Best Internal Filters

[australia]

Best Internal Filter?

 

[ArauraDiscus]

ANything but marineland. I've had about 6 marineland filters/penguins break. I'm done with them.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

i hate internal filters because they take up tank room, but if i had to pick one, i would say a sponge or box filter. or one of my wet/dry internal/external filters

 

[three-fingers]

I'm pretty much done with internal filters now simply because of the space they take up and because you can now buy very small canister filters anyway.

But in the past I've had an original fluval 3 that ran for 7 years perfectly (retired yesterday, it was working fine), a fluval 4+ which I bought second hand, a fluval 2+, a tetra filter that broke after a couple of weeks and various cheapo smaller ones.

I actually prefer the original fluval to the + models, but the plus models still seem to be more efficient/reliable than the other internals that are used in the planted tanks of the lfs I work on Saturdays. What annoys me about the new ones is the carbon/polyester pads. Carbon is useless in filters anyway, so you can throuw that pad away, and the polyester pad gets clogged up so fast it's pointless (but they make money through the sale of the pads). I just put regular filter wool in the two pads place and rinse the wool out if the clog indicator ever goes down (which isn't very often using cheap regular filter wool) .

Out of non-fluvals the best in my opinion are the hydor thermo filters (less equipment in the tank too) and eheim aquaball filters.

 

[roseykat5]

i have ehiem filters and its great for keeping water clean ... i was told that it comes with carbob but we put it in first couple mths and then threw it oout

 

[dcfeeiv]

ive never had a problem w/ marineland
if something breaks they're usually good to me to send me a new part, sometimes free sometimes not

 

[nurglespuss]

I'm moving away from internals to hang ons, but my best experiences have been with the (newish) stingray range. They take up less space and are very powerful for their size.

 

[ArauraDiscus]

Thats great that they may send parts, but is it great that 6 of them broke in the first place for me? Hardly. I don't care if a filter has the best service in the world, if everyone that you get breaks 2 months after purchase, it's not worth it.

 

[backtotropical]

If your tank is big enough, i would advise an external filter. Much better and you don't have to look at it in your tank. I've heard Eheim is really good and i've been using a fluval canister for about 6yrs, no problems.

 

[DarkEntity]

Eheim Powerballs are the dogs danglies and modular