– HOB-500 Aquarium External Fish Tank Water Filter for Coldwater, Tropical or Marine Aquariums, for Tanks Up to 250 Litres – Includes Filter Foams, hose and Spray Bar - Full Kit

Set up in 120l cold water tanks . Working well after 2 weeks . Easy to set up and clean out . Doesn’t make a lot of noise , the tank is in my bedroom .

Excellent value for money. The filter has separate baskets, so you can customise your media, although it does come with different grade sponge filters, from a porous sponge, down to a water polishing wool. The unit is compact, easy to put together, and the size of it looks smart on the side of my 125L tank, although it is rated for a higher volume tank. It comes with a spray bar, which I haven't used, so can't really comment, and a jet. The jet is pushed onto a rotating ball fitting, which is useful for getting the desired surface agitation, and you can adjust the water direction and pressure a good amount as both the inlet and outlet are also adjustable. The filter picks up a good amount of debris from the tank, and the multiple baskets are easily removed, cleaned out and replaced. Remember to prime the filter before turning on initially, and after maintenance as if you get an airlock it is noisy and splutters. Even with it filled, I've experienced this a couple of times, which is my only complaint, but I am also not using the factory filter media which may play a part. Once it has blown it through the system, which usually takes a few hours, it is so quiet that the only way I know it's working is because the vallisneria is dancing along the back of the tank in the flow. The performance is excellent for the price, and it works just as well, if not better than products more than double the price of this. I like the fact that you get the convenience of an external filter, the size of an internal filter, in a compact package that hangs on the back of the tank, allowing you to use the full footprint and volume of the tank for aquascaping and planting. There's bad reviews, but for a medium sized open top tank on top of a reinforced ikea kallax unit, it fits the bill perfectly, as I don't have to have it in a separate cabinet, or elsewhere. For a similar installation as my one, I would definitely recommend this filter.

My current set up is a 30x30 cube, 30cm strip light, and now this filter, all from all pond solutions. I was hesitant after reading the one star reviews but this was replacing an £8 hang on the back and I knew returns would easy with Amazon if it's crap. The good: 1. It's quiet once you have primed the filter and got all the air out of it. You will know of there air in the system, it's loud and I will admit it's an arse on. You need to lift one side whilst it's running for best results. 2. The multi stage media trays means I could swap out old filter media into two of trays and add some extra ceramic balls. 3. The adjustable intake and out take means you can actually fine tune to the flow rate you need. The bad: 1. I actually had a leaky outlet pipe where it connects to the main unit. I used some plumbing tape and vaseline and that seems to have done the trick. This would probably be the end of the road for most people and would return it. 2. The impeller is not completely silent with my unit. It's either further air or the impeller is imbalanced. However, again I applied a generous bit of vaseline to the impeller and this has done the trick. 3. It was genuinely hard to get the flow rate going at first. I would recommend attaching the media baskets to the pump neck, then placing everything in the filter container after filling with water (do it in the sink). This ensures the filter is actually sucking up water from the column. Overall I'm happy with it for the price I paid. This filter is night and day difference to the old one that used to give a noticeable hum through the desk. Obviously if you spend more money you will probably have something perfect from the box, but for a budget filter I would recommend

Absolutely brilliant filter ,wish I had bought one ages ago . Does exactly what it is supposed to and does it well -great waterflow ,so I am running mine with it turned down a little . Initial issue with air in the system was easily solved by unscrewing the outlet pipe whilst filter was in place and topping up the water a bit more-I gave the box a couple of taps whilst doing so and waited for the air bubbles to surface before putting in a little more water ,slowly ,untill no more air was coming up . Really not a problem . This filter is just so quiet ,I have caught myself checking it is still running a couple of times ! The big deal for me is the fact it holds four or five times as much bio media as my imternal filter did -I filled mine up with alfagrog (after bashing the alfagrog around a bit to make the bits smaller !) and put a coarse sponge in the first basket ,below the top one . I also popped a sponge sleeve around the intake ,really shocked at how much debris that collects after a few days ,but it is easy to pop it off and sqeeze it out and ,hopefully ,should mean the sponges in the filter itself dont need clearing very often . Unexpected bonus being my shrimp seem to think that inlet is a good place to graze ,so I get to see them a bit more (very heavily planted tank ) . Honestly ,I was prepared for this filter to be just OK ,maybe not brilliant after reading some of the other reviews ,but it was the only external filter I could find within my budget , arthritis in my hands was making fiddling about with the internal filter a pain (literally !)so bought it anyway - the one I have is brilliant . 4ft tank ,lots of messy bottom feeders ,just no problems with water clarity now at all . I

I had problems with this filter. After being in use for several days, it started making a horrendous loud noise. After investigation, I found this to be because the water level didn't stay full, so it couldn't function properly. The customer service was not great. They finally sent a replacement, but that too had the same fault. Again, I returned the item and got a replacement and this one worked fine. They seem to think it was a mistake I was making with setting the filter up, but it wasn't. I have kept tropical fish now for several years, so I don't make amateur mistakes. So, although the third one I received worked fine, im giving a low star rating as the customer service was not good, and the agent I emailed with was actually quite rude on some emails, stating "we'll replace it one more time but then you'll have to order a new one"

Great filter for the price, water parameters have held steady since installing a week ago on a 190l tank. Watch pimp my filter review on you tube for guide to setting up media as all that's included is fine floss. I am running mine with course in top tray, medium in second, fine in third, floss with a carbon scrubber in fourth then two trays of bio rings. Had a power cut yesterday, filter restarted itself now problem once power came back on.

10 month review. Brilliant filter, no leaking, great flow and filtration (with altered bio media). There's a fantastic review on YouTube by PondGuru for this and I suggest you follow his advice for it. It's been amazing while my 100 litre tank was overstocked for about 7 months and I had zero Ammonia and zero Nitrites thanka to the filtration. Fortunately, it's heavily planted so I needn't worry about Nitrates either. The spray bar outlet traps air in easier so you get that awful sound for awhile any time you stop and start the pump. You need to tilt the filter to try and get the air out but it's not a problem with the hose outlet. It's fairly quiet, I wouldn't say it's noisy.

I'm quite amazed at some of the reviews for this filter. I have 3 of these, two of which are running in different tanks. One a 4' and another a 3'. Points to look out for. Each basket has has a hole at one end. When all baskets are joined together these form a tube. When the baskets are in the filter body, the tube end should be opposite to the cable end when the filter head is clamped into position. Dechlorinated or aquarium water should be poured into the filter so the water level is above the top basket. Otherwise the filter won't prime. Direction of filtration is top to bottom. Thus when water is sucked in from intake pipe it first goes through top basket and thence to the bottom basket. Thus arranged media accordingly. My one gripe is the white fine filter media supplied which appears to be woven fibres falls apart after a few media cleans. I have thus cut fine filter foam to the same shape and now place those into the baskets instead. One of these has been operating in a 4' tank in conjunction with a canister filter (purely as a back up) and apart from the media, no problem.

Ottimo per le prime settimane, montato su un 80litri…dopo un mese circa, per funzionare perfettamente e senza rumori fastidiosi, necessita una pulizia settimanale, impensabile per un filtro acquario… attenzione alla presa UK, serve adattatore