i love it and really they are not hard to clean. Ask anyone who uses them the right way. My lfs told me that you can clean evey 2-3 months. when i clean mine i hook up my vortex filter and shove the tube that pushes water down the YG tube and it blows all the dirty water through the rocks and if ya want i can show you how crystal clear my water is and ive never had a fish die on me from poor water quality
they're fine if you keep up with cleaning, i just would not use them as the sole filtration in a tank. Fish end up dead when people forget about it for long periods of time and then go to clean it and release all the built up gases
the other day I saw a 100 watt heater for 7 dollars I was like I want that so I bought it and set up a new tank. that was a good day.
then the other day I returned a dead guppy and bought three more the lady made a mistake and paid me to take the fish PAID me.
this was at petco but I was chilling while my mom shoped looking at some plecos and then I was like that one doesnt belong so I bought it turns out it was a female ancestrus teminikii and I got her for 3 dollars
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fun never new filtering could cause soo much contreversy