I bought a jebao 304 canister 4 years ago when I was broke to replace a cheap odyssea cfs500 I never really liked. This canister has been one of the lowest maintenance, easiest to use canisters I have owned. I have owned quite a few. It is a complete knock off of the eheim professional series. It even uses the same foam pads. Quite a few pieces are even interchangeable.
In the four years I owned it I replaced nothing except for the tubing once a year. I did maintainence every three months on it. It never diminished flow in between (probably could've gone longer). I had the factory foam pad and the rest filled with ceramic bio rings with filter floss at the very top.
The bad: The quick disconnect. They are not available. The new model uses the fluval fx style disconnect. After four years the disconnect snapped off leaving me with a functioning, yet unusable canister filter. Shame to throw it away. Also it uses eheim green tubing and intake outlet. ugly and hard to hide. The tubing nuts are flimsy, although i prefer to use stainless clamps.
The good: It's engineered very well. The impeller uses a thick ceramic shaft with ceramic bearings. After four years of use the shaft and bearings look and feel brand new. Maintenance was easy. Other than cleaning the impeller well it never needed any care. Never got hot, flow never decreased over the years.
If the disconnects were offered separately this would be a canister that would've had a much longer life. However for 60 bucks not disappointed at all.
In the four years I owned it I replaced nothing except for the tubing once a year. I did maintainence every three months on it. It never diminished flow in between (probably could've gone longer). I had the factory foam pad and the rest filled with ceramic bio rings with filter floss at the very top.
The bad: The quick disconnect. They are not available. The new model uses the fluval fx style disconnect. After four years the disconnect snapped off leaving me with a functioning, yet unusable canister filter. Shame to throw it away. Also it uses eheim green tubing and intake outlet. ugly and hard to hide. The tubing nuts are flimsy, although i prefer to use stainless clamps.
The good: It's engineered very well. The impeller uses a thick ceramic shaft with ceramic bearings. After four years of use the shaft and bearings look and feel brand new. Maintenance was easy. Other than cleaning the impeller well it never needed any care. Never got hot, flow never decreased over the years.
If the disconnects were offered separately this would be a canister that would've had a much longer life. However for 60 bucks not disappointed at all.
