Reviews Comparing Top Fish Filter Brands

Maintaining a clean and crystal clear water condition for your fish tank is very important and therefore, it is only possible if you have a powerful and effective aquarium filter that can do the job correctly. The water filter serves as the heart of the whole aquarium system because without it, the fish tank would otherwise require a lot of work to everyday attend to it, change the water and all these complicate the task of maintaining a perfect well-managed aquarium. Thus, getting the most appropriate and the right type of filter means everything towards your aquarium hobby. If you are thinking of getting a new filter set for your favorite pet fish, then I would have a few suggestions in mind.

Fluval FX5
Depending on your aquarium size, normally for fish tank above 100 gallons, the Fluval FX5 is definitely worth considering going into your aquarium shopping list. For the $350 standard price, it is considered worth every penny paid for as it does the job and tasks very well and performs up to my expectation. Having bought a unit for my fish tank, I would say I’m impressed with the amount of information contained in the installation manual as it is very comprehensive and provides a quick step-by-step guide to get everything up and running. If you are having difficulty to understand, I would suggest you look for online videos made by the company that teaches you the techniques. Basically I managed to get the setup completed in less than 2 hours, flushing through the system, fixing all the parts and then switch on the power supply to begin operation.

The Fluval FX 5 is basically a canister filter (check what a canister filter means) and it comes with three stacks of compartments for filling of filter media. With that flexibility, you can actually arrange and plan your filtration requirement depending on your aquarium needs and the type of fish that you have. If you have goldfish tank just like mine that produces quite a lot of waste and pollute the water easily, then having something like filter floss, bio balls and then choice of fluval peat or carbon are just few of the combinations that you can try out. One thing unique and particular about this filter set is that it comes with an electronic board to ensure that it has long lasting operation and energy saving feature. One of it that is worth mentioning here is that the electronic system will function to clear up air buildup in the system with prolonged use which can accumulate due to waste that clogs up the filter media compartments. Overall, I’m highly impressed with the state-of-the-art technology incorporated into the fish filter in terms of its design and ease of operation.

Before (during the cycling stage) and After (full planted tank)

The canister filter helps to clean and maintain close to perfect water condition in the aquariums. Usually after the thing is up and running, the water starts to clear up almost immediately achieving crystal clear condition. Debris and fine particles that float around the water starts to disappear almost instantaneously and just like any aquarium filter set, depending on the type of fish you have in your tank and the tank size, mine was left running for about 2 days before the water output starts to become less. To be fair to it, the main reason on why it choked up easily was because the aquarium water was quite murky when I plugged everything in and the filter floss media seems to clogged up easily due to fine pad on top of it that make up the first level of filtration. Moreover, my goldfish tank has live plants and that further complicates the situation as tiny shredded dead leaves seem to managed to find its way passing through the intake strainer. I quickly perform my first round of maintenance by draining off the water from the basket using the readily available purge valve and then took out the filter media for cleaning.

Nevertheless, everything seems easy to operate and until today the filter is still in use without much problem or complication after 8 months in operation.

Eheim
I haven’t got the chance to try out this filter unit which has been around in the market for quite sometime now. And because of that, I won’t go into details to elaborate every single aspect and operation of the filter set. However, I’ve decided to include the fish filter into my review here since Eheim is one of the top aquarium brands and also because the manufacturer is a reputable aquarium supplier so I wouldn’t want to pass up the chance to write up about them for the benefit of our readers here. There are several models under the range of Eheim filters which varies in terms of price, functions and tank requirements.

Anyway, I was lucky as I managed to interview a fellow hobbyist who happens to own a unit of this aquarium filter and these are his thoughts and views.

"I was a user of the Eheim Classic model before I upgraded and switched to the Professional range which offers better throughput and cleaning capabilities that match my requirements. I currently have the Eheim Pro 2080 and it works like a charm to me for my oscar tank. If I remember correctly I bought the unit around mid of year 2009 and ever since then, there wasn’t any problem at all except on one occasion when I have to change the hose because I suspect it was sucking air into the chamber. Anyway, I had that fixed up almost immediately in no time.

One thing particular that I like about the filter is that it runs quietly with little noise and vibration produced. I kept it under the tank cabinet fully hidden away from attention to make things look nicer. There is even a control valve that allows me to adjust the throughput of the water especially when it comes to feeding time for my oscar fish as I don’t want to food to stir around. Overall, I can say that I’m extremely pleased with its performance and maybe towards the next holiday season, I’ll be searching around to see if they have newer models considering for an upgrade."

For a more complete tank systems, one of the few available options is the Oceanic BioCube Aquarium Package