I have been running a Rena XP3 canister filter on my 90 gallon freshwater aquarium for a few weeks now. My initial comment is that this is the easiest cannister filter to prime that I have ever owned. Having done the suck-the-hose-and-spit routine, and the restart-repeatedly routine with other filters, this filter is a joy. It's virtually self-priming. With the filter UNplugged, you simply remove the little cap from the top of the intake tube which you have placed on the upper rim of your aquarium, and pour a cup of water into it via the funnel that is provided, and the filter does the rest. The filter fills with water from the tank in 1 to 2 minutes; you then plug it in, and you're in business. Once I had the hoses connected and the filter's easy-disconnect valve closed, it took me less than 2 minutes to be fully functional.
The only issue here and this is crucial is that you MUST NOT FORCE the intake/output disconnect valve lever down into a locked position; i.e., you must be certain that it's seated on the top of the filter correctly, and then GENTLY PUSH the lever down. If you feel resistance, you don't have it seated correctly. Just wiggle it into position, and gently push the lever down. It locks into place and you are ready to self-prime it as described above. I am sure that there are some people out there who have impatiently tried to force the connect-disconnect lever into a locked position, and thereby damaged the lever and/or housing. Ordinary prudent gentleness is required here.
The interior of the cannister is extremely flexible as to the placement of media. There are several stacking trays inside that you can fill with any media that your heart desires. Rena has a broad array of sponges with different filtration densities and media pouches to choose from, and you can add more (OR DIFFERENT) media as you so choose. The media pouches are typically outrageously priced in LFS stores, but quite affordable through Amazon and online aquarium suppliers.
In addition to two grades of sponges and 3 other media that came with the filter, I added a wad of the same biological filtration ribbon that I use in my koi pond bio filters, placed into one of the empty trays (clean and unused media) to lend more support for development of nitrifying bacteria.
There is no media-water bypass with this filter because of it's central upward flow design. Crystal clear water is the result. Nitrite cycling jump started at two weeks with one of the packaged non-refrig bio product has gone off without a hitch. After doing a basic gravel clean with the python, the somewhat clouded water cleared of sediment to crystal clear within 20 minutes in my 90 gallon tank.
And is this filter as silent as they claim? Absolutely silent. I find myself looking to see if the plants are waving in a current, just to make sure the thing is still running. Just amazing. No overheating either.
As to customer service .... I had a very good experience. I had thought from reading Rena's website that there should have been a venturi included with the canister. So I emailed them after-hours, asking "where is the venturi", and gave them my phone number. Early the next morning, I got a call from the technical support folks, telling me that the venturi had been fazed out a few years ago because they felt it didn't add much to the effectiveness of the filter, and that no, I wasn't missing anything. Very prompt, courteous and professional communication. [But, Rena, if you are reading this, please update your website diagrams to reflect the absence of a venturi on current models. I think this is more than just a static page caching issue.]
I would highly recommend this Rena Filstar XP3 to potential buyers.
I have been running an XP3 & XP2 continuously for several years now with no problems. I admit, in this time I have had no need to contact customer service as I have had no problems. I run them with quartz sphere biological media, chemi-pure and or puri-gem, and the sponges that come with the filter.
What I like about them.
Quiet.
High flow rate.
Good volume of media capacity.
Flexibility potential for media used.
Easy to clean.
Flexible water return setup options once you are to the tank
Issues I wish were better.
Morer flexible hose as part of the package would ease set up. What they give you is fine and heavy duty, but its stiffness make is difficult to set up and puts a twist warp on the direction/position of the intake siphon tube and on return mechanisms at the tank. The stiff hose should be replaced and quality stainless steel band screw clamp to secure tubes to fittings allowing more flexible setup and changes to the set up. Once you set up with the current hose supplied with the kit you will have great difficulty getting it apart to change your setup.
The siphon tube sections don't hold together well sometimes and are easily knocked apart when doing water changes and tank cleaning for example. A snugger joining of pieces would be nice. I also don't like the light blue color of the siphon tube. I wish it were clear.
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Rena/Mars Fishcare is the worst company I have ever dealt with. The customer service is a joke. If you can get someone to answer the phone or return your messages all they will do is make you jump through hoops until you are so frustrated you just give up. The whole time your fish suffer. I purchased an XP filter and it quit working after 2 weeks. You're better off spending your money on ANY OTHER FILTER.
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I have no idea why this filter is so expensive except to guess that the US dollar is low. This unit does have it's fans but I will tell you that the unit is full of liabilities. LEAKS is the achilles heal of any filter and completely unacceptable. The inlet and outlet to the pump is only sealed by two small o-rings. The quick detach unit is not so secure that slight pull by the tubing can cause leaks. Even worse, if there is any outlet load whatsoever, the unit will leak. Forget trying to hook a uv sterilizer or CO2 chamber to the outflow--I would not trust the unit not to leak. Also, the leak is not immediately noticeable. It will leak into the top pump unit and then start to trickle out hours later. I keep mine in a plastic bin because I have had multiple episodes of leaks. MULTIPLE!!!
Another area of problem has to do with cheapness also. The impeller cover has small plastic ridges that hold it in place. Unfortunately the tolerances of cheap plastic is not so good that the cover has popped off, which creates a lot of noise and limits the output of the unit dramatically. Of course, warranty is only as good as the provider. I called Rena/API and was promised a replacement cover. None was received.
No filter canister is perfect but I will take the simplicity of a Eheim Classic 2217 over the XP3 any day.
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I received my test kit in a timely manner only to find out that the solutions were outdated. For those that don't know on the API test kits each bottle has a lot number, the last 4 numbers correspond to the date of which they were bottled, so if the last four digits read 0607 then the solution was bottled on June of 2007. API says that their solutions are good for 3 years, I always change my kits out every year (better to be safe than sorry). My suggestion would be to not purchase these kinds of kits over the internet unless you know for sure that they are not outdated.
