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So far I got my hands on 3 different filters which I will describe and comment below, according to my own experience. Again I am not an expert and I only provide these in the hope it will help someone. Two are HOB (Hang on Back) filters, the Kotobuki and the Fluval, while the third one, my favorite, is the Eden 521 canister filter. I will describe them in the order I have discovered them, not only because it's easier for me but also because I hope it will feel more logical and bring more value than a purely technical review (which anyway I wouldn't be able to give).
That's the filter that came with the aquarium when I got it on second hand. Like most brands, this filter comes with a set of pads made by the manufacturer that they hope to sell you at a high price over and over. But I never bought another cartridge or whatever the brand advised for the filter. Instead I just used to cut my own foam and add some biomedia. Yes, just fill it up with foam, maybe different coarse levels if you wish/can but that's not even required. What really helped to keep the filter from clogging was the prefilter which is given with the filter, right before the input, inside the water column. This prevents bigger debris from entering the filter and helps the filter keep a more constant flow.
Servicing the Kotobuki Profit Filter X3 is super easy. Each part can be easily removed and washed separately in the tank's old water during water change. Removing the whole filter is also easy, and there is no leakage when unplugging the pump from the rest of the filter... unlike the Fluval :) With my heavy bioload (around 15 prisoners) I had to clean the filter almost every week, as I would notice the flow drop. However, it ran for 3 weeks when I had long holidays, only it didn't look pretty and needed immediate attention... the next day.
The Kotobuki Profit Filter X3 operates very silently as the engine (the water pump) is underwater. Also the "waterfall" from the filter back into the water column didn't produce much noise, because the plastic slide on this filter is quite long and accompanies the water gently back into the water column. That was a major point for my aquarium which I only discovered later could be a huge issue (see below the Fluval C3 part).
This filter didn't have enough filtering capacity for a 30gal planted tank. It took me a while to understand that the water quality and flow played such an important role in the small ecosystem. Some plants in the aquarium seemed to do better than others, but when I cut them and replanted in another part, they didn't grow or look as happy.
I've run it for one year and a half without any problem or leakage or anything of the sort. The assemly/disassembly makes the maintenance easy. It doesn't create much noise and sits nicely in the living room. Only when I look at it now, I feel it doesn't have enough capacity for a planted 30 gal (110L) aquarium. It could still sit nicely in a smaller aquarium without much decor I guess. Or in a very barebone 30gal with a big rock in the middle, basic substrate and few or no plant (poor fishies). Overall I really liked the Profit Filter X3, too bad it wasn't enough for a planted tank of 110L (30 gal).
I've found this one in the trash one day, I was so excited! It looked like one of my neighbours decided to drop their old tank and let go of this ~80 USD beast just like that. It was incomplete though, so I had to buy the intake and outake tubes and pipes separately. It didn't have the fancy edged foam either sold by Eden. I filled both compartments with only biomedia, the middle compartment still had square foam, and I wrapped some more foam around the intake, in the water column. With this filter I discovered canister filters at low cost, and this is still my favorite today.
This is of course the worst part for this kind of filter, but you only need to do it once a month on average, depending on your bioload. I still haven't found a proper way to drop the biomedia in the bucket, wash them, and put them back. I use my hands and it takes some time. What makes it worse than other filters is that it holds more waste as the foam parts are bigger, so there's more to clean. It roughly takes me around 30 mins to clean this filter. I also had to change the intake and outake pipes after one year usage. I noticed at some point some white goo coming out of the tube, which I guess was compacted nitrifying bacteria. That disappeared once i changed the tubes with new ones.
Almost none. One can only hear the gentle humming of the pump in the background. It's quite soothing actually.
I think it's ideal for my size of aquarium, providing more than enough filtration capacity to keep the maintenance down to once a month, while also providing enough flow to keep the plants on the opposite side moving just a bit. There is also the possibility to turn down the flow of the input/output, if it's ever too much.
This is the best filtering solution I've come accross so far. Maintenance is decent enough that I don't spend all week ends on it, while the filtration is just right for me. One thing I've noticed with this filter, using the spray bar, is that it doesn't provide much surface agitation, unlike the HOB. As consequence (and maybe because I live nearby a fried stuff restaurant), I noticed a protein film (aka biofilm) forming on the surface. It's not much at first, and most people say it's not dangerous. So I let grow (let it groooow), to the point that some long white string fungus thingy started to form. Now that I've bought the same filter again after the failed experience with the Fluval C3 (see below), I think I will remove the original intake bar and replace it with a surface skimmer, to keep pristine water surface.
The Eden 521 I've found in the trash eventually broke. One of the plastic attachements of the tube near the canister itself got teared down. I think the Eheim tubes I attached to it were too rigid. With too many manipulations, they eventually broke the plastic attachement. Before stumbling upon the Eden 521, I was already checking other HOB options, and Fluval of course came into considerations. It felt nicely designed, adapted to 30 gal and the consumption of 5W compared to the 17W of the Eden was somehow the selling point. Little did I know I was in for a shock.
I had to clean this filter once every two weeks. But ideally, I should have done it every week to maintain a constant filtering flow, as it seems my bioload was enough to clog this filter in about 1½ week. What I had to do with the Kotobuki was to plug it off, pull everything out of the water, and put everything in the bucket of dirty water during a water change. Hell I could dump everything but the plug in the water. Not with the Fluval, for several reasons.
First off, the pump on the Fluval is external, meaning if you detach that part first, the remaining water stuck in the filter will flow in your living room. Lesson learnt. So you unplug the filter first, get everything out and hang it on the back of your bucket while you tear it apart. Second, there are so many parts to wash and dissassemble, it really feels like playing Lego. The biomedia room seems also overengineered and won't let you put much biomedia in it. Unless you use the super small Fluval ones of course. Maybe there are some other, offbrand small biomedia available ? I didn't keep this filter long enough to find out.
I made another mistake here, failing to consider the height between the top of my water column and the top of my aquarium, where the filter would sit. It was about 5 cm. The slide of the C3 filter is about 2cm high and 5cm long. Meaning I ended up having a constant water fall of 3cm by 5cm (15cm²). It may not seem much but compared to the gentle humming of the Eden 521, it was Niagara Falls. Not only that, but with water evaporation because of increased surface movement, the gap widened by the day and so did the noise. And no, I don't want to add water to the aquarium everyday just for that reason. Also, the water pump being external, it will make some noise, nothing disturbing though. In my case it was covered by Niagara Falls anyway. Last but not least, because the Fluval C3 has so many different parts, if you misplace one, if one ceramic tube is touching a bit the roof of the media room, or if the intake tube is slightly off, there will be some vibration and extra noise, which you will want to investigate.
And here is the main reason why I had to let go of this ~70USD HOB filter: I felt it just didn't put enough flow in my aquarium. It's very decent, and can be quite powerful actually when the filter is just cleaned. But because it clogged quite rapidly, I ended up spending several days with a mediocre flow. Also, but that's my own setup, since I had java ferns at the back of the tank, the waterfall would hit the ferns and eventually damage them. I had the same problem with the Kotobuki mind you.
It feels like I didn't think this through enough, and cumulated my own mistakes with the inner problems of the Fluval. In the end I got very disappointed, angry at myself for buying this filter. Especially on the Niagara Falls which was the tipping point for me: too much noise in the living room. Had I had this filter instead of the Kotobuki in the first place, I would have adapted. But now that I'm Expert level 20 (huhu), its quirks I cannot accept anymore. I ended up selling it on second hand market place, and bought a brand new Eden 521 for myself, and that's what I'm running now.
Last edited on: 2021-03-14
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