What filter brand do you use?

[Azedenkae]

Just whatever is cheapest that has good enough reviews.

The thing is for me the filter only needs to do two things: 1. pump water for as long as possible, and 2. pump enough water through it.

I always replace my media anyways, so the actual media that comes with the filter does not really matter. Filter floss is what I use for mechanical filtration, then I stuff the filter with CerMedia MarinePure for biological filtration, and then I have PolyFilter on hand as chemnical filter media to use only when needed.

My current 40 gallon set up has 14 cichlids and a bunch of other fish, running off of a sponge filter and an internal filter which I stuffed with filter floss. I have MarinePure spheres all over the tank instead. While I was away someone accidentally messed with the autofeeder and accidentally fed ALL the food in it into the tank. No issues whatsoever, biological filtration took care of all of it. Perks of cycling the tank properly + going overboard with biomedia.

 

[celebrist]

Fluval cans, aquaclear hobs, simplicity dc pump in my sump

 

[celebrist]

Fluval cans, aquaclear hobs, simplicity dc pump in my sump

Forgot to add sponges in everything

 

[jjohnwm]

I normally don't pay much attention to these "which sock do you put on first?" kinds of threads, but the title of this one made me stop and think for a moment. I came to the realization that I don't currently use a single commercially-sold filter, and haven't for a long time. My larger filters are all homemade sumps, operated by mostly Sicce and some Little Giant pumps. I love Sicce submersible pumps; they work well, last well, and whatever heat they transmit to the water is a bonus for me, not a negative. Smaller tanks, up to and including about 70gallon fry growout tanks, are strictly on DIY sponge and matten filters made of Poret foam. A HiBlow central air pump powers all that sponge stuff, and adds aeration to all other tanks; a central air system is absolutely the single greatest improvement to the hobby that I have ever utilized.

That's it. No chemical filtration; no disposable filter floss for years; initial mechanical filtration is Poret foam that is cleaned very regularly, just rinsed and returned to use. I try to do that daily or every couple of days, and now that I am home for good (full retirement recently!) I no longer have spells of three weeks without filter cleanings as I once did.

My biggest sump always has a couple of extra Poret sponges bubbling away in it; so I can set up a new tank at a moment's notice without cycling worries. I haven't actually cycled a tank, from scratch, since first setting up in this house.

I don't stock heavily; feed fairly generously, but certainly no "power-feeding". All systems have live plants, often just heavy growths of Duckweed, Hornwort and/or Guppy Grass; thinning that out regularly is about as close as I come to throwing out filter media.

I've gotta say that I think sumps are the best filters one can use...but if all my water pumps died today I would likely think long and hard about whether they are worth replacing. I could happily filter every tank I have strictly with Poret sponges and mattens, powered by air. I am unlikely to do so, simply because my stuff is all built and running and I don't want to start from scratch. But...considering rising energy costs, the cost of quality water pumps and the maintenance required...if I were to start over, I would filter everything with air-powered sponges and would live a happy life...and so would my fish.

Warning: If you use AqAdvisor and a handheld calculator to figure out if you can jam just one more fish into your current tank...if a 2-hour power outage spells disaster for you...then this plan is not for you.

 

[DMD123]

With multiple tanks going, having the filters all be interchangeable was my main goal. On my 300 I run three Fluval FX6's and on the six garage tanks there are seven Aquaclear 110's and the only oddball is a Fluval Flex 32.5 with its built in filter. I tend to over-filter too, with each 90 gallon tank (x2) getting two Aquaclear 110's and even my 46g bowfront has a solo AC110 on it.

 

[duanes]

One of the pros of using a sump for filtration (that I forgot to mention before) , is that one sump. with one pump) if large enough, and plumbed right, can filter a number of tanks at the same time.
When living In the states, I usually filtered 4 or 5 , 100+ gallon tanks on a single 50 or 75 gal gal sump.
And the way I valved them, I could change the water on all 5 tanks, and sequentially refill all 5 at at the same time.

In the shot above all tanks on the left are filtered by one 50 gal sump(and there is another you can't see).
Even though I had 20 tanks, they were all filtered by only 4 sumps, with 4 pumps.
The 5 tanks on the right were filtered by a 75 gal sump, etc etc.
And when using 4 large submersible pumps, they usually gave off enough heat, that aquarium heaters were really rarely needed except in the dead of winter.

 

[Hybridfish7]

Amazon Chinese bootleg sponges

 

[GolemGolem]

Amazon Chinese bootleg sponges

Got a two for one I need to find again. 2 for 6$ and they are sturdier and better behaved than the ones I was paying 15$ a piece local. Last two small tanks I got my first tetra internal filters from Wal-Mart, and other than the suction cups (use the wire thing) I like 'em, might not last long the way I use them above a silt and mud substrate but it's been a few months and they do as well as my bigger HOBs.

 

[krichardson]

Aquaclear 110 along with wet/dry sump filters.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

Got a two for one I need to find again. 2 for 6$ and they are sturdier and better behaved than the ones I was paying 15$ a piece local. Last two small tanks I got my first tetra internal filters from Wal-Mart, and other than the suction cups (use the wire thing) I like 'em, might not last long the way I use them above a silt and mud substrate but it's been a few months and they do as well as my bigger HOBs.

I got a deal online. It was something like 2 for 10, so I bought it. The connected to connect to the tubing is almost impossible to fit over. I tried soaking the tube in hot water, buying bigger tubing, NOTHING WORKS!!!