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Does anyone have any experience with this filter?

It looks pretty fancy so it gets points for that but does it actually do all the things it says it does? why is the volume of filter media so low?

Well the trouble with fluval is that in their advertising blurb they try to make features out of functions that get taken for granted in other filters. Self priming is useful, but was never really a problem to begin with, flush valves for cleaning are usually useless cos you really should get in there to clean it anyway, you might only want to wash some of the media, and you certainly might not want to use tapwater to do it. Their easy lock valve system is basically a piece of plastic that tends to leak and move around in its 45 degree angle, it also makes the filter very tall and hideous if you want to double valve it for easy removal.

At 5.9 lites capacity its not that huge on media space because the baskets dont fit snug to the well inside, that incidentally is a fundamental design flaw with most fluval canisters. They try to make up for it with a high flow rate to supercharge the bacterial colony. It works, but it clogs faster. The anti clogging mechanism is just a stupid internal mesh that most filters have, it wont stop much clogging. Then you look at the ring seals etc, used in a way that they erode and break regularly , whereas the equivalent seals in an eheim are tiny, a 3 rd of the price, and not likely to break for about 5 years longer.They dont get rolled squeezed and stretched everytime you open the canister.

Its cheap, and it will do, but its not really the same league as an ehaim pro three series. I think when getting to this league of filter, with the ability to process a 300 gallon plus tank, eheims reliiability comes into its own. There is no substitute
If youre really in the big leagues , pay the money. Youll have less maintenance to do, less parts to go through, and a totally different league of reliability.

If you have a 200 gal tank plus, with expensive stock,and no doubt a significan emotional commitment too, and you wanted a single filter, you'd go german. If I wanted to go on holiday for a month, I could leave my eheims running and come back in a month to find the flow slowed a little but running perfectly well, with a fluval id have to cut my trip short after two weeks to come back home and unclog it. Plus cleaning a flival is irritating.

Then you have the motor, Should a filter clog for any reason, your average fluvil will go on till it overheats and start to melt, eheims tend to cut out when they overheat, and given a while to cool can usually be unclogged and restarted again. The eheim motor is in a different league. Its not unusual for eheim motors to run almost uninterrupted for almost 15 years.

Then you have fluval hose connectors, you need anything up to 3 pieces per joint, the spray bars, outlets are not self gripping.Its just bloody irritating. With eheim connectors end goes into hose , thats it, never comes apart, unless you pull on it like an angry chimp, and no faffing about.Plus you have half a chance of getting a pipe cleaner through without it getting stuck in a connector. Thusly you can clean pipes without taking them off the tank and fighting with them in a sink.


Have you had to deal with the locklids on their baskets yet? Fluval baskets warp when you twist them, plus are made of the cheapest plastic youve ever seen. Eheim baskets by comparison need no lid, and they will probably be hanging about in the environment till sunflares scorch the earth Plus eheim impellor spindles last ages and fluval ones are crap.A fluval takes me about 10 minutes to clean, I can dump out an eheim in two, and have more chance of putting it together again without a leak.

The word that applies most to fluval is irritating. If youre on a budget , I guess you have to put up with that kind of thing. It worth shelling out the extra $100 for a pro 3. Your stress levels will thank you.

Well its not often that I disagree with LHG . However in this instance , I have both a Eheim pro series and a Fluval FX5 . The reason I went to Fluval was my disenchantment with the Eheim , mainly over the priming issue . Getting the damm thing to restart was an complete pain in the . I dread cleaning time on the Eheim as I always end up having to manually fill and carry the damm thing back to the tank and then hope it will start pumping .
The greasing of the priming mechanism is also something that not many talk about , another pain .


So far( 14 weeks ) the FX5 is superior in nearly every way . The self priming on the FX5 works a treat .The connectors & pipe IMO work very well,they are no trouble to clean and unlike the Eheim plastic don't crimp .The Intake and Outtake have brackets to keep them firmly in place whereas the Eheim ones move every time you start to work in the tank .
The FX5 pumps out using its motor making lifting it out from the cabinet very easy .Cleaning is as simple and efficent as the Eheim. So far I've run the FX5 for 6 and 7 weeks before it needed cleaning , it did not clog or cause any issues .The locking of the lid on the FX5 is far superior to the Eheim IMO.

So you get the idea, I could go on , but my experience so far is that I made the right choice. I can't speak for longevity of the FX5 or Fluvals in general . That may be an issue as LHG points out . The Germans are good at making machines that last. But so far I would pick the FX5 over Eheim and I will not have another Eheim until they fix the issues which I think the FX5 addresses .

Garry

I am an Eheim user and would go for any thing else. Yes they cost more and the reason is that they are made for quality not a price.

It is not how much water it filters per hour but how it filters it. This is often a selling point for cheeper copies of Eheims.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Wow! eheim eheim eheim!

so sick of hearing about eheim!

Contrary to most advice in this thread I DIDNT buy an eheim. (what was I thinking right?)

Second of all for future reference, the reason the filter media volume is so small is because the sponges encasing the baskets isnt included in overall media specifications. Thank you long haired git for making up an answer that turned out to be nothing more than your distain for the fluval brand.

In future, I will keep my questions to myself

Hey, you asked!

Ford or honda, acer or alienware, ikea or handmade. You get what you pay for.

A filter is a life support system for fish, not an IPOD. If features matter more than reliability for you, then go buy a cheaper filter. Either way its not a damn thing to be moody about.

You hear eheim because thats what happens when a manufacturer makes something that doesnt break. If fluvals were better designed and more reliable you'd be hearing me cry "fluval" all the time.

Noticeably you don't.

Lots of people go for other filters just to find in a year or two , that musty old eheim that looked outmoded is the only thing left in the house still running. It will be there when other filters fall apart, and when you can no longer get the parts for them.

I rather like eheim because as a company they havent fallen down on the knees of "lightbulb " manufacturing. That is to say, they dont make it to break in 2-3 years , and these days thats quite a rare thing.

If im predjudiced against fluval its because of two major reasons, 1) they are pretty irritating to live with, and 2) whenever I talk to someone who just managed to minicyle their fish to death there it is. A fluval.

Your gonna get opinions dude, if you dont want, dont ask.


http://www.hagen.com/pdf/aquatic/FX5_user_manual_EN.pdf

Look at the basket and foam layers, then look again, and it'll click. I was referring to the gap outside of the foam layers.As for putting foam round the media itself.....

...well only fluval would have thought of that one. Thats a lot of foam you'll be getting through, plus the joy of packing it. Enjoy. Per filter sold eheim and fluval both get their money out of you one way or another, with eheim the costs are the media and up front, with the fluvals its unique sizes and connector hell, the sort of thing that sony and apple do to irritate everyone. And youll get through a lot of media. Pros and cons.

Hey you must choose whats right for you. Its a lot of money to spend. Go in forewarned. Especially now the pro 3 series is out, the other older models are getting cheaper.

Bottom line, more stuff there is on a filter the more stuff there is to break. Nerdism with techy bits is for computer lovers. When you want a simple bit of physics to do a simple job, choose something solid , and likely to last. Especially when a product is fairly new , and product testimonials basically worthless. Filter reliability is monitored in years , even decades. This filter compared to the older eheim models has been out for about five minutes. Eheims tend to run on evolutionary principles, a lot of other filters are just a new bucket stuck on another motor, every bit as good as the preceding one


Fools rush in and all that. It might prove to be a great filter, but I guess we'll see. I'll sit here and watch it all come out in the wash, after all, its not my life that depends on the filter.I dont suffer from brand loyalty, I just go after the proof.

My fluval record, two burnouts, 6 connector splits/leaks, regular seal failure, 2 impellor breakages, 2 case cracks, and one motor stop permanently for no apparent reason, 1 had the magneto drive lose magnetic properties on 505 of the rotation. Noise, and media bypass. You see, for many years where I live fluval was all I could get.

Then I found eheim via mail order. 12 filters up and running, old canisters, aquaballs, and pro series.All give excellent performance. Breakages? 2 spindles, and 6 ring seals. In 15 years. Aside from that , just in tank plastic piping breaking because of the UV, but all tanks with lights get that eventually. Nothing that wasnt easily repaired or that I could get spares for. They had colonies in the big externals so healthy that I didnt get minicycles even after a series of 3-6 hour power outages over the course of last year.

Springtime . LHG is right , you asked and its good to ask these sort of questions and try
to draw on the experience of others .You still have to make your own decision after
weighing all the opinions .All the people here are only trying to help . Its not much use
getting annoyed at others experiences or opinions .

Don't shut yourself off from the massive amount of help you can get here by not asking .
You may not change your mind and thats your choice .
Remember its always up to you what you do

Good luck with your new Filter

Garry

please refer to my original question!

Pretty sure I didnt say "what filter would you buy and why"

I asked specific questions about a specific filter. maybe instead of spending 30 minutes writing a long winded answer you could spare 30 seconds to read the question?

I found this at another site I was hoping to get a good opinion on both filters for you.
I recently asked a Eheim dealer at a LFS why is he selling Fluval when they are very big with Eheim (I also asked same question at another LFS) supprisingly I got the same answer it is a choice if I dont sell the ""cheaper"" brands they will go elswhere and I could loose a good customer. Both stated they prefer the Eheims as they have less problems with them. I hope this helps you.

Here Is what I found for you
CONCLUSION A matter of price
While the Eheim is the clear winner in the performance stakes the decision is not clear cut. The Eheim is the better biological performer and has a better % flowrate when full. Its a lot quieter and holds a lot more media and uses less power then the Fluval. So its a no brainer to the Eheim on most areas right? Well no ... The fluval still does a excellent job its a bit easier to set up and it does a slightly better job at mechanical filtration and and here is the big kicker .... IT IS ABOUT HALF THE PRICE

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

for the price of the pro3 everyones recommending you could easy put in a 125gallon sump with a good quality pump that is superior to the eheim in many ways

i have personally used this filter up untill recently on a 240g tank, its a very good filter if taken care of. If i remember correctly your tank is about 180G and your interested in Africans, should do the job very well for you...

Though ill tell you now...don't skimp on maintenance (broken impeller)

My record
Fluval (one broken impeller)
Eheim (one unit caught fire set off the smoke alarm and blew the houses electricity) (my fault lol)

---

''All the clown fish and yellow tangs in the world cant save you now!''

springtime, you got what I thought was a fairly complete answer to the original question. You got the manual, what I thought of the filter, and an alternative and how it compares to the competition.

Refer to original answer . Try reading it this time, not my fault of you cant cope with more than two sentances. To wit, the media volume is low because the design is crap, and what do we think of it, well its ok, but there are better filters out there.

Reboot brain. Try being less offensive.