Best Canister Filters

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Any canister filter can have a prefilter just get a prefilter sponge and plan to rinse it out once a week. I buy bulk filter material and it is think enough at 2” to make my own prefilter sponges and sponge filters. 

[HH Morant]

Eheim for me. As already pointed out, the Eheim classics have one big open area for media. I use 30 ppi foam and nothing else, so I cut the foam to fit and put in all the foam that it will hold. I don't have mechanical filtration, so I only open the canisters once every 2 or 3 months. Pumps are reliable.

[Chad]

Like @HH Morant, I'm also lacking of mechanical filtration in my canister filter. Seems like the less I have to open it the better my chances of everything working nicely and staying water tight. Still, I have silicone lube ready for when I finally do crack it open. FYI, evidently vaseline to lubricate the ring seals is a bad idea.

[anewbie]

I have an fx6 and an eheim 2017; which do i like better? I don't  know they both ahve pro and con - the eheim is older - 4 years - the fx6 only a bit over a year - both are on the 120. I hope to move to sumps when i setup the 450; i hope they are easier to deal with.

[Shazza]

I’ve used many canisters over the years.

Ehiem 2217

Aquaone aquis 1100

Fluval 206

Various SunSuns

The reason I got into SunSun’s is because one of the spouts where the hose connects to the Ehiem broke and I needed a replacement because I couldn’t wait for the part to be delivered (I live in a small city in Australia) so I scrambled around to various stores and found an affordable SunSun about 50kms away and I travelled to pick it up.

I never really went back to branded filters because the SunSun was so affordable compared to them. That SunSun remained on my 65g for 4.5 years until it cracked and I cracked it! 
 

Things I’ve learnt. Throw the SunSun hose out and by better hose because it is prone to kinking and collapsing. Keep the filter clean and keep air out of it. Prime the filter with a hose. Can’t go wrong.

 

$500 compared to $70. I can’t justify the expensive filters anymore. 

Edited January 13, 2022 by Shazza

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 1/13/2022 at 4:24 PM, anewbie said:

I hope to move to sumps when i setup the 450; i hope they are easier to deal with.

A well setup sump, especially if it is a thoughtfully designed DIY, is so easy to maintain and clean it seems almost criminal.  I look forward to seeing updates as you setup your tank!

[Danielle77]

I love my Oase biomaster, I've had it for 2 years and no problems with it. Very quite and easy to clean. Has the heater inside. The pre-filter is great and it makes it easy to do monthly cleaning. The only thing I didn't like was the price but I'm glad I decided to get it.

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 1/14/2022 at 8:12 PM, Danielle77 said:

Has the heater inside.

Wait.  You can out a heater inside a canister filter?  For serious?!  I honestly had no idea.  That's plus one for canister for me. 

[Danielle77]

@OnlyGenusCaps 🙂

[gardenman]

On 1/14/2022 at 5:18 PM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

A well setup sump, especially if it is a thoughtfully designed DIY, is so easy to maintain and clean it seems almost criminal.  I look forward to seeing updates as you setup your tank!

A neat newer gadget that's getting more and more popular with sumps are the rollermats/filter rollers for particulate flitration. These replace the filter socks or other mechanical filtration and physically remove waste from the water column completely. They use a fleece-type roll of filter material that collects particulate waste and then when that starts to clog automatically advance it to a clean piece of fleece, physically removing the waste material from the water column completely. In most filters the waste stays in the water column, but the roller mat type filters take it out completely.  They're much like the rotary drum filters used by some monster fish and koi keepers. If you want as pristine water quality as possible, they're a good way to go. The only thing you ever need to do is change the roll with a fresh one when the old one runs out. Anything caught in the fleece gets moved out of the water column pretty quickly before it can decay too badly and pollute the tank.  

The Thieling Rollermat was the first of those that I saw, but lots of companies are jumping into the market now with improved designs. Klir, Aquamax, Red Sea, D-D The Aquarium Solution Ltd., and others are getting into that market. You're apt to see a HOB version out at some point. It's not a hard thing to engineer. Most filters trap debris in the water, but out of the tank. Getting debris out of the water completely is best. That's what a RDF (rotary drum filter) and roller mat type filter does. The RDF's flush debris away using water which complicates their use in a home setting, but the rolling mat filters are easier to use in a home setting.

[BuzzDaddy21]

On 1/15/2022 at 9:04 AM, gardenman said:

A neat newer gadget that's getting more and more popular with sumps are the rollermats/filter rollers for particulate flitration.

Thats very interesting even though I would never use a sump. (They say, never say never 🤨)

[EVoyager31]

I’ve been running a Cascade 1000 on my 75 and have had 0 issues. The Eheims and fluvals are either too expensive or too big for my cabinet. In my experience the cascade, while it has its faults, its a cheaper option that works well.

[Denialzx]

I have a couple of canister filters as well.
I would recommend filling it completely with ceramic filter material, with one of the round Eheim sponges in the bottom. This works really well and does not require much maintenance.

Edited March 17, 2022 by Denialzx

[Kathy F]

I'm not a fan of them but if I were to do one, I would go with Fluval since they have a good design and good warranty.  The cannister can be a pain to maintenance not to mention a flood risk if something goes wrong.  Canister filters are one of those things I think all fish keepers should try at least once when they get to bigger tanks and larger bioloads.  I have met quite a few users that wax poetic about these filters, so some people do genuinely enjoy them.    

I have opted to go with dual large HOB's (tidal 110s) instead because I find the maintenance to be much more to my liking (quick & easy).    Also, much easier to swap filter layers out so if you find you need to add/replace a phosphate pad, polishing pad, crushed coral or whatever else you could possibly need for your tank, adding/replacing is a snap to do and takes all of 2 minutes and my Tidal 110s auto prime, so I plug them in and walk away while they prime themselves.    You can't do that with a cannister the priming and restarting alone takes 2 minutes in a cannister filter.     

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 1/13/2022 at 6:00 PM, Shazza said:

Things I’ve learnt. Throw the SunSun hose out and by better hose because it is prone to kinking and collapsing.

Are canister filter hoses standardized? Where can you buy better hoses, and how would you know which hoses are better?

 

So if canister filters need to be manually primed, if the power goes out and then comes back on, will their impeller motors just burn themselves out? (Sorry, I messed up the formatting and put the quite below.)

On 3/17/2022 at 5:32 AM, Kathy F said:

...and my Tidal 110s auto prime, so I plug them in and walk away while they prime themselves.    You can't do that with a cannister the priming and restarting alone takes 2 minutes in a cannister filter.

[Shazza]

On 7/26/2022 at 10:28 AM, Rube_Goldfish said:

Are canister filter hoses standardized? Where can you buy better hoses, and how would you know which hoses are better?

 

So if canister filters need to be manually primed, if the power goes out and then comes back on, will their impeller motors just burn themselves out? (Sorry, I messed up the formatting and put the quite below.)

Hoses aren’t standard. I can buy all sizes from our hardware store. 
 

if I turn my canister filter power off the suction from the syphon that has been created generally keeps the filter going for a while. I find that water stays within the system once connected to the tank. The only time it needs priming is after a clean or setting up for the first time because you are starting the system that has no water in it and is empty. If the power goes off and comes back on there is no problem and it won’t blow the motor. 

[face]

i quit like my eheim classics have 3 all worked well for years as simple as a canister can get .

[nabokovfan87]

Sicce has some nice looking ones! Just saying.

I don't like the ones that are round because it's a pain to cut foams.
The rectangular ones I prefer but there is often weird issues like tubes going right through the foams. Some of the eheim and others avoid this and you're left with a pretty easy shape to cut out.  Sicce Whale I think is the one I keep eyeballing or the Fluval 407 series.  I don't really understand the logic for some of these in terms of the design and I'd always try to buy the one with the most trays no matter what and find some other way to diffuse flow.  Buying something, especially as some of these prices, and getting 1-2 trays just feels like a waste to me.

Something like a booster canister comes in handy in that situation as well.  I also would prefer to diffuse CO2 in-line or use an in-line UV sterilizer.

[BuzzDaddy21]

On 7/26/2022 at 3:55 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

getting 1-2 trays just feels like a waste to me

I have to agree, I have a Fluval 107 and a 207 and while you are limited by 2 or 3 trays, they are simple to use and setup.

I have said this before but my go to can is the 10L stainless steel, if you break this, something is very wrong, easy to service - easy to replace the pump if needed. Yes it`s expensive but cheaper that some other canisters and I know it will last. I will get another when I setup my next tank.