter I've owned or operated - needs a major overhaul. Rather than lay out a significant sum to restore a discontinued unit, I think it's a good time to retire it and put the money towards a new filter.
[It's now also leaking at the intake cutoff valve/ball joint (I disassembled and looked at the o-ring which still feels pliable), it needs a new canister due to broken clip attachment point ($82ish shipped), likely needs new head cover gasket, aforementioned ball joint cutoff valve gaskets, the hoses have hardened and could use replacement, and it operates with a lowered water level and with severely reduced gph output].

 

[rob taft]

I had the same issue with the height and pre-filter removal. I made my own sliding bed with a couple of desk sliding keyboard rails mounted upside down on the base of the cabinet with a cut sheet of plywood between the two rails.

The hose connections rotate independently of each other. As far as hoses go, My hoses actually fell below at the filter and I had no problems. I also routed the output of the filter through a 15 watt Aqua UV . That said, I used an overflow box on this setup so gravity was assisting.

 

[Lovergasoline]

Thanks for the all the info ... I'll need to fashion some sort of sliding tray with a bucket to place the filter in ... although available height in that cabinet is already limited.

 

[rob taft]

I adapted the rails in the below and used a plastic tray for the filter to sit in. You can disconnect the hoses from the cannister without opening up the prefilter or the cannister itself. Just leave enough slack in the power cord. I tried to embed the Amazon link but no go.

Hardware Resources 14" Keyboard Slide Black, 1 pr​

 

[Lovergasoline]

I adapted the rails in the below and used a plastic tray for the filter to sit in. You can disconnect the hoses from the cannister without opening up the prefilter or the cannister itself. Just leave enough slack in the power cord.

All good ideas Rob and I hadn't even considered power cord management.

I'm fairly familiar with furniture hardware and some drawer slides are designed to mount flat on drawer bottoms and rated for various weights and degrees of extension; whatever's used will need to be strong enough to support that weight at full extension cantilevered out, since my cabinet is very shallow in width, almost just wide enough to fit the filter.

The built-in cabinet I made 17 years ago was motivated by my unexpected adoption of a turtle ... it needed to be done quickly so the turtle would have a functioning set up. It's served surprisingly well all these years, but it was a first effort, a prototype of sorts. In the interim I've learned more about what I'd like to have included in version 2.0 ... which is on my horizon but I have some other stuff to get to first. Yesterday before I came upon the Oase cabinets with sliders I was thinking a large diameter hole could be cut out (with fitted cover plate) in the cabinet top and the pre-filter could be lifted through keeping the filter canister stationary. I'll need to think some more on this: I've got hardwood floors and have had some water damage a couple times (including once when I was out of town and someone else was taking care of the aquarium). A good foolproof and waterproof (tub?) cabinet base design needs to be figured out to accommodate the filter regardless of how it's installed.

 

[firsttimesalty]

Run fx4 on my reef the maintenance is easy. It's large so easy to change media and clean. I love mine.

What size tank do you have?

 

[sfin52]

90 gal. Just a heads up the aqua stop will fail its between 30 and 40 to replace. Mine lasted several years before that happened. I did a diy fix.

 

[sfin52]

@firsttimesalty

See above

 

[LPS Bum]

I have no idea what to buy and could use some feedback and guidance.
I have a single male Red Ear Slider about 18 yrs old with approx. 6" shell. He lives in a 37 gallon tank (filled to the brim) plus an above tank basking area. Unfortunately tank size is limited due to the built-in nook (apartment) where the tank is located (tall format 37 gallon tank).

My canister filter is a 16-17 year old Rena/Filstar XP3 (rated capacity I believe is 100 gallons), the only filter I've ever owned so my experience is limited. Not too long ago one of the filter canister's molded-in attachment points snapped off (where a removable clip mounts: 4 clips - one per corner - secures the filter head/motor assembly to the canister). This filter is no longer produced and a replacement canister alone would be about approx. $75 shipped. A bar clamp now serves temporary duty to keep things together until I figure out how to proceed.

I'm thinking it may be worthwhile to just buy a new canister. The XP3 has served well, can be a little noisy at times when it traps air at times, the aforementioned broken attachment point for the clips is a design weakness poorly implemented and not robust or confidence inspiring.

What's considered a very good canister filter these days? Quiet is good but reliability, user friendliness, and ease of maintenance (disassembly/cleaning/etc.) are paramount. Occasionally I need a friend to be a turtle caretaker if I'm out of town, which may require cleaning the filter, changing sponges, etc. then reassembling and getting things up and running properly with minimum fuss or troubleshooting. A finicky, poorly designed, difficult to clean/disassemble/reassemble filter, or one that requires too frequent tinkering will just exacerbate things.

Rock solid reliable, high built quality, easy to maintenance, and user friendly without requiring advanced mechanical aptitude to operate?

I see a Fluval 407 and XP4 would work spec. wise.
Amazon sells the Eheim Classic 600 Canister Filter 2217 for $125 (this seems a old design, not sure if that's a plus or minus).
There's also the Eheim Pro 4+ 600.
Any experience with these pro or con ... or other offerings (and even better if one has experience with the Rena/Filstar XP3/XPL to compare what these are like to live with).

​

I still run the Rena Filstar on my 240 gal FOWLR (with a HOB skimmer). It’s literally 16 years old but still chugging along just fine.

On my son’s 75 gal turtle and freshwater fish tank we run dual Marineland HOB filters and it works quite well. But if you want a new canister upgrade, the Fluval models would be my recco.