When my Penn-Plax canister gave up, this was the least expensive replacement on-line. I took a chance and ordered it. It arrived before the projected delivery date, in good shape, complete except for the "blue sponge pad" which was in the instruction diagram but may not have been an actual componenet my first complaint: the instructions leave a lot to be desired. I assembled the pump and fired it up. The ultra-violet light was an altogether new concept to me it seems to be doing a great job...my water remains clear and apparently bacteria free.
My fish give this 5 stars, but they don't have to maintain it. My last two compaints are in the cleaning and servicing area: There's no handle to carry it by grab with both hands and hang on and it has to be full of water for the siphon to effectively start...no big deals, but Penn Plax had that covered with their Cascade filters.
A neat feature is the inlet tube, which has a built in cleaning tube connection so you can vacumm your tank with a siphon-type cleaner by removing a cap and attaching your siphon hose to it and vacumm your gravel...at least I think that's what it is, as the instructions completely avoid this feature, but it works.
The inlet/outlet hose disconnect seems to be a good idea, but I haven't cleaned my hoses yet it's very simple to disconnect a big plus for me, as my filter sits inside a cabinet that's not much wider than the filter.
I use my filter to filter not set up a colony of bacteria to biologically control the water, so the ceramic filter "beads" get no special attention, and the filter pads get rinsed along with the charcoal bag (which is an excellent addition as it can be unzipped and refilled if needed).
This is a 3 stage filter which can be easily cleaned. Detailed instructions,a carrying handle and the ability to start the siphon with no water in the filter would make cleaning easier (this cost them one star) but it's not a major inconveience my filter is housed in a narrow cabinet. If it were sitting on the floor, it would be no problem. The ultra-violet light, siphon attachment on the intake tube and tubing and fittings are positive additions. In the past six weeks, I've cleaned my filter once it's due again, but I'd say 3 weeks is what I'll be looking at, and my tank is crowded...fewer fish would make for fewer cleanings. I'd recommend it to a friend, and if I ever get another tank, this is the filter I'll buy.
You cannot get a better canister filter for the price. The water in my tank is crystal clear. When this came in I was missing the outlet cover but I e-mailed the company and they sent one to me no charge. The only thing I would make a little more detailed is the instruction booklet. The hoses are a little tricky to get on at first and priming it is not as easy as the video makes it seem but once all of that is done, it is wonderful. So far so good!
Buy Aquatop CF400UV 4-Stage Canister Filter with UV 9W, 370 gph Now
I have a 1-year old 25-gallon marine tank with live rock/sand, 1 Chromis, 1 Damsel:
My canister filter has been going for over a month now and greatly outdoes my last filter. My fish look great, the water is clearer. You can't imagine how happy I was to find the filter with a UV Sterilizer built in. This saved so much space and a ton of money! After working in a petstore over 3 years, I am very impressed with this product and would compare it with Eheim and Fluval, except the Aquatop filters look nicer. Overall, very pleased.
Read Best Reviews of Aquatop CF400UV 4-Stage Canister Filter with UV 9W, 370 gph Here
Below is my review I posted a while back, a very happy customer. I remained a very happy customer until last week when I went to put my hand in the tank to get some floating veggies left over from my turtle's eating. THE WATER SHOCKED ME!! I immediately unplugged everything, not knowing what was doing it (heaters...water current pump). I plugged them in one by one and it was this! I couldn't believe it, but when this one was plugged in the water had a electric current. My husband thought I was crazy, since the only part of the filter that goes into the water is plastic, but it was. So I open up the canister, and the light bulb glass was cracked and filled with water. I have no idea how this happened because I hadn't changed it in weeks, and the water wasn't electric the day before (I have to scoop out his left overs daily). I guess since water was getting inside the bulb carpment it was carring the electic current into the tank. It wasn't a strong current, and oddly my turtle didn't seem to even notice. However it was a little concerning for me, and I am sure fish wouldn't have survived.
SO JUST BEWARE AND KEEP AN EYE ON THE GLASS AROUND THE BULB.
PREVOUS REVIEW BEFORE ALMOST DIEING (JK)....
I went from a 20 gallon aquarium to a 55 gallon one, and my Marineland-PC0250HSB-Magnum-55-Gallon-250GPH just wasn't doing to job. I have a 7 inch red eared slider. I needed something more powerful, but didn't want to spend over $100. After reading TONS of reviews, I felt this was the most bang for the buck. It's for an aquarium double the size I have, but turtles are dirty.
I was also having some surface algea which I had never had in the smaller tank. I used to have algea eaters, but now that he is bigger, he pretty much as ate all his tank mates, even the snails. He has a dock that sits above the water, and there was algea on the steps that I would have to clean off, and on the top of the peebles on the flooring. I started to get one of those UV algea power heads, but this I saw this, and thought maybe it would handle both needs. IT DID!!! I didn't see anything about surface algea (only green water) on the reviews, but took a chance and thought it might work. I did a half water change, and hook the this bad boy up, I purposely left all the surface algea. By two days later, it had vanished.
I never really had a problem with dirty water, but in true turtle fashion, he likes to dig a lot in his gravel. My old filter would get clogged up in two weeks with out fail. And if it was a really active digging day, he could get the water very cloudy. With this one, I don't see any debris. As soon as he stirs it up, the filter knocks it out.
I really like the return bar also. Instead of a pouring sound like the old one made (where the return is just a single pipe with a directional flow head) that just made me have to pee all the time, this is more like a water fall or fountain sound. It also has the option of extending the return lower to put it closer to the water, and lessen the noise. If have fish, and the tank is full, I guess this would be under water so you would hear it at all. He likes swimming through the bubble water the return creates, and I guess this might help with oxygenation of the water too for fish. The only fish that I put in there are food...so I am not worried about that.
The canister itself is very sturdy. The only "cheap" parts I wasn't impressed were the plastic parts that actually go into the tank, but they seem to work fine. I didn't have to buy anything special except filter media. To start I used exactly what the directions recommended. Sponge in the bottom, charcoal in the middle, and bio balls in the top. Seems to work fine, I can always adjust it later. The light is inside a thing, so you dont' have to worry about breaking it. It went together fine, and was pretty easy even without directions. I filled the canister up before attempting to prime it, because it is huge. I can't imagine trying to fill the whole thing with priming button. Priming went smoothly, and it started right up.
I will update this if something changes, but on day 5 I am thrilled.
Want Aquatop CF400UV 4-Stage Canister Filter with UV 9W, 370 gph Discount?
There are really only 2 extraordinary things about this filter: the low price, and the quietness during operation. Everything else is either mediocre or substandard.
While the added UV sterilizer is interesting, everything I ever learned about those was that flow rate had to be low, in order to increase dwell time, and allow the UV light to kill the baddies. What would a 9 Watt UV sterilizer do at a 370 Gallons per hour flow rate? To be fair, I ran the UV for a day, and it did clear up some stubborn biological cloudiness from the tank maintenance. So the UV does *something* at least.
I needed to replace an aging Eheim on my 90 gallon Cichlid tank. Those fish are beautiful to look at, but they really know how to pig-up an aquarium. I needed good flow rate, and I wanted to eliminate dead spots in the tank, so the plan was to run 2 canisters. This would allow drawing water from both rear corners, and the returns would cross over at the middle. I needed 5/8" tubing in order to run an inline water heater. I also didn't want to spend a fortune. This filter seemed to be "the one", so I bought 2 of them.
Firstly, these filters are not particularly robust in design. The latches, shut-off lever, intakes, spray bars, etc. are all pretty flimsy. Nothing broke out-of-box, but down the road I fully expect for some breakage to occur, after repeated actuations.
Secondly, I was greeted with a very strong chemical smell when I opened each new filter. I opted to be safe, and I rinsed everything off, and ran fresh water through each unit. I then left everything out in the sun (under a skylight) to allow for outgassing of whatever it was that I was smelling.
There were also plastic shavings all over the interior of the filters, and there was excess silicone lubricant all over the top half of each unit. An impeller cover had also worked its way loose in transit, but that was no biggie.
Some of the fittings for the spray bars did not mate together well; I had to break out the teflon tape to add to the O.D. of one of the fittings to allow for proper fitment. If I hadn't it would have leaked all over the place.
The media baskets seemed a bit on the small side for a canister filter of this flow rate, but maybe it's just me. The Aqua Top chemical and biological media is pretty pathetic, in my opinion. There were a lot of ceramic rings stuck together, that I had to separate, and the carbon bags were utterly ridiculous. I've never had to rinse carbon so many times before.
In summary, the filter is inexpensive, it moves water, it's inexpensive, it's quiet, and it's inexpensive. Did I mention that it's inexpensive? But the build quality is nowhere near that of most of the competition. If you're OK with that, and are on a budget, this is probably the filter for you. If you light your cigars with $100 bills, move along, there's nothing here to see.
I have a water garden with large Koi. I have used this product for years whenever I need to add water. My Koi fish are healthy and breeding, this product really works. I recommend it to anyone who has a water garden with fish of any kind.
