>>Oh yeah. I have paid my dues with them over the years.
>>Started in the early 80s with Diatom filters, then Magnum (nearly impossible to put together and then maintain) and Fluval (ditto the Magnum filter) filters that cost more than the aquarium.
>> Foo! They are a pain.


LOL I know what you mean. I gave up on fish in the 80s because we had poor water quality & I couldn't find a good filter back then.
I have a Fluval canister that I bought in 1995 or so. My painted was a CB hatchling in 1994, with him I went through the power filters then gave that route up. LOL

That old Fluval is a pain to put together & get it going but it still works very well in a smaller tank. I don't use it now, it's not large enough to handle my larger tanks but I do keep it in case of emergency.
I had an emergency when...
I bought a newer larger Fluval which fell apart piece by piece. I bought replacement parts, the replacement parts broke too!!
I now have a Magnum 350 & so far it's the best I've ever had, it's the easiest to use..but I do think it could be easier. That particular one does cost a fortune at the local pet store but luckily I got in on sale through mail order. It was around 60 dollars cheaper through mail order so I liked that about it.
I like it but I always imagine what might be better.

The mud turtle has the ZooMed 501 tiny canister for turtles.. another pain but compared to internal filters & power filters it's better for him. But I can't imagine trying to use that little thing for a large deep turtle tank.
I'm leery about it continuing to work well when I do buy that larger 40g breeder tank. eek!
-----
PHRatz

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]