Everybody likes talking about filters! Seriously, everyone has an opinion and I'm certainly no different.
I've used in tank filters, AIO, HoBs, Sponge Filters, and off the shelf canister filters like Oase, Sunsun, Fluval, Pennplex etc. But my favorite filter by a large margin is not actually a brand but a type.
My go-to filter is a stainless steel canister filter that is more or less a knock off of the ADA Jet style filter. They look like this:
These are just stainless steel buckets with a pump attached to the lid. The insides of the filters lack baskets typically and other then a little stand to keep the internal bottom open, it's just a big empty bucket for you to put in whatever kind of media you like. If you want to fill it with biomedia in bags you can. If you want to fill it with foam you can. If you want to do a mix of both you can. If you want a bag of purigen or carbon, throw it in there. They are absolutely wonderfully modular.
That brings me to the categories:
1) Performance - it's completely customizable. I run my filters with 30 ppi foam. I will typically throw a bag of ceramic media in there and maybe a bag of carbon if its a new(ish) tank. I get great filtration and if at any point I want to change it up, I can do so without having to worry about proprietary baskets or difficult to cut foam inserts. The amount of flow I get is entirely under my control. If I want 1000 gallons an hour of actual in tank flow, I can put a pump on it that can do that and away we go. If I have a small tank and only want 100 gallons per hour of flow, I can put a small pump on it and control it further with the DC control panel and get the exact amount of flow I want.
2) Reliability/Durability - Winner winner chicken dinner. These filters are tanks. No plastic filter will outlive a welded stainless steel canister. When you pick up your first stainless steel filter and feel how sturdy it is, there is just no comparison. The weak point of any mechanical device is always going to be the moving parts. For these filters that's the pump. BUT, the pump is completely separate. Unlike traditional canister filters the pump is completely replaceable with a variety of brands and nothing is proprietary. You just need a pump of a capacity you are happy with that can be used inline and you can swap it out at any time. For these filters, I really really like DC pumps because they come with controls and are dead silent. They have the added benefit of being absurdly reliable as well.
3) Maintenance / Noise - Maintenance is not as a nice as a filter with a proper pre-filter. You do need to open the whole thing up. You also are not going to open it up while it's still in your cabinet. The use of quick releases on the hoses are an absolute must. Here is one of my filters:
The way I handle maintenance is to shut off the filter, close both valves on the quick releases. Then disconnect the quick releases, unplug the filter, and remove the entire canister to a wash down sink where I can disassemble it, clean it out, put it back together and then refill and return the filter.
To be fair, I do the same with my Fluval FX4, but I can't describe this routine as dead simple, but rather as a required complication.
Priming the filter when the tank is brand new is another place where this filter falls down. There is no auto priming ability. The easiest way to prime it by a LARGE margin is to fill the filter (easy) AND fill the tubing (annoying). There are ways to make filling the tubing easier, but it's relatively important to do this step when first setting up the filter.
Fortunately as long as you don't let it run itself dry during a water change, or maintenance session, getting it to start back up again is a non issue. As long as the tubing has water in it, it will just start working again.
As for noise.... well once more this one is the winner. No other filter will EVER compete with the noise level of a DC pump. They are absolutely silent. And by that, I do not mean, "oh you will ignore the hum they make because its so soft". I mean you will be sitting next to these filters running and you won't be able to tell if they are working so you need to touch them with your hand to feel the slight vibration they give off. That is what I mean by they are silent. My fluval fx4 drives me nuts because its not silent. I can tell its on if I am standing anywhere in the room its in. Its a constant low hum in the background. My stainless steel filters..... nope, nothing.
4) Cost - They are not cheap. They also are not as expensive as some of the other premium brand of filters either. A typical setup for one will be between 250 and 450 dollars all in depending on size and the cost of the pump/media.
Which brings me to their weakest point by far. They are typically not very 'off the shelf' friendly. There is no one single brand of these guys. Rather its some factory in china that's making them and then they get resold by a variety of other people. Fzone was selling one for a while, that's where I got my first one:
But they stopped. Now Landen has one, and UNS has some. Aqua Rocks Colorado also sells them.
I have 4 of these filters and other then the Fzone one, the others all came from Ali-Express at different times/sellers. I typically buy mine without a pump and then need to find a pump. But you can also buy them with a pump already fitted for it, which is frankly easier if slightly more expensive. You typically also need to buy your own foam and cut it out yourself to fit into it, but I'm not sure about that for the Landen and UNS ones. In other words, they are a little more 'diy' then traditional canister filters. For some this is an absolute deal killer. For other's it's nothing at all. So your mileage will vary.
5) Extra Features - If you use a DC pump you can control the flow. How much control you get is up to the pump. I own pumps that allow single percent operation so I can literally have the pump running at 11% or 100% or anywhere at all. I also have pumps where the lowest setting is about 50% of the pumps power and a few other settings until you get to the full power of the pump. The DC pumps typically have a button for "feeding" where the pump turns off for 10 minutes. There are now dc pumps with wifi controls/apps, but all of that is completely dependent on whatever pump you choose. You could just as easily have an AC pump with zero controls. Beyond that.... there are no features on this thing. It's just a stainless steel bucket with a spot to install a pump.
I personally use smart plugs for all my tanks including the filters. That means I can do things like tell my Amazon Echo that I'm doing a water change, and that voice command then interacts with the smart plugs and turns off the filters, heater (if any), and co2 and they stay off until I tell it I'm done at which point they all turn back on again. That's not a feature of the filter though but something I control through smart plugs and the Echo.
And that about wraps it up. I love these filters and the only thing I wish they had is an easy to use (not messy) prefilter. But you know, you can't have it all
Let the filter experimentation begin.
That isn't to say the biomaster 600 currently running in my living room is inaudible, but I have grown to tolerate it. It will be nice if this turns out to be a little quieter.
