Glad found your honest review to this filter. I bought mine last month. the fish store owner recommend this filter. And this is my problem too every 5 days I clean the filter like washing it with the aquarium water. Then back in the tank again. Thank you for the nice idea.
The element on it isn't too great but you can buy a module that you can fill with your own media and it fixes the problem. Smash up some chunks of bio media and a bit of extra don't sponge at the bottom. and it's great.
@@haasheesh6978 hello! The sponge that goes in the void before it reaches the cartridge definitely leave that bit in. I added in an extra piece of sponge into the bottom of the module just to help prevent the bio media getting too clogged up I then just have small chunks of bio media in the module sitting on top of the sponge.
@@haasheesh6978 oh you're referring to the extension module that clips onto the front of the filter? I actually don't have that. I bought the module which is like a filter cartridge that's empty and you put your own media into it. The intake on the filter it doesn't flow in a particular way it does pull more water in towards the bottom but you'll find it pulls on water from the entire length of the filter. Come to think of it it maybe better to have the foam across the front of the filter with the bio media behind. I'm definitely not helping here am I!
The filter floss (pearl wool) looks like easy to make, just measure, cut and fix it to those things in the back. You might even add a sponge between the tube and the wool.
It’s the thickness Dennerle use, it’s compacted floss but yes you can put whatever you want inside to make this filter useful. I know people that buy blocks of sponge from eBay really cheap and cut them down to fit this little compact filter. The filter is great, the fact you have to adapt it to make it great is a tough pill to swallow 🤙🏻🤙🏻.
@@slinkyscapes8530 honestly, I recently purchased this filter to modify it from the get go. Any filter media that has to be purchased attached to plastic is non-sustainable and a waste of money, cut your own stuff and modify it to suite your needs is the way
on balance I think I would go with the Fluval Mini, it comes in a few quid cheaper and you can fill with your own media easily. I do like that Dennerle spray bar though
Great review. You nailed the issues precisely. How is beneficial bacteria supposed to build up when the cartridges have to be replaced so frequently. Well built, quiet motor, all that jazz, but the fundamental issue is there is really no way to keep the bacteria in the filter and "wash" the mechanical filtration. Ridiculous.
Was looking for an honest review on this product. Thank you for sharing this with us. Still struggling to zero down on an internal filter for a planted 50 gallon tank with medium stocking. Whats your take on the Oase bioplus? It doesnt have the central holes in each compartment, wonder why 🤔 Also, do you recommend biomedia to go at the bottom to start off or a coarse sponge or a combination? An honest review with comparisons on the Oase internal filter is much needed. I am not either fully convinced with the Fluval or Aqqa. Have a nice day!
Maybe. But this filter is not just "quiet". It is COMPLETELY SILENT. This beats everything, and I am trying to find way to use it and adapt the best I can. So many "silent" filters aren't just completely silent. This one is.
I have the XXL for my 100L (prob more like 90-95l with hardscape/substrate). It was advertised as completely silent but it's making a very annoying rattling noise and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
@@shedendpussys Sometimes after maintenance it will be louder than it should be. Can get it quieter maybe by turning it off/on a few times. When it is quiet it is effectively silent, but when it's making the noise it is annoying. Could be trapped air. Thankfully hasn't happened much lately.
Mime works fine with a 40l. I've bought an extension to it that basically has the bottom part filter and the upper part for bio media. The filter is supposed to be changed every 4 to 6 weeks but I guess it depends on how much livestock you have. I have 4 Amanos, 2 CPO and 6 nano fishes.
I have it in my shrimp tank and it is actually made for that. I can imagine fish throwing too much and he can't handle it.but for shrimps I change it once every 5 weeks. good review for a fish tank filter but fine for a 15 litar shrimp tank.greetings from the Netherlands!
That pumps rated for 40L of water, so those pads shouldn’t clog up in 40L of water in a week. Either your waters filthy or you’re putting it in a tank with more than 40L of water. It’s a shrimp filter for a shrimp tank with no more than 40L of water. I run 4 of these on 4 40L shrimp tanks they work absolutely fine, cartridges last 2-3 months. How much waste do shrimp really make?
If you get 2-3 months that’s great BUT When you spend £9.99 (Amazon) per pad you yourself are laying out £40-£60 per year .... that terrible value for money when a simple fine sponge that is re used costs you £5 per year .... think about that. Also,every 2-3 months your throwing away the only thing that has a decent amount of bacteria on it and starting a fresh ...... also give that some thought,your basically crashing your tank 4-6 times a year......... And Ammonia,nitrites and nitrates are even more toxic to shrimp that fish. So unless your running a super high density planted tank that can help get rid of two of those the toxicity of the water will harm your shrimp. IF you are running a tank with loads of plants the organic waste will clog up filter floss in days....weeks at a push. The filter is rated at 10-40 litres meaning 40 l is the top end and that’s on turnover of the water so at an advised 5+ times turnover your 40l is only getting 3.75 so flow isn’t strong enough on a planted tank,you might get away with it but low flow will inevitably lead to algae or poor plant growth. To achieve a 5 fold turnover you are looking at 30l max,I was running this filter on a 25l medium planted cube with soil and 50-60 red crystals and it failed,not so much on the actual filter front but in the media only being floss and you having to constantly restart the cycle ever so often. On that basis would I recommend it as a worthy investment ? Not a chance.
@@slinkyscapes8530 no idea what you was reading but I was talking about how long they last before clogging up, that’s 2-3 months before I notice them effecting performance, before I start having to give them a good clean to unclog them. Not throw them away and replace them. I’ve been breeding SS grade crystals with these filters for like 4/5 years now. Replacement filters are as cheap as £4.99 a pack of three if you’re buying from Germany.
Good video. I'm cycling my aquarium without any livestock and I noticed that the flow decreased drastically after a few weeks. I don't have the money to replace a cartridge every week. It's also just very unethical. Our hobby is supposed to recreate nature, not create massive heaps of garbage every week. Very disappointed in this product.
Thank goodness I came across your review on this filter, i have the xl version. I initially replaced one of the cartridges with bio gravel, thought this would be fine as this is my first ever tank (60L) however its now been a month and the water quality is nothing like it was within the first 2 weeks of having it and it seems to be struggling in general with all the sediment. After watching your video I definitely will be modifying it further asap!!
Happy I have found this video! I have had a 35l dennerle tank since September. This is my first tank so I’m learning as I go. I have been struggling with this problem for a while and I have changed the filter floss. It has really upset my tank and I think iv started my cycle again as the fish were all at the top struggling for air.. I have just seen this video and I’m going to order a new filter.. I’m looking at the Oase BioPlus 100 Internal Corner Filter Do you think this would be any better ? Or can you recommend something for me please ?
Any filter where you can at least put sponge in will do,for fish the bigger the sponge the more bacteria it will hold but not as much as dedicated bio media. I use sponge internal filters for any tanks less than 40l and my water parameters are always stable.On my shrimp tanks I squeeze the sponge out in tank water every 2nd or 3rd week but with fish I do it every week 🤙🏻🤙🏻.
I was looking for this review before buying one. I think i'll by the xl version with two catrages, remove them, use sponge filter for the bottom and load biomedia instead of the upper catrage. Even though with the xl version I could replace catrage 1 by 1 to keep at least half of the beneficial bacteria, it would be really costly. Thank you for the review!
Spray the plastic with krylon fusion or plasti dip or get the eheim corner filter that also houses biomedia. I use seachem tidal hob filters. Much better for nanos
Hi Apple, Yes in this video the sponges was the black 30ppi and blue 45ppi All pond solutions sheets They are available on Amazon as a sheet of each size and a sheet of 60ppi (orange) for £11.
hello!I replaced the inside of the filter with small rings (bio media) which you can buy from dennerle .Do you think its gonna be fine ? i am a begginer and i have 30lt aquarium... thank you!
If you replace the default filter cartridge with cut to shape filter sponges like you did, will this decrease the water flow? As the original filter cartriges have the big hole in the middle. Im looking for a nice corner filter for my shrimp and nano fish tank, as my fish got sucked into the filter I currently have :( Right now I put a filternet around my current filter so that the fish and shrimp i still have will be spared, but noticed that this clogs up within a day so its also not very handy. If you can just replace the filtermedia in this cornerfilter without issue, I will definitely buy it as it will perfectly fit in my tank, so im looking forward to your response.
No but a brand new filter pad runs at 150ltrs per hour and as it clogs(very quickly) that reduces the flow. Running just sponge will keep the max flow running for longer as it won’t clog as fast as the filter floss 🤙🏻
@@slinkyscapes8530 Oh thanks for your quick reply! But then do you know why the like white plastic bit that the filter floss is wrapped around, has a hole in the middle?
@@robinsnijders6145 yes it diverts the flow up to the motor head instead of it just flowing around. You ‘could’ unwrap the filter floss and add a bit of bio media around the central tube but it would only be a tiny bit of bio media. Of course dennerle do sell bio units but that what it’s all about,getting more money out of us 🤣🤣
@@slinkyscapes8530 Yea, youre right! Thank you for your honest review, I think i could get something better for cheaper. And considering i only have shrimp and a few tiny boraras I think a sponge filter might be the safest option, and not something like this where they can get sucked in anyways. Sorry im quite new to this hobby, so reviews like this really help me! :)
@@robinsnijders6145 Rob I only use sponge filters in my Shrimp tanks,they are perfect,cheap to buy and as their sponge will last forever .... I run a sponge in each of my 25l nano’s (3 in total),off one air pump so running costs are super low
You obviously don't know about this filter anything! First of all, you didn't see how MECHANICAL module with filter-floss like you say, attached to the pump head. Go, take a look and you will notice there's perfectly matching rings on both, pump head and mechanical module (or even plastic basket for filter media like you said). So that's made with purpose - for strict water direction trough the filter itself. Your modification with sponges without mechanical module WONT WORK! I tried this and you obviously didn't. Why? Because when you attach filter plastic body to pump head without mechanical module water will mostly be pulled into filter in that crack between filter body and pump head and something like 30-40% of water flow will go DIRECTLY FROM TANK to the PUMP HEAD and WILL DO NOTHING! Also, you didn't say anything about tank capacity when you used this filer, but you say it's clogged in a week, right? I'll tell you that a bit larger version of this filter (XL corner filter) can do great job for 30L cube. Just use 1 mechanical module + 1 plastic basket module filled with media (of course mechanical goes down and basket with media up, closer to pump head). You can also attach external extension and fill it with Dennerle filter bio media (or anything tiny as well, let's say Sera siporex mini) which is additional media for beneficial bacteria. And it won't be clogged due to very low water flow though that extension. With this setup and regular maintenance your mechanical module will last at least TWO or THREE MONTHS instead a WEEK like you said, in 30L planted cube with proper amount of fish. That's a big difference right? If you want to judge about anything, please don't just spit on it because you don't know how it works. However, I can agree with you, replacing a module costs, but 1 module / 2-3 month its not so expensive compared to many other filters where you have separate cartridges which are way expensive. Also, like some other peeps said, you can cut your own filter floss and just replace it... way cheaper but I doubt you can find 3-stage density filter floss so easy. Conclusion: this filter can run very good for a long time (2-3 years), just have to know how it works, and how to improve it in order to reduce replacement of mechanical module and filter bio medium. Best luck!
I’m sorry you feel this way about my view on this filter but thanks for the like and feedback 👍🏻 If you think it works in a different way that’s great for you and if you like this filter and it suits your aquarium’s needs that even better.
@@slinkyscapes8530 Well, maybe I should apologize... when I read my comment now I feel I just overreacted :( Sorry for that. But yes, I think even Green Aqua run their small cubes with just corner filter + extension attachment and it works fine (no it's not advertising, just saying what they say). Also, I must admit that you are right : the concept of this filter is based on making money. Why not just simply make a chambers where you can put 1st stage filtration (mechanical - sponges and self cutting floss) and 2nd stage filtration (biological - media), so you can run it as long as head pump works well. Sorry again, maybe it was just a bad day for me :)