hello
i've used both over the years and i have been very
happy with both. !!
the only reason i don't have the Eheim now is because it was sold
with a tank some time ago,and then the new tank i bought had the
Fluval in it,i also have a small 102 fluval and that did a great job too.
good luck with it,and hope others will givethere thoughts too.

 

I've never owned an Eheim canister, but I have one of their power filters and it's very nice. I use a Fluval 204 canister on one of my tanks. The 04 series of Fluvals generally gets a lot of complaints, but it's been working just fine for me.

I did read something somewhere that made a lot of sense, though: the Fluval filters have both the intake and output at the top of the canister, while the Eheims have the intake at the bottom. It makes a heck of a lot more sense to build a filter this way, as it seems like much more of te water would be coming in contact with the filter media this way.

 

I did read something somewhere that made a lot of sense, though: the Fluval filters have both the intake and output at the top of the canister, while the Eheims have the intake at the bottom. It makes a heck of a lot more sense to build a filter this way, as it seems like much more of te water would be coming in contact with the filter media this way.

Sometimes my brain goes on vacation without me...are you saying it's better to have the intake on the top or the bottom? I'm confused :-?

 

I think it's better to have the intake and outputs at opposite ends of the filter. This way, the water is getting sucked through the filter and past all the media. With both of them at the same end, the path of least resistance to the output is definitely not through a bunch of filter media, so you probably get a lot of media bypass with Fluvals. The Eheim design is just more logical.

 

That makes sense. I have the Magnum HOT and both the intake & outake are on the top. The next time I'm ready to set up a new tank I'll look at Eheim models. Due to the built in wet/dry on my tank I'm assuming that is where my biological is and that the Magnum is just an extra precaution. Is that a correct assumption?

 

I had a Fluval Canister filter, and 2 weeks after I installed it one of the fittings blew off. Never had any problems with Eheim. The Eheim also seemed to do a better job of keeping the tank clean.

 

im using a fluval and its never given me any problems. As for the design, if you set up a fluval, there's a divider that splits intake and outtake. That forces the water to go down and then back up, this causes to ti reach just as much fitler media surface as eheim filters. Fluval probably chose thier design so they can use that special valve that shuts off both itnake and outtake with one button. true its not the path of most resistance but because fluval uses that basket method, as long as you're not using the bagged carbon media and using loose media, the water will be forced to pass through all the layers.

 

another route you could go is the Rena XP series..............Cheaper on the price, works well, filter media is cheaper......Been using Renas for about 5 years now and the only issue i have had, is the oldest filter i have was a pain to prime last time i cleaned it......I have never needed to replace anything on any Rena filter i own and they run silent..............

 

i have a Fluval 204 on my 29g. i wondered this myself i got mine at petco and petco also carrys the ehiem ecco series. i wonder what the difference between the ecco series and the classic series is?

either way im going to be in the need of 2 more canister filters soon and dont want something with propriety media

 

Eheim. I have heard WAY to much about fluval failures. Especially leaking canister filters.