Filter choices for a three feet tank

[Savant]

Hi hi all,

My old fluval 303 died on me at last and as a consequence, I now have to look for a replacement.

As I have been out of touch with the LFS (Is LFS a disallowed SMS lingo?) industry for a while, i would like some recommendation from the learned forumers here on what would be a good value (not necessarily cheap but cheaper better of course) filter that I can now get?

I last recall seeing the following brands

1) Eheim - the previous threads appear to indicate problems of sort
2) Fluval - not sure if this brand is still available in Singapore (again I am totally out of touch with the LFS.
3) Tetra - when I saw it a year ago, it looked pretty good.
4) Rena - not sure about this brand, italian stuff if i remember correctly,
5) Jebo. Jebao or whatever is the currently chinese copies workhorse.

Also, do let me know what prices they are going for these days.

Cheers

SavantE

[ranmasatome]

If you can afford an eheim... get one... just saw them going pretty cheaply on the 2nd hand market a few days ago... i think i also have one extra one somewhere.. let me go dig it out...

[illumnae]

If you have the budget, go for an eheim...if you'd like something cheaper but still reliable, try tetra or fluval

[hc rotala]

Go for Eheim 2217. if me.

[Savant]

Ok, this eheim recommendation is notwithstanding what has been said about their quality deteriorating?

What kind of pricing are we talking about? I prefer new unless the second hand ones are really cheap. I understand I should go to clementi to find out prices but will be unable to go down to run this errand for a period. Can someone PM me the current general prices?

Finally, it is an objective of this thread to also discuss the merits of other non-eheim brands, so Tetra, Fluval users (and users of other cheaper china makes). Please share your experiences especially in relation to quality issues if any (by way of example and without experience, if jebo tend to leak and why - bad o rings? or plastic tend to crack, brittle impeller ? no parts to replace - that kind of thing)

[godprint]

i have 2 fluval 404, running reliably with no problems ... quiet and efficient. only issue is the ribbed hose which i don't really like in terms of (flexibility of usage options)

[yeoyl87]

Fluval is a good buy. 50% cheaper than eheim. The only con about it is the ribbed hose which reduce the flexibility of replacing it. But i find it easier to use them than eheim's green hose. It is easier to bend around the corner than the green hose.

[Savant]

Do they sell connectors that can be used to change the ribbed hose to the normal eheim hose?

[illumnae]

the ribbed hose is one of the major reasons i decided to go with eheim or tetra (chose eheim in the end) for my next tank. currently using a Fluval FX5 and it's amazing for its price...

[torque6]

Eheim has always been reliable, but pricy. Check them out here.

http://www.eheim.de/eheim/inhalte/in...=24901&lang=en

[Savant]

Actually the question that the thread has led me to is, can I use some other hose for the Fluval FX5? Or are the hose sizes very different such that they will not allow the use of the Eheim hoses? Or if there are any adapters in the market that will allow me to join eheim hoses.

A further reason for the above question is that one of my Jebos will probably give up soon and I would like to use FX5 to replace it (its a 2 filter configuration - the other filter is a ProII Eheim) but I would prefer not to change the pipe configurations that I have built into the tank.

[illumnae]

a fluval fx5 is probably overkill for your 3ft. i'm using it for a 4x2x2 heavily planted and it's just right for me. i know some people use it for a 5ft

[Savant]

Thinking of a Pleco tank so the high flow will be appreciated I believe.

Rockscape, with some caves for them to hide and breed if they want to and some annubias (of varying sizes)

Still, can anyone shed some light on whether replacing the hose will be an issue?

[illumnae]

if you're intending for a pleco tank with a rockscape, i believe the ribbed hosing will serve you better. the purpose for ribbed hosing is to prevent kinks when the hose is bent, something that the usual eheim hoses are prone to. however, the downside is that the large size of the FX5 hose and the fact that it is ribbed make it hard/impossible to run inline items such as a prefilter or a co2 reactor. since your only plants are going to be anubias and you're severely overfiltrating (plus one of the FX5's great benefits is HUGE mechanical filtration anyway), i believe you will not need either item to be run inline. Hence, the FX5 will suit your needs out of the box without replacing the hoses

[torque6]

Oh, you intend to keep pleco only tank ? Initially, you have used fluval 303, might want to check the old specs and get something similar in terms of flowrate as 303. It would be an easier choice.

[celticfish]

I believe whatever "problems" that were highlighted on the Eheim can be remedied with spare parts.
Its not a total breakdown of the unit and the parts are easily avialable locally.
The other brands have spare parts too but I don't think its readily avialable locally.
Someone with knowledge of the other brands do correct me if the above is not true.

Most Eheim users have come to trust the brand over the years of use in the hobby.
They are willing to pay for this as they "practically" last forever.
The caveat to the above is that wear and tear parts do fail.
But all the parts are replaceable hence my saying that they practicallylast forever.
You can check this from the Eheim website.
All the manuals will show the part numbers for constituient parts of the filter.
In other words, you can buy all the spare parts and make a "new" filter if you choose.
The above is just my two cents on cannister choice.

Here's another school of thought on the brand and pricing.
If you can get two cheap one in place of one Eheim.
Then buy two units and you immediately have overfiltration and a backup.

For a pleco tank I'd suggest you use the cannister filter for biological filtration and another powerhead for mechanical filtration.
Most plecos are "poo" machines!

[illumnae]

that's where the immense mech filtration of the FX5 comes as an asset i think > 1/2 of the canister volume is made up of sponges that surround the media baskets and provide alot of mech filtration. biofiltration is 1.5x that of an Eheim 2028

[Savant]

The broken 303 was previously a community tank, will be redoing this tank now for plecos

[Dr. Tankenstein]

Eheim all the way! You get what you pay for. I run a 2215 and a 2217 on my 90G planted discus tank, they're so quiet, I have to touch mine to make sure they're running! The major online retailers will typically run these on sale, they're more affordable than you think!
Hey, Eheim invented canister filters, the German-made quality is top notch, they're still the #1 brand worldwide. Need I say more?

Cheers!
Dr. T

[johannes]

eheim 2215, 2217, 2226 or 2026

depends on your bio load...