# What external filter would you recommend



## markn (Jul 29, 2010)

I've got unto £120(ish) :whistling2: to spend on a new filter. I don't really want to buy a used one. 
It's going into a 240l tank for a mbuna Malawi tank. It will also have a fluval 305 running alongside it but I really want to get the best I can. 
It's a shame I can't stretch to the fluval fx5 but what would you guys suggest


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## biohazard156 (Nov 11, 2007)

I run a fluval 405 alongside an eheim 2217 on my 320l tank and it's a fab filter. Eheim are a very reliable make, should e able to get an eheim for that..


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## Stan193 (May 27, 2009)

how about this, definately good value

http://www.allpondsolutions.co.uk/a.../aquarium-external-filter-2000-l-h-9w-uv.html

I bought the 2000 litre per hour one for my 5x2x2, and got 10% off after buying some other filter from them previously. I added some more filter media to it though as the media that comes with it isnt brilliant so cost me another £20. I found it very easy to prime, you just fill it 3/4 full put the lid on and then pump the plunger a few times and it syphons and fills up. Its pretty quite too, no noisier than my aqua one I have on the other tank.


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

I'd go for a JBL e series. Good filters, and their customer service is second to none.

Ade


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## Shellsfeathers&fur (Jan 18, 2009)

We use Eheim 2213s and 2215s on some of the turtle tanks with Alfagrog (bought from World of Water), all run well and have had no problems with them. Spares are easily available as well.

Have a look on the Zooplus website for probably the cheapest price including delivery and usually a 10% discount for a first order.

The "change" will buy you some more fish or ......? :lol2:


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## chalky76 (Aug 23, 2007)

I have a Fluval 405 and a sunsun 1000. Both do a great job but the Fluval is more then double the price of the sunsun. Basically if you want to waste your money and buy a name then do so. Alternatively look up allpondsolitions and have a look at their externals.


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## markn (Jul 29, 2010)

Stephen P said:


> We use Eheim 2213s and 2215s on some of the turtle tanks with Alfagrog (bought from World of Water), all run well and have had no problems with them. Spares are easily available as well.
> 
> Have a look on the Zooplus website for probably the cheapest price including delivery and usually a 10% discount for a first order.
> 
> The "change" will buy you some more fish or ......? :lol2:


I've just been on zooplus and found the eheim 2217 for £70. Is this a good filter, can you put the ceramic filter media in them too.


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

I am going to be controversial here, and say that Eheims are over rated. Yes, SOME of their filters last a looong time (equally, some have a rep for not been so well built), however feature wise you don't get very much for your money at all with an Eheim, you pay for the name. I bought a 2224 last year, and felt like I had been robbed! £100 for a filter that isn't even self priming and came with only basic media (they come with substrat Pro now, which is a slight improvement as it's reputedly good stuff). Shortly before that I purchased a JBL Cristal Profi e700, it cost about £20 less, but is self priming, has a more modern feature set and came with a full range of media.

As to cheapo filters, I've been bitten there before, never again! I wont name names as my experiences with them were so awful it would attract legal threats probably. lol But if I tell you I went through 3 of their filters on 1 tank, and 2 on another, before finally getting the store to offer me an alternative and paying the difference.

I've also used Fluvals, and ran an 05 for many years before retiring the tank it was on. Although at first glance they don't seem as well built as some other makes (the priming mechanism always seemed flimsy to me) I've never actually had one break on me.

My final one would be the Hydor Primes. Quite basic filters, but I had a Prime 10 from the days when Interpet rebranded them that went on and on for about 10 years before packing up finally. They really are very basic filters, but I loved mine. It hand one thing going for it over the basic Eheims as well, that been no sucking on the pipe to prime it....

All that said, at the moment I'm only using the Eheim. lmao My other large tanks were retired.

Ade


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## Morgan Freeman (Jan 14, 2009)

I'm a Fluval guy. I really can't get on with Eheims, that's before I even look at the awful green tubes.


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## philo (Jul 7, 2009)

Get this one best value by far, easily better than all the previous ones !!!

1000L/H Aquarium Fish Tank External Canister Filter + 9W UV & Free Media HW-402B | eBay


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## jaykickboxer (Feb 11, 2008)

Maidenhead aquatics have A very good one there own make for 99 quid on special it's there largest apparently rivals a fx5 well worth a look I have a fx5 but debating putting one alongside mine If not second hand ul easy get a fx5 with media but bear in mind there huge so make sure u got a big cabinet mines like a bin


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## markn (Jul 29, 2010)

I looked at the MA ones today. If they are half as good as the spec sheet reads they are world beaters , lol. 
Does anyone on here use them?


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## jaykickboxer (Feb 11, 2008)

markn said:


> I looked at the MA ones today. If they are half as good as the spec sheet reads they are world beaters , lol.
> Does anyone on here use them?


My mate does reckons his is quality


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## Shellsfeathers&fur (Jan 18, 2009)

philo said:


> Get this one best value by far, easily better than all the previous ones !!!
> 
> 1000L/H Aquarium Fish Tank External Canister Filter + 9W UV & Free Media HW-402B | eBay


What a cheap unbranded one?


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## Shellsfeathers&fur (Jan 18, 2009)

markn said:


> I've just been on zooplus and found the eheim 2217 for £70. Is this a good filter, can you put the ceramic filter media in them too.


We just use Alfagrog.

A lot of turtle keepers use them and all good excellent reports. As I said spares are readily available and we have had no trouble with ours.

We got the first one from Zooplus and the other two my son found by a skip. He knocked at the house and the owner said they were free and if they weren't taken they would go in the skip. A couple of clips later and a new impeller, plus a very good clean, we had two excellent filters up and running!

For the outdoor turtle and fish ponds we have made our own filters, but use Alfagrog in them and in the small internal filters on the small tanks.


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## markn (Jul 29, 2010)

Ok , I've narrowed my choices down to the last 2. Both are the same price so have a look at the 2 links and see which you guys think I should get and what attracts you towards your choice ??


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## hemps123 (Nov 13, 2009)

cant see the links fella ??


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## markn (Jul 29, 2010)

Silly me , I forgot to add them. :blush:

Fluval External Filter 306


showroom


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

They're not the same price on those links. The Fluval is £101.99 whilst the Maidenhead one is £84.99.

That's a hard choice to make, as I have no experience with Maidenhead Aquatics filters, but have of Fluvals. If the price WAS the same, it would be a no brainer, I'd say go for the Fluval.

Can I offer an alternative though? The JBL e900 JBL Cristal Profi External Filter e-Series at zooplus. £70 for an excellent filter, free shipping and excellent customer support both from the sellers and JBL.

Ade


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## hemps123 (Nov 13, 2009)

ummm im a fluval man always have been !!! that said the aquamanta look's smart and on paper will do the job !!! um tiss a hard call :whistling2:
sorry mate im about as much help as a hand brake on a canoe !!!!:hmm:


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## markn (Jul 29, 2010)

........ and then the jbl e900 pops it's head up. 
Big dilemma now. I can't believe how cheap the e900 is , I'm wondering if they are discontinuing them and selling on cheap. Why sell the mid model cheaper than the entry level.


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

I wondered that myself, the only explanation I can think of is that the e700 and the larger one sell more, or they made a typo when putting the price on there. If you are concerned, drop them an email and ask, they reply quite promptly in my experience.

JBL do have another line of very similar filters out as well, with lower power usage, the greenline range with have a 1 on the end (eg. e901) which could be reason to sell the 'older' ones more cheaply. Plus JBL do release new filters fairly often. If it's any comfort to you, zooplus are selling the e901 for the exact same price as the e701, which does suggest that they aren't reducing their better selling filters quite as much perhaps. Linky if you want the power saving ones JBL CristalProfi greenline External Filter at zooplus. The greenline ones come with the bonus of having sintered glass media bundled with them. The e901 though is £20 more than the e900. A box of JBL Sintered glass is about £12 though from them, which means you are getting the lower energy usage for about £8.

I'm probably not helping much here. lol

Ade


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## markn (Jul 29, 2010)

The only real downside of the e900 seems to be the cost of replacement filter media. 
My brain is starting to hurt with all this thinking.


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Why would you replace the filter media? The sponges last MANY years, you only replace them when they fall apart on you. The sintered glass you should never need to replace. Filter floss you just use your floss of choice.

Ade


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## Morgan Freeman (Jan 14, 2009)

Replacement media? What's that?


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Morgan Freeman said:


> Replacement media? What's that?


The fluffy stuff in a bag for when you've rinsed and rinsed the woold pad/floss but it still blocks water flow. :lol2:

Ade


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## Graylord (Jul 17, 2007)

I'd always go eheim classic if you can . You can still get bits for Eheims made 40 years ago you won't get that from Hagen .


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Graylord said:


> I'd always go eheim classic if you can . You can still get bits for Eheims made 40 years ago you won't get that from Hagen .


You can still get replacement parts for a lidded bucket with a water pump on it, same thing as an Eheim classic. lol

Ade


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## markn (Jul 29, 2010)

The nitrate removal sponges are £22 a time. Surely you all know by now how anal I am about nitrates. Lol.


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## Graylord (Jul 17, 2007)

Wolfenrook said:


> You can still get replacement parts for a lidded bucket with a water pump on it, same thing as an Eheim classic. lol
> 
> Ade


Well all i can say is i've got an eheim 2213 here that i bought second hand 16 years ago and all i've replaced is the ceramic impellor shaft . Plus i've recently thrown away a wet and dry 2229 that only got dumped because i cracked the main body and float chamber and that was 12 years old with no replacement parts and despite running dry on several occasions down to my mis- management.


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## Morgan Freeman (Jan 14, 2009)

Wolfenrook said:


> The fluffy stuff in a bag for when you've rinsed and rinsed the woold pad/floss but it still blocks water flow. :lol2:
> 
> Ade


Well yeah, I suppose you should replace that! I'd never bother with the ceramic etc though


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## markn (Jul 29, 2010)

Morgan Freeman said:


> Well yeah, I suppose you should replace that! I'd never bother with the ceramic etc though


I've had the ceramics in my fluval for 3 years now. They're the hollow tube ones that came with it. This week I bought some new solid biomax and put that in just so the bacteria starts to grow on it ready for this new filter. I think my sponges are even older. 
I do keep recharching my nitrazorb pouches but it gets on my nerves having to keep doing it.


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Why the heck would you use nitrate sponges? An expensive way to reduce nitrates. Plus, the JBL filters have special sponges that come with that have a special removable bit to create a cavity where you can put a bag of the nitrate resin of your choice, like nitrazorb.

I've never ever used nitrate sponges or resins though. Plants are more cost effective. I am lucky however in that my tap water doesn't have high nitrate levels, so I just pass it through my HMA filter system. I have an RO system as well but don't use it for my aquariums.

Ade


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## markn (Jul 29, 2010)

Wolfenrook said:


> Why the heck would you use nitrate sponges? An expensive way to reduce nitrates. Plus, the JBL filters have special sponges that come with that have a special removable bit to create a cavity where you can put a bag of the nitrate resin of your choice, like nitrazorb.
> 
> I've never ever used nitrate sponges or resins though. Plants are more cost effective. I am lucky however in that my tap water doesn't have high nitrate levels, so I just pass it through my HMA filter system. I have an RO system as well but don't use it for my aquariums.
> 
> Ade


I'd love plants but my Malawis would destroy them. I could use RO water but it would cost a bomb doing 100+ litre a week changes with it and then using the ph adjuster to get the RO water up to ph 8.5. The nitrate removal sponges/resin is the cheapest option. 
What's a hma filtration system ?


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Heavy Metals Axe. Basically they remove chlorine, chloramine, hormones, nasty organics, 5 micron particles (rust etc), heavy metals etc etc, but don't remove the magnesium, calcium etc or change the pH. Sadly unless you add another pod they don't remove nitrate. Unlke an RO though there's NO waste. I've found using one works out a LOT cheaper than buying dechlorinators all of the time, plus it actually removes the nasties, rather than binding them etc but leaving them in the water, plus dechlorinators don't remove things like organics, bacteria cysts etc. This is the one I own: The Collins Water Products.

I was shocked by how much rust mine filtered out alone. The 5 micron pod is clear, and within a day of plumbing it in you could actually see that the cartridge was covered in rust particles.

It is a real shame though they don't come with a nitrate pod option. Dupla make an add on though that can be fitted to either an RO type filter or inline on an aquarium filtration system that would probably be fairly easy to hook up to a HMA for cheaper less wasteful preparation of your tap water. Dupla nitratfilter - nitrate filter | eBay Or you could probably buy an empty pod and use a nitrate removal resin of your choice in it. Something like this The Collins Water Products and once the DI is exausted bin it (or better yet, replace it to start with, as DI would leave you with water about as soft as you can get. lol), or try to source a similar pod that's empty, and replace with nitrate resin (if used on hard water DI resins exhaust VERY quickly, so although this also reduces nitrates it would become quite expensive to run using DI resin if your water isn't soft).

There's always a way around things, sometimes it might cost more to start with but usually with a long term saving.

Anyway, no reason you couldn't use your nitrazorb in a JBL filter just the same as in any other filter. I rarely use the same brand media as the make of the filter.

Ade


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Found some empty ones:-

Cartridge 10" Refillable Insert For Use In Filter Housing - Vyair (UK) Ltd

Housing 10" Single Stage Filter 3/4" Thread - Vyair (UK) Ltd

You get the idea anyway, a DIY nitrate filter. Would probably work for Goldie as well. Just fill the cartridge with a nitrate resin of your choice.

Ade


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## goldie1212 (Mar 5, 2010)

the way i read up about nitrate removing medias/resins etc they need extremely s l o w flow and so cannot be added to a normal filter? is this right?


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

The honest answer is, I don't know. However the beauty of the items I linked to is they can be used to make your own tapwater filter to remove the nitrates directly from tap water, or better yet bolted on to a metalex/HMA filter to add nitrate removal to these. That way you can lower nitrate levels via dilution from water changes, as is usually the favoured method.

You could of course also add a loop to 1 side of your external filter to divert SOME water from the outlet of it through a nitrate filter as an alternative. Something like Filter-Y piece-2 taps then 1 side back to the tank, the other to the nitrate filter and then the tank, allowing you to pass water through it at a much lower flow rate than through your actual filter. I happen to know a person who did this in order to run a UV steriliser on their aquarium WITHOUT having to use a separate pump, as these also need very very low flow rates.

I know you guys are having really problems with nitrates, hence I've tried to find you a workable solution.  Another way is a well lit sump planted with water cress rooted into something like AquaClay ground, water cress been known to be a VERY effective vegetable filter. The problem with that is the ability to reduce nitrates is directly proportionate to the size of the water cress bed, you could end up needing a pond to get the same reduction as you would get from more costly resins.

Makes me glad I chose the planted tanks route all those years ago. lol

Ade


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## markn (Jul 29, 2010)

I went to maidenhead aquatics today and bought this. 
showroom
It's an absolute beast of a filter.


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## snake007 (May 21, 2011)

Go for a tetratec ex1200 best external by far!


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## Stan193 (May 27, 2009)

Wolfenrook said:


> Heavy Metals Axe. Basically they remove chlorine, chloramine, hormones, nasty organics, 5 micron particles (rust etc), heavy metals etc etc, but don't remove the magnesium, calcium etc or change the pH. Sadly unless you add another pod they don't remove nitrate. Unlke an RO though there's NO waste. I've found using one works out a LOT cheaper than buying dechlorinators all of the time, plus it actually removes the nasties, rather than binding them etc but leaving them in the water, plus dechlorinators don't remove things like organics, bacteria cysts etc. This is the one I own: The Collins Water Products.
> 
> I was shocked by how much rust mine filtered out alone. The 5 micron pod is clear, and within a day of plumbing it in you could actually see that the cartridge was covered in rust particles.
> 
> ...


That's interesting, I currently just add dechlorinator but have never been really happy with the fact that it's just binding with the nasties and leaving them in there plus not keen on the fact I'm adding another chemical. How do you go about getting your water to the correct temperature? could you just take the shower attachement off and connect the HMA to the shower hose and use the mixer tap to get it to the correct temp? My tanks are pretty big so water changes are a pain, I'm always looking to make it easier for myself.


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

We have our HMA plumbed in using a washing machine tap and hose, then a big long length of filter hose on the filtered side. If you run a long enough length you can just set it up to trickle into the aquarium directly, it wont be running fast enough to effect temperature much.

I tend to use a 25 litre Lichfield camping Jerry can though. I just leave it long enough to reach room temperature, doesn't take long. I don't heat my tropical tanks, as the majority of tropical fish flourish at 22 to 24 degrees Celsius, and seem to enjoy the slight drop in temperature they get during water changes.

I actually got my HMA when I was keeping more freshwater shrimp. They're often very sensitive to what is in the water, more so than fish, and I found some shrimp would go belly up using dechlorinators. Sometimes even the dechlorinator upsets them. lol I'd never go back now, just seeing what the 5 micron prefilter removes is enough to keep me using it.

Ade


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