Hi all,
This is my first post so I thought I would make it more useful then just a "Hey" post and make this a mini review of the Marineland C-530 as well as a pointless and likely annoying history of how I got involved in this crazy hobby.
Just a warning, I am not a pro writer or anything so don't critique too much the style, composition and most importantly punctuation.....This is Long and I am sorry about that, but if you are going to go....go BIG
Like many of you I was bitten by the fish keeping bug innocently enough. It started 10 months ago when I bought a 10gal fish tank for my 3 year old son as a gift from his "new baby sister", to smooth the transition and in the words of the Godfather "show some respect".
Well he loved it.....
Little did I know I would grow to love it. I can't stress enough how "fish keeping" was absolutely in no way not on the radar, it seemed like a good choice since my son isn't allergic to them and as far as my Wife is concerned it was a pet in a box.....perfect WAF attained.
Like many people likely do when they accidentally get into a hobby they know nothing about I bought a cool looking fish for my sons tank with the intention that we would take him and let him choose the rest.
Well, let's say that a solid demonstration of the circle of life ensued and my son's eyes are open to the fish eat fish world. I had no idea that #1 the fish I bought him was a cichlid and #2 they are simply not compatible with well, pretty much anything else in that pet store save a Pleco. Carnage, missing fins floating carcasses greeting you in the morning pretty much summed up our first experience.
I decided to educate myself, discovered the fish I had was an african cichlid and another trip to the store with admonishments and assurances to my Son of no more "sick" fish and that we will find more colorful fish yet.
10gal tank + 5 Cichlids = 1 dominant fish and 4 hidden fish that can't so much as twitch without the albino african cracking the whip. Sweet mother, this isn't as much fun as I thought. After 5 months it's time to make a change
The search was on for a new tank, and a 30gal came my way for very little money. By this point I had learned something about filtration and wanting to keep my tank all sparkly.....I purcahsed an emporer 400. You can't have enough filtration.
I had realised that either I had too many fish for my tank size and needed a larger tank or I didn't have enough fish to disperse aggression and decided it was somewhere in the middle. I had plenty of hidding places for them but decided they deserved a better home and took the Cichlids back to the fish store.
Now get this, I decide to by Piranha. I know I know you think I was looking for blood etc. Actually I didn't want to see fish maul other fish but decided a fish that enjoyed living in shoals would be idea since they would hang together and swim together, they are pellet/frozen shrimp fed and are flourishing and they have the most beautiful red I have seen on a fish in some time. I bought 6 tiny little piranha. Best decision I have made yet (ok, well one of the good ones). I learned quickly after making that snap decision to buy these little guys that I needed a larger tank. Well of course. I suppose you all sense a theme. I am not a patient man, though I am starting to learn something about it.
30 Gal and 6 Piranha and actually it was working out very well. I knew I would need a larger tank but 30gal for little loonie sized fish *yeah Canadian eh* I was ok with until I could a) find another great deal and upgrade and b) somehow navigate my Wifes feelings on getting a larger tank. Neither things looked likely.
Now I have to say I have learned a ton up to this point about taking care of these fish. After setting up the tank for the piranha based on what they need and like I have worked very hard to figure out how to keep the tank sparkling and healthy while *most of the time* avoiding mini cycles etc. It's been a journey. Right now with the lighting and setup even though it's only a 30 Gal many people have commented on how beautiful it looks. It's like it's high def more real than life with the lighting in place and crystal clear water. It's a proud moment. I am happy to say that I have not lost a piranha or really any fish to sickness or the "floating death" the ones that have gone missing in my cichlid tank for instance dissapeared into the mini in tank singularity that we have all experienced I am certain. I still have no idea where the fish went, not so much as a carcass or bones to prove their demise I can only assume they are in a better place.
The Piranha are happy and my most recent lesson learned is to not get too locked into a routine. I was used to feeding the fish x amount at intervals but did not keep up the volume of food with the growth of the fish. Suddenly little nips and bits where missing out of each of the fish. This usually happens when they are going after food and there is not enough so they go after each other to fight for it. Well I stepped up feeding and all fish are well on the way to recovery.
Knowing that pretty soon aggression was going to peak again due to limited space I decided to hunt for another tank.
I got the deal of the century. A 90gal tank *mint* stand *maple* and 2x54w HO t5 lighting from aquaticlife all for 50bucks....yeah I know I almost feel bad for stealing it, I was told they inherited it recently and they don't really like fish, they kept it until the last fish "they liked" died and pretty much gave up. 3 problems with the situation. 1) tuxedo platty's breeding by the trillions 2) crap and inch thick on the bottom and 3) snails as thick and plentiful as the gravel substrate.
No problem, bleached, washed, bleached rinsed again scrubbed.....cleaned, bleached......now it looks brand new.
Light whas perfect, The substrage in the tank is in a landfil and the stand looks perfect. Well it's a fresh start.
Now this brings me to the Marineland C-530
I have been spoiled by having such wonderful filtration on my tank up to this point. sure it's a HOB and doesn't have the mechanical or biological footprint of a Canister but it (emporer 400) worked quite well, considering I have messy fish this has been an excellent solution for a great price.
Going to this new 90 Gal tank and after securing the all important WAF, I have decided I need the best filtration I can afford and I want a clean look. I don't want hoses or HOB's hanging all over the place so the in/out of a canister is appealing.
After much reading and opinion forming I had my thoughts shattered a few times talking to some excellent people at a Local fish store I have been haunting in recent months. I had the budget for an eheim *with wifes approval* since this is a family tank and quite frankly not a Dog or a Cat so I shared my budget. They suggested I research and look into the Marineland C530. I was impressed by this because I was ready to pony for a Eheim Pro 3 2080, I decided that if I am going to do it, do it right. I had long decided that intervals between cleaning *depending on bio load* and medial volume where the main reason for a Canister so getting a big one made sense.
The guys at the LFS said that absolutely the Eheims are amazingly well made but actually told me that the Pro 3's plug faster than the Pro 2's and well there is not Pro 2 with a similar capacity to the C530 so it represents a good price performance. They have had pretty much zero problems with those and said that the FX5 while it's a beast doesn't hold enough media and has been more of an issue than most other filters they have carried. This is their opinion, but why lie, they sell them all.
Look I will say it. as a newbie 2 things I know. 1) the Eheim looks damn sexy and you know it's quality 2) the FX5 looks sexy and looks like it could filter your large intestine and put our spring water on the other end, but really the Marineland represents an interesting niche not to mention the power and inclusion of media on initial purchase. just the ticket.
So I bought the C530
The Un-box
One thing I have heard is that the tank hardware for this filter isn't great. It seems they have beefed it up since the hardware didn't match what was in the manual, all of my tank bits where the barbed push on with the scew on lockdown nylon nut. I can't imagine it needs more than this. The design of it didn't bother me and compared to most of the opinions I have heard about this filter it looked solid, mounted nicely and didn''t represent a significant issue or put into question the quality of it. It works great.
After pulling out the filter my Wife asks...."is that it?"...."yup" I say......"big eh?"......"well will that fit? it's huge...."......"yup" I say and that pretty much summed it up. This thing is fricking massive. in a really sexy way more impressive in person kind of way. There is a lot of plastic, but as it turns out they are all like that.....so no surprises there. It's attractive and clean.
The hoses this comes with are massive, very nice material, a bit tougher to cut through but as far as I am concerned use a sharp knife, the tougher the better.
The media is included with this filter and everything is stacked inside the filter in the correct order, all I had to do was rinse the media out and restack everything in the tray making sure to align the trays properly. From what I can tell they took a chapter from the Eheim Pro 2's when building this. The water is pulled into the top of the filter and pulled down a pipe through the media trays to the bottom tray where it then flows up through the media and is pushed out.
Another mini review I read from a couple years ago said that they didn't like how the bottom tray was sealed rather than open to the bottom of the canister as this created a deadzone at the bottom under the bottom tray. Well yes and No. I agree that the water enters the bottom tray and is forced through the filter pad and up to the next tray without any flow being specifically directed outside or under the tray but as far as I am concerned I don't know how else they would do it. The design is very solid allowing little to no bypass and a closed bottom tray is the only way to achieve this.
I know water will flow outside the tray but by design it has to flow back into a tray to get out again, once this space is filled with water I don't see there being significant flow outside the trays and while it may make for a titch more maintenance once in a while the advantages of a far more sealed system are too great to worry about this. It's certainly not significant and the upshot is that ALL water entering the system will be 100% filtered by the first stage.
The tray to tray seal seems excellent compared to many designs I have seen, and I have only looked at a few in all honesty, but compared to the Fluval FX5 this is a revelation. The media baskets are the full size of the container with no foam surround and little bypass, the mechanical, chemical, biological filtration footprint is huge.
I have read in another informal review that the someone thought the media baskets where not tall enough. Sweet mothers knitted Ginch how much more do you want? I could easily put 12 Medium backs of charcoal in a tray with likely room for another row. You could spend another 200 bucks just filling it up to the nuts which is great as many of you will have different needs and requirements and can stack media in varying quantities. You simply can't have a filter of this size and say the media baskets aren't big enough. I don't know how they could get bigger. Sure they could eliminate one basket and make the remaining ones taller however I dont see the value in that since you could put about 100$ canadian of the substrate Pro into it and "just" fill it up. *that's about 2.5 boxes. This is just one tray.
The design is simple, clean and makes sense in terms of flow, I like how wide the trays are and if you wanted to fill them to the top this represents a staggering amount of media. *second morgage anyone?*
Included media
The great thing about this filter aside from being has the price of the Eheim is that it includes all the media you need to get started. Obviously your own requirements may dictate a different mix but at least for a guy like me you are off to the races.
It included 2 large filter pads, Tray of black bio balls, tray of carbon *4 pouches*, tray of ceramic media and a floss pad on top of that.
Right away I removed the bioballs and replaced them with Eheim Substrate Pro, a large box. I know bioballs are not suited to this kind of duty as well as other media, however the inclusion is far from perplexing. For one thing, they are functional (though not as effective) and they represent about 1$ worth of plastic. It's a way of cheaply providing everything you need to get going. I think they would be smart to include a certificate for 25%-50% off a box of higher end substrate to get people rolling on better stuff, but strictly speaking it's not necessary.
I bought this to improve my filtering and handle a larger tank and to me it made no sense to buy this filter and cheap out on better substrate so as mentioned above I bought the good stuff. It only fills the tray just under half full so I will consider adding another box on my next filter cleaning.
The Outside
The quick connect system on the top of the unit for the hoses is excellent, shutting off the water and unlocking in 2 quick steps. The hose attachments swivel very nicely and everything seems very robust. The plastic is a nylon composite. It's tough, flexible enough to not stress with repeated flexing and positively clicks into the lid.
The primer
Holy Hannah this is the biggest priming button I have ever seen. I emptied half my 30 gal tank pressing it once.....all kidding aside it is very effective and after a couple of presses the syphon was started and off it went. The instructions say to press the button a coupel times and plug it in. I decided to way until it filled up most of the way, I then kept pressing the prime button until water filled the outflow hose and plugged it in. It was extremely effective at removing air. Just kind of bears down and whoosh it starts flying out.
I set it up on myy 30gal tank to get the bacteria established in it before setting up my 90 Gal tank, I want to reduce the stress on the fish as quickly as possible and this will help it cycle quickly....see I really have learned something.
So once I plugged it in all I can say is that a tornado of stuff flew up from the bottom of the tank and was quickly sucked into the intake. This is singlely the fastest tank cleaning I have ever done. It is so over kill for this tank it's hillarious, but worth the effort none the less.
I know Piranha don't like a ton of flow so I made sure they have a good size dead zone by keeping the outflow on the surface.
The Lid
I don't want to forget this. The lid seals and construction are top notch. I am not going to tell you it has that BMW feel the Eheim has but it really is excellent. It's solid, very nicely made and good looking. The impeller is absolutely monstrous compared to what I am used too. When trying to turn it by hand that is when you get a true idea of how torquey the motor is. The magnets are so strong I stopped trying just so I didn't stress out the impeller. This is a good sign and you see evidence of this right away when you feel the flow from this machine.
The outflow tube is big, as bernoulie would point out when diameter is reduce volume is sacrificed for pressure. No such sacrifice is occuring here, the flow is solid and very strong, like blasting your substrate strong, but more than that it's the volume. it feels like a strong pool filter jet. Maybe overstating it, but you get a sense of volume not just pressure. Presssure you can create to make something seem more impressive, but there is non substitute for volume and this filter has it in spades.
Noise
Quiet. I don't have alot of experience with the Eheim, but I know this is close to that in terms of volume. Far quieter than a Fluval FX5 and once in a cabinet I would suggest absolutely silent.
The only time it get's noisey is when it's flushing air, and it happens in a whoosh.
Air removal
After I let it run I tilted the canister from side to side to extract any extra air in the system. Whoosh it was gone. Obviously there are a couple areas where it takes longer to get air out of, but I also assume when you are firing it up the first time you are doing it with non saturated media and it tends to hold on to bubbles more so than used stuff.
All in all considering the volume of the canister, it's newness and a newbie at the controls it was extremely painless and easy to get going. It does it with far less mess than my emporer created when filling it up with a jug. Push to prime and it works everything else out in time.
Looks
Damn sexy in Silver and Black. It really did grow on me. I was not really turned on by this filter at first. Not sure why. I suppose I am as subject to the marketing machine as anyone and it has a far less polarizing design than the FX5 and a less BMW'ish look than the Eheim. It's just kind of in the middle. If they put a little orange or yellow or spruced it up, I kid you not they would sell more of them
) Marineland take note.
I know marineland really is pushed up in Canada more. partly because Hagen knows that the other manufacturers don't go after this market as agressively. Hagen is smart, it's a big enough market to hang your hat on and it gives them a chance to shine.
By in large I have been plased with all of their products. Nothing is perfect but they seem to know the niche they reside in and work that niche like a rented mule.
There are few canisters in this category, but I will say hands down it's a no brainer compared to the Eheim, because at half the cost and similar performance you really can't go wrong, furthermore they have excellent customer service with a good 3 year warranty.
If you are looking at the Pro 3 2080, I would really strongly suggest 2 of these, you are looking at a shattering amount of filtration and you are still less than the cost of one Pro3 2080 (WITH MEDIA). I don't see how quality build, with good customer service, quiet operation and value per dollar can be trumped by just a name.
Don't get me wrong, it wasn't until this seach that I realized the rarified market psoition that Eheim holds. They produce an excellent product and hey if you can afford a BMW why not buy one. But for the rest of us. the filter represents excellent performance, and 2 of them can only be better.
For my 90 Gal tank i am absolutely certain this will do an excellent job.
What would I like to see?
I would like to see more optional Tank hardware for this filter line from marineland. I coupon of some sort to get people into the "right" media, it makes no sense to really provide a lower standard of filtration just to say media is included and not at least educate your customers on other options.
I will repost again once I have more long term experience. But so far I am happy. It seems to address many of the issues with the Fluval FX5, such as water bypass, small media trays, noise.
I think the rating of 150gal is a commendable rating for Marinland to put on this. I see the thinking. The marketing department is likely not happy about this, but clearly the 150gal rating is an ideal filtration size given installed media and requisite flow reduction therein. They don't quite reflect this honestly in the GPH rating as they like others are using the secret sauce rating system. But it's a great first step. I know this has caused much confusion with some people but I think people with larger tanks already get the concept and are given to running more than 1 filter anyhow. But I do feel it is somewhat representative on flow rating and I think an honest to goodness shot at Eheim who has heretofor had likely the most accurate ratings to date....good for them.
I hope this helps some of you. I know this is insanely long, but we all have our own problems. I have had issues finding reviews more than a paragraph long on this filter so I hope this answers some questions for those who want to know.
Mag
This is my first post so I thought I would make it more useful then just a "Hey" post and make this a mini review of the Marineland C-530 as well as a pointless and likely annoying history of how I got involved in this crazy hobby.
Just a warning, I am not a pro writer or anything so don't critique too much the style, composition and most importantly punctuation.....This is Long and I am sorry about that, but if you are going to go....go BIG
Like many of you I was bitten by the fish keeping bug innocently enough. It started 10 months ago when I bought a 10gal fish tank for my 3 year old son as a gift from his "new baby sister", to smooth the transition and in the words of the Godfather "show some respect". Well he loved it.....
Little did I know I would grow to love it. I can't stress enough how "fish keeping" was absolutely in no way not on the radar, it seemed like a good choice since my son isn't allergic to them and as far as my Wife is concerned it was a pet in a box.....perfect WAF attained.
Like many people likely do when they accidentally get into a hobby they know nothing about I bought a cool looking fish for my sons tank with the intention that we would take him and let him choose the rest.
Well, let's say that a solid demonstration of the circle of life ensued and my son's eyes are open to the fish eat fish world. I had no idea that #1 the fish I bought him was a cichlid and #2 they are simply not compatible with well, pretty much anything else in that pet store save a Pleco. Carnage, missing fins floating carcasses greeting you in the morning pretty much summed up our first experience.
I decided to educate myself, discovered the fish I had was an african cichlid and another trip to the store with admonishments and assurances to my Son of no more "sick" fish and that we will find more colorful fish yet.
10gal tank + 5 Cichlids = 1 dominant fish and 4 hidden fish that can't so much as twitch without the albino african cracking the whip. Sweet mother, this isn't as much fun as I thought. After 5 months it's time to make a change
The search was on for a new tank, and a 30gal came my way for very little money. By this point I had learned something about filtration and wanting to keep my tank all sparkly.....I purcahsed an emporer 400. You can't have enough filtration.
I had realised that either I had too many fish for my tank size and needed a larger tank or I didn't have enough fish to disperse aggression and decided it was somewhere in the middle. I had plenty of hidding places for them but decided they deserved a better home and took the Cichlids back to the fish store.
Now get this, I decide to by Piranha. I know I know you think I was looking for blood etc. Actually I didn't want to see fish maul other fish but decided a fish that enjoyed living in shoals would be idea since they would hang together and swim together, they are pellet/frozen shrimp fed and are flourishing and they have the most beautiful red I have seen on a fish in some time. I bought 6 tiny little piranha. Best decision I have made yet (ok, well one of the good ones). I learned quickly after making that snap decision to buy these little guys that I needed a larger tank. Well of course. I suppose you all sense a theme. I am not a patient man, though I am starting to learn something about it.
30 Gal and 6 Piranha and actually it was working out very well. I knew I would need a larger tank but 30gal for little loonie sized fish *yeah Canadian eh* I was ok with until I could a) find another great deal and upgrade and b) somehow navigate my Wifes feelings on getting a larger tank. Neither things looked likely.
Now I have to say I have learned a ton up to this point about taking care of these fish. After setting up the tank for the piranha based on what they need and like I have worked very hard to figure out how to keep the tank sparkling and healthy while *most of the time* avoiding mini cycles etc. It's been a journey. Right now with the lighting and setup even though it's only a 30 Gal many people have commented on how beautiful it looks. It's like it's high def more real than life with the lighting in place and crystal clear water. It's a proud moment. I am happy to say that I have not lost a piranha or really any fish to sickness or the "floating death" the ones that have gone missing in my cichlid tank for instance dissapeared into the mini in tank singularity that we have all experienced I am certain. I still have no idea where the fish went, not so much as a carcass or bones to prove their demise I can only assume they are in a better place.
The Piranha are happy and my most recent lesson learned is to not get too locked into a routine. I was used to feeding the fish x amount at intervals but did not keep up the volume of food with the growth of the fish. Suddenly little nips and bits where missing out of each of the fish. This usually happens when they are going after food and there is not enough so they go after each other to fight for it. Well I stepped up feeding and all fish are well on the way to recovery.
Knowing that pretty soon aggression was going to peak again due to limited space I decided to hunt for another tank.
I got the deal of the century. A 90gal tank *mint* stand *maple* and 2x54w HO t5 lighting from aquaticlife all for 50bucks....yeah I know I almost feel bad for stealing it, I was told they inherited it recently and they don't really like fish, they kept it until the last fish "they liked" died and pretty much gave up. 3 problems with the situation. 1) tuxedo platty's breeding by the trillions 2) crap and inch thick on the bottom and 3) snails as thick and plentiful as the gravel substrate.
No problem, bleached, washed, bleached rinsed again scrubbed.....cleaned, bleached......now it looks brand new.
Light whas perfect, The substrage in the tank is in a landfil and the stand looks perfect. Well it's a fresh start.
Now this brings me to the Marineland C-530
I have been spoiled by having such wonderful filtration on my tank up to this point. sure it's a HOB and doesn't have the mechanical or biological footprint of a Canister but it (emporer 400) worked quite well, considering I have messy fish this has been an excellent solution for a great price.
Going to this new 90 Gal tank and after securing the all important WAF, I have decided I need the best filtration I can afford and I want a clean look. I don't want hoses or HOB's hanging all over the place so the in/out of a canister is appealing.
After much reading and opinion forming I had my thoughts shattered a few times talking to some excellent people at a Local fish store I have been haunting in recent months. I had the budget for an eheim *with wifes approval* since this is a family tank and quite frankly not a Dog or a Cat so I shared my budget. They suggested I research and look into the Marineland C530. I was impressed by this because I was ready to pony for a Eheim Pro 3 2080, I decided that if I am going to do it, do it right. I had long decided that intervals between cleaning *depending on bio load* and medial volume where the main reason for a Canister so getting a big one made sense.
The guys at the LFS said that absolutely the Eheims are amazingly well made but actually told me that the Pro 3's plug faster than the Pro 2's and well there is not Pro 2 with a similar capacity to the C530 so it represents a good price performance. They have had pretty much zero problems with those and said that the FX5 while it's a beast doesn't hold enough media and has been more of an issue than most other filters they have carried. This is their opinion, but why lie, they sell them all.
Look I will say it. as a newbie 2 things I know. 1) the Eheim looks damn sexy and you know it's quality 2) the FX5 looks sexy and looks like it could filter your large intestine and put our spring water on the other end, but really the Marineland represents an interesting niche not to mention the power and inclusion of media on initial purchase. just the ticket.
So I bought the C530
The Un-box
One thing I have heard is that the tank hardware for this filter isn't great. It seems they have beefed it up since the hardware didn't match what was in the manual, all of my tank bits where the barbed push on with the scew on lockdown nylon nut. I can't imagine it needs more than this. The design of it didn't bother me and compared to most of the opinions I have heard about this filter it looked solid, mounted nicely and didn''t represent a significant issue or put into question the quality of it. It works great.
After pulling out the filter my Wife asks...."is that it?"...."yup" I say......"big eh?"......"well will that fit? it's huge...."......"yup" I say and that pretty much summed it up. This thing is fricking massive. in a really sexy way more impressive in person kind of way. There is a lot of plastic, but as it turns out they are all like that.....so no surprises there. It's attractive and clean.
The hoses this comes with are massive, very nice material, a bit tougher to cut through but as far as I am concerned use a sharp knife, the tougher the better.
The media is included with this filter and everything is stacked inside the filter in the correct order, all I had to do was rinse the media out and restack everything in the tray making sure to align the trays properly. From what I can tell they took a chapter from the Eheim Pro 2's when building this. The water is pulled into the top of the filter and pulled down a pipe through the media trays to the bottom tray where it then flows up through the media and is pushed out.
Another mini review I read from a couple years ago said that they didn't like how the bottom tray was sealed rather than open to the bottom of the canister as this created a deadzone at the bottom under the bottom tray. Well yes and No. I agree that the water enters the bottom tray and is forced through the filter pad and up to the next tray without any flow being specifically directed outside or under the tray but as far as I am concerned I don't know how else they would do it. The design is very solid allowing little to no bypass and a closed bottom tray is the only way to achieve this.
I know water will flow outside the tray but by design it has to flow back into a tray to get out again, once this space is filled with water I don't see there being significant flow outside the trays and while it may make for a titch more maintenance once in a while the advantages of a far more sealed system are too great to worry about this. It's certainly not significant and the upshot is that ALL water entering the system will be 100% filtered by the first stage.
The tray to tray seal seems excellent compared to many designs I have seen, and I have only looked at a few in all honesty, but compared to the Fluval FX5 this is a revelation. The media baskets are the full size of the container with no foam surround and little bypass, the mechanical, chemical, biological filtration footprint is huge.
I have read in another informal review that the someone thought the media baskets where not tall enough. Sweet mothers knitted Ginch how much more do you want? I could easily put 12 Medium backs of charcoal in a tray with likely room for another row. You could spend another 200 bucks just filling it up to the nuts which is great as many of you will have different needs and requirements and can stack media in varying quantities. You simply can't have a filter of this size and say the media baskets aren't big enough. I don't know how they could get bigger. Sure they could eliminate one basket and make the remaining ones taller however I dont see the value in that since you could put about 100$ canadian of the substrate Pro into it and "just" fill it up. *that's about 2.5 boxes. This is just one tray.
The design is simple, clean and makes sense in terms of flow, I like how wide the trays are and if you wanted to fill them to the top this represents a staggering amount of media. *second morgage anyone?*
Included media
The great thing about this filter aside from being has the price of the Eheim is that it includes all the media you need to get started. Obviously your own requirements may dictate a different mix but at least for a guy like me you are off to the races.
It included 2 large filter pads, Tray of black bio balls, tray of carbon *4 pouches*, tray of ceramic media and a floss pad on top of that.
Right away I removed the bioballs and replaced them with Eheim Substrate Pro, a large box. I know bioballs are not suited to this kind of duty as well as other media, however the inclusion is far from perplexing. For one thing, they are functional (though not as effective) and they represent about 1$ worth of plastic. It's a way of cheaply providing everything you need to get going. I think they would be smart to include a certificate for 25%-50% off a box of higher end substrate to get people rolling on better stuff, but strictly speaking it's not necessary.
I bought this to improve my filtering and handle a larger tank and to me it made no sense to buy this filter and cheap out on better substrate so as mentioned above I bought the good stuff. It only fills the tray just under half full so I will consider adding another box on my next filter cleaning.
The Outside
The quick connect system on the top of the unit for the hoses is excellent, shutting off the water and unlocking in 2 quick steps. The hose attachments swivel very nicely and everything seems very robust. The plastic is a nylon composite. It's tough, flexible enough to not stress with repeated flexing and positively clicks into the lid.
The primer
Holy Hannah this is the biggest priming button I have ever seen. I emptied half my 30 gal tank pressing it once.....all kidding aside it is very effective and after a couple of presses the syphon was started and off it went. The instructions say to press the button a coupel times and plug it in. I decided to way until it filled up most of the way, I then kept pressing the prime button until water filled the outflow hose and plugged it in. It was extremely effective at removing air. Just kind of bears down and whoosh it starts flying out.
I set it up on myy 30gal tank to get the bacteria established in it before setting up my 90 Gal tank, I want to reduce the stress on the fish as quickly as possible and this will help it cycle quickly....see I really have learned something.
So once I plugged it in all I can say is that a tornado of stuff flew up from the bottom of the tank and was quickly sucked into the intake. This is singlely the fastest tank cleaning I have ever done. It is so over kill for this tank it's hillarious, but worth the effort none the less.
I know Piranha don't like a ton of flow so I made sure they have a good size dead zone by keeping the outflow on the surface.
The Lid
I don't want to forget this. The lid seals and construction are top notch. I am not going to tell you it has that BMW feel the Eheim has but it really is excellent. It's solid, very nicely made and good looking. The impeller is absolutely monstrous compared to what I am used too. When trying to turn it by hand that is when you get a true idea of how torquey the motor is. The magnets are so strong I stopped trying just so I didn't stress out the impeller. This is a good sign and you see evidence of this right away when you feel the flow from this machine.
The outflow tube is big, as bernoulie would point out when diameter is reduce volume is sacrificed for pressure. No such sacrifice is occuring here, the flow is solid and very strong, like blasting your substrate strong, but more than that it's the volume. it feels like a strong pool filter jet. Maybe overstating it, but you get a sense of volume not just pressure. Presssure you can create to make something seem more impressive, but there is non substitute for volume and this filter has it in spades.
Noise
Quiet. I don't have alot of experience with the Eheim, but I know this is close to that in terms of volume. Far quieter than a Fluval FX5 and once in a cabinet I would suggest absolutely silent.
The only time it get's noisey is when it's flushing air, and it happens in a whoosh.
Air removal
After I let it run I tilted the canister from side to side to extract any extra air in the system. Whoosh it was gone. Obviously there are a couple areas where it takes longer to get air out of, but I also assume when you are firing it up the first time you are doing it with non saturated media and it tends to hold on to bubbles more so than used stuff.
All in all considering the volume of the canister, it's newness and a newbie at the controls it was extremely painless and easy to get going. It does it with far less mess than my emporer created when filling it up with a jug. Push to prime and it works everything else out in time.
Looks
Damn sexy in Silver and Black. It really did grow on me. I was not really turned on by this filter at first. Not sure why. I suppose I am as subject to the marketing machine as anyone and it has a far less polarizing design than the FX5 and a less BMW'ish look than the Eheim. It's just kind of in the middle. If they put a little orange or yellow or spruced it up, I kid you not they would sell more of them
) Marineland take note. I know marineland really is pushed up in Canada more. partly because Hagen knows that the other manufacturers don't go after this market as agressively. Hagen is smart, it's a big enough market to hang your hat on and it gives them a chance to shine.
By in large I have been plased with all of their products. Nothing is perfect but they seem to know the niche they reside in and work that niche like a rented mule.
There are few canisters in this category, but I will say hands down it's a no brainer compared to the Eheim, because at half the cost and similar performance you really can't go wrong, furthermore they have excellent customer service with a good 3 year warranty.
If you are looking at the Pro 3 2080, I would really strongly suggest 2 of these, you are looking at a shattering amount of filtration and you are still less than the cost of one Pro3 2080 (WITH MEDIA). I don't see how quality build, with good customer service, quiet operation and value per dollar can be trumped by just a name.
Don't get me wrong, it wasn't until this seach that I realized the rarified market psoition that Eheim holds. They produce an excellent product and hey if you can afford a BMW why not buy one. But for the rest of us. the filter represents excellent performance, and 2 of them can only be better.
For my 90 Gal tank i am absolutely certain this will do an excellent job.
What would I like to see?
I would like to see more optional Tank hardware for this filter line from marineland. I coupon of some sort to get people into the "right" media, it makes no sense to really provide a lower standard of filtration just to say media is included and not at least educate your customers on other options.
I will repost again once I have more long term experience. But so far I am happy. It seems to address many of the issues with the Fluval FX5, such as water bypass, small media trays, noise.
I think the rating of 150gal is a commendable rating for Marinland to put on this. I see the thinking. The marketing department is likely not happy about this, but clearly the 150gal rating is an ideal filtration size given installed media and requisite flow reduction therein. They don't quite reflect this honestly in the GPH rating as they like others are using the secret sauce rating system. But it's a great first step. I know this has caused much confusion with some people but I think people with larger tanks already get the concept and are given to running more than 1 filter anyhow. But I do feel it is somewhat representative on flow rating and I think an honest to goodness shot at Eheim who has heretofor had likely the most accurate ratings to date....good for them.
I hope this helps some of you. I know this is insanely long, but we all have our own problems. I have had issues finding reviews more than a paragraph long on this filter so I hope this answers some questions for those who want to know.
Mag
