Aquarium Canister Filter Review.from Piranah-fury forum

RENA XP3 - 350 gph (up to a 175g)

Benefits:

• Economist one.
• easy to maitnece, 
• cleans water well, 
• good quality, 
• cheap price

Disadvantages.:

• the intake tube is a series of smaller sections you push together to make it as long as you need, and with skittish P's slamming into it, they can knock them apart.
• if you burn out the motor you can't just buy a new one and replace the motor....you need to replace the whole top piece which costs about as much as the whole filter in the first place.

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EHEIM Classic Series Canister filter.

Benefits:

• zero noise
• easy to set up and maintain
• water has more time to "filter"
• without upsetting the plants

Disadvantages:

• very low flow
• not easy to clean

Notes:

Unplug the filter. Shutoff all 4 levers in the quick disconnect. Disconnect the filter. Pop the top and remove the pump. Fill a 5 gallon bucket with tank water about 1/2 way. Dump the bio-media in the bucket and swish it around. Rinse the sponges and cylinder in the sink. Put the little stand thing and sponge back on the bottom. Dump back in the bio-media..and put in the top sponge and plastic thingy. Snap on the pump. Hook up the intake hose. Open the flow from the intake to allow the water to fill the canister. Once it is full, hook up the output hose and open it up. Plug it back in. Done. No mess at all..and very quick. They do have a basket for the newer ones...but form-e...it is just as easy or easier to do without.
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EHEIM Professional 2

Benefits:

Maintainence is pretty easy
holds a lot of media,
runs silent, superquiet
clean it once every 3 months
never loses flow or leaks
easy to disconnect the hoses and reattach them

Disadvantages:

the quick disconnect thumb tab was broken off
plastic piece broke




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EHEIM Profesional 3
 

Benefits:

• Quiet, 
• reliable, 
• powerful, 
• expensive, 
• green
• flow is awesome 
• more solid strong flow
• stream feature is also nice
• easy to set up & get running

Disadvantage:

• expensive
• manage to break where the hoses go on

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FLUVAL FX5

Benefits:

• Many options on type of media and amount of media
• Plug-N-Play

Disadvantages:

• trouble with sand
• screeching noise
• flow slows
• odd overall design/engineering
• pads need to be replaced more frequently
• huge

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FLUVAL 405

Benefits:

ood flow rate,
easy to clean and maintain,



Disadvantages:

expensive
have to clean it so much more often.
had to replace more parts than any of my other filters
base is leaking