budget friendly canister filter?

[Saulosi77]

I was wondering everyone's thoughts on budget friendly canister filters, and if their are any?  I was wondering what brands people prefer and why?  I'm looking for one for my 55 gallon peacock tank.  Right now I currently have two emperor 400's.  My water has been crystal clear but as i want to overstock my tank i thought a canister filter would be better.  I live in an apartment and my biggest fear is going to work and coming home to 55gallons of water on the floor.  I've heard in power outages canisters can back up and overflow.(but i may be incorrect, i am unfamiliar.)  I looked at a few eheim classics and filstar filters, are these filters any good?  What do you guys use and recommend for a 55gallon tank? I would like to stay under $200 if possible closer to $100 would be amazing.  Thanks for everyone's input.

                                                                                                              - Jimmy

[linuxrulesusa]

I've heard Eheim is a good brand.  I used one for a while and went back to a HOB filter (Aquaclear 50) because I was afraid my kids would figure out how to unhook the hoses, plus needed floor space, plus HOBs are easier to clean.  I'm sure if you get used to them either kind would work fine.

If you get a canister, go for one that has an easy priming feature, because having to mess with getting the water in the hoses or suction by other means is a pain.

A better upgrade IMO would be to go for 2 AC110s - 2x 500gph plus larger media capacity (I think) vs. the emperors. 

[Steve]

Rena XP series IMO. I own four of them (pair of XP3's and a pair of xp4's) both are good canisters that don't require much work and they can be picked up used for around $75 for the xp3 and $100 for the xp4. I think new the xp3 is around $125 and the xp4 around $160 or there abouts. You can find them all the time on ebay used for much better prices though, that would be my suggestion because the used ones will have the spray bar with them, new ones they stopped selling with spray bars for some reason so you would have to DIY a spray bar if you bought a new one.

[Maize-N-Blue-D]

I have thought about getting these off of CL :

http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/hsd/4292636198.html

But I ended up getting a couple of Emperor 400's instead and am glad I did.  Lots of GPH with the Emperor 400's

[Saulosi77]

I currently have two emperor 400's on the tank and am very happy,  but was wondering if that would be sufficient with 10-13 peacocks/haps a couple synos and a pleco? 

[Maize-N-Blue-D]

With the Emperor 400's you are turning over 800 gpm of water in a 55 gallon tank.   That is more than enough filtration.  A good barometer of filteration is 10 x the size of the tank. This is on the high side as well...I am not saying that you need 10 x  but it won't hurt.

[eden2020]

I have one of the SunSun canisters that Maize posted a picture of. I got it with a tank I bought. I will say that it seems like a decent knockoff of the Marineland 360. I think it's rated for 264gph. It's pretty quiet, easy to work on, and has pretty good build quality. The old "get what you pay for" kinda scares me.. but I can't say anything bad.

As for the Emperor 400s.. great at first but over time all of mine ended up sounded like rattletraps.. You also need a pretty good amount of wall space to slide in behind the tank. They work well though.. great flow rate. "Cleaning" is always fun... I would take a canister over HOBs anyday..

Currently I have a box of filters (HOBs) that I dont use in various conditions and now only use sponge filters on the fry and group tanks and canisters on display tanks..

-Marc

[JG]

I'm a fan of Eheim canisters. Last forever and great filter.

[merritt]

I currently have a Fluval 306 on my 55 gallon. I bought this unit for 125.00 last July, now they run well over 170. These name brand cannisters run great, but are a little pricey. I needed another cannister for my 40 breeder seeing i needed it to run a sterilizer. I bought one of these Aquatop or Sunsun on Ebay for 45 bucks. The components are a little cheap but it runs just as well as the Fluval. The flowrate is a little lower but well worth the price. I too live in an apartment and as long as you buy new i wouldn't worry about it backing up. I too also run Emperor 400s great to maintain but they are a little noisy. Depending on your needs it sounds like a good setup you have now.

[four_by_ken]

I would stay away from the real cheap Ebay ones... they may work great to start... but look out after some time and multiple times cleaning, etc.

You get what you pay for.

[Nick]

In general I agree with the statement "you get what you pay for" but I bought an Aquatop CF400UV off Amazon once and had no issues and actually found it to be just as good if not better than a fluval of similar size. It may have just been my experience but I research the hell out of things and have found them to be a very solid filter. My biggest complaint would be the media quality and amount. Mine came quite light on the media and the sponges were a joke. I had lots of extras laying around though so I just put in what I wanted to suppliment. Overall a great experience though. It kept my overstocked 55g crystal clear on its own.

I would also like to add that I would run a AquaClear 110 on it as well. If you are doing weekly water changes than any canister will be just fine but in the off chance you cant for a week...or a month, if you have an AC 110 attached there is no issues. Plus i'm a believer in backups.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aquatop-CF400UV-4-Stage-Canister-Filter-with-UV-9W-370-gph-/171037864076

http://www.amazon.com/Aquatop-CF400UV-4-Stage-Canister-Filter/dp/B004GJ43EK