Yes, I agree that when we give filter recommendations here on our interesting forum (my impression, possibly incorrect, is that we have a slightly larger active group of UK folks, slightly fewer USA and then a wonderful sampling from around the world) we have to realize these pricing differences among the filters (and my experience is the same as has been discussed.) Another factor that I feel is always good to keep in mind is that "the ability to use" a piece of equipment, like a filter, can vary significantly depending on experience. So, for instance, a filter, any filter, in the hands of someone with decades of focused experience, like oldman47 or raptor or someone, can possibly be quite different than for one of our beginners. Experience helps one use a wider range of "instances" or "tools" effectively because one knows what one is trying to make it do. In the case of a beginner, one often does not yet understand the full set of goals for the tool and therefor doesn't know what to be watching for or quite how to watch for what it may be doing well or not so well. Often beginners can't help but default to thinking the device itself is going to take care of things for them, whereas the experienced user understands he/she is trying to "make the tool do something" that it might not be quite the best at.
By the way, agree with the recommendations - the important thing is that any of the small external cannisters should be a nice improvement over the little internal filter and should accomplish the goal of making the aquascape get bigger and more natural.
~~waterdrop~~
