The Great Big Filter Thread

[BranchScape]

For the Oase I had to clean the impeller monthly once it got to about a year old which is insane. It gets worse over time mainly as I think the mature filter generates more beneficial biofilm for waste processing. Air burping you need to shake it to clear air bubbles out and that takes 10 minutes then you need to have very tight pipe connections. Using silicone hoses seemed to limit new air coming in.. The disconnect for the in/outflow needs to be babied or it will leak. My one glowing review is its prefilter is super easy to clean with less splashing than Aquael where the pressure always means some water splashing, not a lot but some and the canisters are big so moving them to dry it is annoying.

 

[CincyScaper]

I assume you had impeller hum noise, did you also have burping?

I used to before, but now I routinely shake the canister in all directions after pre filter clean up and that fixed it. As I was deep cleaning the filter, I can see how the rubber valve ring in the prefilter will need to be changed occasionally.

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

As far as I know, you have experience with both Netlea G2 and Netlea G1, is it worth buying Netlea G2? I'm choosing it now, but it's more expensive, and delivery will take longer. At the same time, the advantages are only a large area and, as a result, less frequent maintenance. Thanks for the reply.

Yeah I've used both, and still have both! The sponges and the capacity on the G2 means that you'll end up cleaning them far less, but they are bulkier and heavier to remove and bring to your sink. For smaller tanks, I think that the G1 is genuinely a great option, too, I'm just worried that if you don't buy a few extra replacement sponges now for it (just in case) that Netlea will stop supporting/making G1 parts/sponges, focusing only on the G2.

But yeah, they're functionally the same in almost every way.

 

[JayP]

Yep, the biomasters just get worse and worse over time. My first 600 worked great for over 6 months but then the issues started with it and no matter how much I clean it now, it just doesn't perform the same. I've completely taken others down to every gasket and replaced all foam and they work OK for a couple months, but eventually start having problems. Then there are the ones that work poorly right out of the gate. Just too many o-rings/gaskets.

 

[G1rt]

Yeah I've used both, and still have both! The sponges and the capacity on the G2 means that you'll end up cleaning them far less, but they are bulkier and heavier to remove and bring to your sink. For smaller tanks, I think that the G1 is genuinely a great option, too, I'm just worried that if you don't buy a few extra replacement sponges now for it (just in case) that Netlea will stop supporting/making G1 parts/sponges, focusing only on the G2.

But yeah, they're functionally the same in almost every way.

aliexpress - But I’m not sure that the PPI is the same as what Netlea has.

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

aliexpress - But I’m not sure that the PPI is the same as what Netlea has.

Also, the design of the middle stem of these prefilters means you can also just wrap a pad of filter floss around it and secure it with rubber bands to make your own superfine prefilter mesh, or customize it with whatever material you want to use. Really awesome design, glad to see it catching on for others, too!

 

[anewbie]

For the Oase I had to clean the impeller monthly once it got to about a year old which is insane. It gets worse over time mainly as I think the mature filter generates more beneficial biofilm for waste processing. Air burping you need to shake it to clear air bubbles out and that takes 10 minutes then you need to have very tight pipe connections. Using silicone hoses seemed to limit new air coming in.. The disconnect for the in/outflow needs to be babied or it will leak. My one glowing review is its prefilter is super easy to clean with less splashing than Aquael where the pressure always means some water splashing, not a lot but some and the canisters are big so moving them to dry it is annoying.

That is insane - on my fx6 which has been in use for about 5 years; i've cleaned the propeller twice once when some debris got trapped in there and in general i only have to clean the filter once every 2 or 3 years. The sponge i use for a prefilter is another matter needing cleaning every 2 or 3 months (basically when ever the sides begin to concave). The current stocking is 3 adult angels; 7 adult krobia; 7 adult 3 to 5 inch pleco and 3 sub adult Orinocodoras eigenmanni - you can decide if that is heavily populated. The krobia are quite old and i keep expecting them to start aging out. The various pleco are just left over from a move - call them orphans. 2 are meat eaters (L397) but the rest are wood/algae eaters.

Before the move it looked like this:


Anyway you can judge for yourself on stocking. The current tank has a bunch of crypts that everything but the angels hide in:

Old picture those crypt are now about 14 to 16 inches high and i only see one or two of the krobia - haven't seen the cats in months.

 

[JayP]

A quick comparison between the Netlea pre-filters and the "Temu" pre-filters.

Pre-Filters.webp

• JayP
• Aug 22, 2026

You're looking at the Version 1 (small) and Version 2 (large) Netlea pre-filters and the very similar design generic pre-filters available on Temu. The Temu filters are the same size but come equipped differently, as can be seen in the photo. They are available with 13mm, 17mm and even 20mm in/out valves.

The obvious differences between filters are size (the Temu filters are the same diameter as the ver. 1 Netlea but slightly shorter) and the Temu doesn't have the double valve on the input. The filter material of the Netlea is much more dense/higher PPI. I'd say the foam on the Temu is probably around 25-30ppi, standard stuff you'll see included with other canister filters.

Build wise, they seem pretty much equal, in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they came out of the same factory. Plastic thickness, lids, clamps, gaskets...all the same. The one difference is the Netlea input port comes assembled (I haven't tried taking it apart) while the Temu comes disassembled. I questioned it at first as a potential weakness, but once assembled, it seems sturdy enough. I think you might be able to use the Netlea double tap valve on the Temu filter. I know it screws on but I'll need to do a wet run test to see if its a solid water-tight seal. You can buy the Netlea valves on Aliexpress separately.

Price:

• Netlea Ver 1 is $70 at ARC right now and Ver 2 is $80. Aliexpress price is actually a little higher.
• Temu price fluctuates. The first ones I purchased a few months ago were the 13mm at $30-$35 each. I just got 2 sets of the 17mm for $20-$25 each. The first ones I bought took at least a month to arrive from China but the latest ones actually shipped from a warehouse in California and arrived in less than a week.

I'm about to set up my 22 long and plan to use some combination of these for that tank. I think the Netlea Ver 2 is best utilized for larger tanks like @Naturescapes_Rocco is using his. I think the half foam Temu, filled the rest of the way with bio media would be great by itself on a sub 16g tank (plus a pump, of course ).

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

The price on the temu ones is pretty unbeatable, IMO!

 

[anewbie]

The prefitler is a pretty simple device so yes the temu seems good.

Has anyone compared the netlea canister filter to week aqua or ultramax in terms of reliability. I realize that the netlea has more consistent flow but the ultramx starts at 2000 so the effective flow should be similar. The stainless steel models (netlea) still use an ac motor that is quite inefficient in terms of energy usage though i would presume they will eventually replace it with a dc motor.
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I realize that on the direct buy sites you can get 3 1/2 of the v2 netlea for the price of the ultramax bt but i suspect the ultramax is more durable.
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I did go ahead and get the ultramax and ultramax bt for testing (2 different aquariums) but with planning for 8 aquariums between 65 and 100 gallons i'm planning for the future.

As for prefilter given the simplicitiy of just a large sponge the temu make sense unless you want to make your own with a water filter jar (though that route will cost more but probably more durable plastic).

 

[anewbie]

So in assembly the ultramax BT; i'm a bit mixed. There was a part in the parts bag that seems to be for a different filter - specifically the unimax 150 (page 27 of their part katalog); worse it has no number associated it but it is clearly illustrated.

The hoses into the tank do not have locking nuts though they fit firmly - but their other filters like the unimax do have locking threads (downgrade?); the hoses are not excessive long - in fact rather short when you consider this is intended for a 100 gallon aquarium as is their spray bar. While the spray bar when fully assembled is only 16 inches long i had intended to put it on the short end anyway but given that the aquarium is 48 x 16 i would have expected a longer spray bar - the fluval for example when fully assembled is 55 inches. Nothing special about the media but the cotton floss provided does not fit very rigid in the basket (easy for water to bypass it totally) and the amount provided rather skimpy. Hum. that's all for now haven't plugged it in need to do a bit of work on the aquarium first - the hose length would be real issue for someone wanting to split the intake and outtake the length of a long aquarium. I normally prefer the intake not be near the outtake to maximize flow across the aquarium.

 

[anewbie]

So i put the ultramax bt into service - will run it 2 weeks with the old matten filter and then remove the matten filter. I had a few nibbles and tech support was quick to respond and when he didn't know the answer he escalted to tech for a correct answer so i would give him an 'a' for effort and getting the answer in a reasonable amount of time. I also gave them some feed-back on nibbles - the big one was connecting the usb cord to the filter when it should just plug in but i also felt the hoses should be a little longer - in my typical configuratin i put the in on one side of the aquarium and the outflow on the opposite side - while the 65 this works fine with the supplied hoses with a 6 foot 100 gallon it would not reach esp if you have a tall cabinet. My aquarium fits on a long 'home made' table that is only 28 inches high and the aquarium it self 18 inch; my 120 for example sits in a rj enterprise stand wihch is 36 (I think) inches high and the aquarium is 24 inches high for a total height increase of 14 inches which would be a stretched for the supplied hoses - but of course you can easy enough buy hoses on amazon (the supplied hoses is good quality); the spray bar is a bit wimpy at 16 inches - the fluval is 55 inch for the fx2 (equiv filter) but is of course an extra cost. the filter is fairly quit but i can feel it vibrate and the ap works well enough though other than setting the flow rate i'm not using any of the advance features like having a night time cycle or feeding cycle.
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For the input I put the inflow into a sponge - this is rather critical given the debries from decaying leaves and such (the fluval 107 i have on the 40 to provide extra flow completely clogged in under 3 weeks though i did add a sponge to it afterwards but in the 3 days gap between unclogging it and adding the sponge it nearly clogged again). My fx6 sits in a tap water aquarium and of course doesn't clog for years at a time- been about 3 years since last cleaning but it is time - but i dread cleaning it.
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No other real comments at this point - the 16 inch for the spray bar is not limiting for me since the aquairum is 16 inch wide and i have the water flowing the lenght of the aquairum but I could see how it might matter but they do make extra segments availalbe if you wish to obtain them.
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Right now neutral when i weigh cost/features and alternatives - after all there are not a lot of great options in the 100 gallon range. fx2 i rejected because i hate cleaning the fx6 - i suppose netlea n v2 is worth trying one day - and the other alternatives have too many leak points - after all i intend for my equipment to just work year in and year out not just the week i buy them. Since i ahve it on disk this is the aquarium with the ultramax bt:


(during water change which is why the 14 inch long anubia is exposed) and this is the opposite corner:

 

[JayP]

So i put the ultramax bt into service - will run it 2 weeks with the old matten filter and then remove the matten filter. I had a few nibbles and tech support was quick to respond and when he didn't know the answer he escalted to tech for a correct answer so i would give him an 'a' for effort and getting the answer in a reasonable amount of time. I also gave them some feed-back on nibbles - the big one was connecting the usb cord to the filter when it should just plug in but i also felt the hoses should be a little longer - in my typical configuratin i put the in on one side of the aquarium and the outflow on the opposite side - while the 65 this works fine with the supplied hoses with a 6 foot 100 gallon it would not reach esp if you have a tall cabinet. My aquarium fits on a long 'home made' table that is only 28 inches high and the aquarium it self 18 inch; my 120 for example sits in a rj enterprise stand wihch is 36 (I think) inches high and the aquarium is 24 inches high for a total height increase of 14 inches which would be a stretched for the supplied hoses - but of course you can easy enough buy hoses on amazon (the supplied hoses is good quality); the spray bar is a bit wimpy at 16 inches - the fluval is 55 inch for the fx2 (equiv filter) but is of course an extra cost. the filter is fairly quit but i can feel it vibrate and the ap works well enough though other than setting the flow rate i'm not using any of the advance features like having a night time cycle or feeding cycle.
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For the input I put the inflow into a sponge - this is rather critical given the debries from decaying leaves and such (the fluval 107 i have on the 40 to provide extra flow completely clogged in under 3 weeks though i did add a sponge to it afterwards but in the 3 days gap between unclogging it and adding the sponge it nearly clogged again). My fx6 sits in a tap water aquarium and of course doesn't clog for years at a time- been about 3 years since last cleaning but it is time - but i dread cleaning it.
-
No other real comments at this point - the 16 inch for the spray bar is not limiting for me since the aquairum is 16 inch wide and i have the water flowing the lenght of the aquairum but I could see how it might matter but they do make extra segments availalbe if you wish to obtain them.
-
Right now neutral when i weigh cost/features and alternatives - after all there are not a lot of great options in the 100 gallon range. fx2 i rejected because i hate cleaning the fx6 - i suppose netlea n v2 is worth trying one day - and the other alternatives have too many leak points - after all i intend for my equipment to just work year in and year out not just the week i buy them. Since i ahve it on disk this is the aquarium with the ultramax bt:

When you plan to do a check of the prefilter, make sure you close the input valve and continue running for a few seconds before turning off power. Otherwise, when you attempt to open the prefilter section, you'll get a flood of water pouring out the sides.

 

[anewbie]

When you plan to do a check of the prefilter, make sure you close the input valve and continue running for a few seconds before turning off power. Otherwise, when you attempt to open the prefilter section, you'll get a flood of water pouring out the sides.

Yea i saw that in the manual; also the nice thing is it will partially drain the unit before cleaning. I wonder if the same trick would work with the fx6.

 

[BranchScape]

When you plan to do a check of the prefilter, make sure you close the input valve and continue running for a few seconds before turning off power. Otherwise, when you attempt to open the prefilter section, you'll get a flood of water pouring out the sides.

I forget this step about a quarter of the time since I do the pre-filter cleaning every two weeks. I did the first full clean on the Hypermax this weekend, so I didn't bother partially draining it beforehand. I just wheeled it outside, opened it up, and promptly had a wave of water splash out.I had also forgotten what media I had packed into parts of it. That thing is ridiculously huge.

I'll be doing the first maintenance on the BT next month so I can pull out some seeded media for my neighbor's Iwagumi. The one thing I'll miss is having the wheels.

 

[anewbie]

Has anyone found a good spray bar that will fit the netlea no v2 ?

 

[anewbie]

I think i'll pass on the netlea - i just can't see any advantage over the aqueal ultramax - it holds less media; has less flow and requires you buy or make a flow bar all at a higher entry point. Just the effective flow might be similar - but i just can't see spending nearly $400 to test one.
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The ultramax are breaking and and pretty quiet.

The fx6 i cleaned yesterday and remember everything i hate about cleaning it - the big problem is to move it you are suppose to drain it and to drain it you have to connect a hose at the bottom and open the drain but it never goes cleanly - something always goes wrong. Also the baskets are more painful to deal with then the ultrmax or even ehiem - just something about their shape is mess prone.

 

[Gino]

@anewbie With my FX4 (same basic design as the FX6 but shorter) I threw the red baskets out and just filled the main compartments with media. Large chunks of foam are easy to lift out when cleaning.

And yeah these big filters can be somewhat of a pain to work with. Even when the drainage system functions properly.

I no longer use the FX line myself as I grew a bit tired of the noise they make. Switched to a simple pond filter setup with a DC pump.

 

[anewbie]

@anewbie With my FX4 (same basic design as the FX6 but shorter) I threw the red baskets out and just filled the main compartments with media. Large chunks of foam are easy to lift out when cleaning.

And yeah these big filters can be somewhat of a pain to work with. Even when the drainage system functions properly.

I no longer use the FX line myself as I grew a bit tired of the noise they make. Switched to a simple pond filter setup with a DC pump.

Pond filter? Link?

One of hte issue is that hte basket is jus ta bit too large for pails of course a tote would work. The ultramax and eheim that is not an issue due to smaller circumference (er ehem classic i have).

I haven't noticed the fx6 being loud or even noisy but it is in the basement. Occasionally the water makes a bit of noise when the water level is lower but the pump seems fairly quiet.

Of course the sumps on the larger aquariums (my largest is 600 gallon) use jebao dc pumps. I wonder why they don't use dc pumps for geothermal after all the point is to save energy.

 

[Gino]

600 gal is a pretty big tank, nice.

I use this pond filter.



I think internationally it's called the SunSun (or Grech) CPF-15000.

They have a number of sizes: Zhejiang Grech Gardening Industry Co.,Ltd.(浙江格池园艺用品有限公司)