The filter is the most important part of your aquarium. Without proper filtration, no fish or plants will survive. An aquarium canister filter will turn your whole aquarium world upside down. What was an unrewarding challenge and a chore will become a pleasure and a breeze. Canisters are essentially a closed system. All top brands have easy-to-use snap closure brackets that keep them sealed and without leaks. Depending on the manufacturer, each houses a configuration of media-containers that perform different functions.
A good aquarium canister filter will be easy to shut down and easy to start again without a lot of priming or water spills, so that when it is time to clean or adjust media you are not faced with a sloppy or frustrating job.
A good aquarium canister filter should be quiet when operating and require minimal maintenance. Most need to be cleaned or adjusted only 2-3 times per year. When it does require cleaning or media adjustment, it should be easy to work with.

It has been months that i last washed my canister filter. See how the dirt accumulating on top !
How about the condition inside the filter ? Hmm..


Fluval 304, which i was currently been using for months...The filtration is excellent. The water is directed in an efficient manner through its mulit-leveled media design, forcing water into many channels and pathways through a lot of customizable media. Hence, increases contact time with the filtration media and thoroughly purifies water.


The Fluval 304 model comes with a ceramic shaft fixed on the bottom of the Impeller well. This kind of shaft is more resistant to wear and tear. To access the impeller fan, i just need to remove the impeller cover by squeezing the 2 tabs. Monitoring for dirt build-up can help lengthen the life of the impeller fan & motor unit.


With 4 foam cartridges down one side of the canister to remove large debris on the left, and 3 media baskets with 2 compartments each on the right compartments, this filter is perfect for those who continuously change their filtration methods based on the situation.I cannot overstate the convenience of these baskets...


This is my bottom media basket which serve as a mechanical filtration for removal of waste particles and soild debris through mechanical strainers. It could trap large and medium solid particles before they clog the finer sieves of the media basket above.

I did not include the photo of my middle media basket which mainly for chemical modifications of the water.


The highest basket that receives the purest water stream, making this the proper place for dedicated biological media. This is where breakdown and elimination of organic toxins, ammonia and nitrite through bacterial action take place. From the pic, those into aquarium should know i am using BIOHOME ! BIOHOME is by far the most operational and cost effective biological colonisation media available for Nitrobacter, nitrosomonas, and other bacteria which adapt themselves to function in anoxic conditions. . It is a sintered glass filtration media that houses billions of beneficial bacteria.


登 登 登 登。。。。。WOW, this is my 3rd time finding shrimps in my canister filter ! Being the 1st time i found 18 of it... The only explaination that i could find is the eggs are being filtered into the canister and they hatched and being able to survive inside with the various microscopic organisms that serve as their food ?

Life is like a box of chocolates