Sorry for the length of this post! Anyway, I have a number of tanks running, most of which are Juwels of various sizes, all running the manufacturers internal, a Huey Hung sponge filter and a Tetratec EX, mostly 700s, though the Rio 300 has the EX1200 model running.
The EX1200 was purchased in August 2007, and the rest were bought between Jan 2008 and Sept 2009. I have had numerous problems with leaks from the motorheads, and normally replacing the hose adaptor unit has normally fixed this. However, one of them started leaking the other night and ended up spewing water everywhere. I spent literally hours trying to fix it - new seal, new hose adaptor etc (I have a spares box), but nothing I did worked. Soaking wet and thoroughly hacked off, I ended up ripping the whole thing out in disgust. :wb: The bioload on that tank is very light and to be honest, the internal is more than enough - the fish, thankfully, are all fine and I don't plan to replace that particular external.
I've lost confidence in these filters now and I'm seriously thinking about getting rid of them, as most of my tanks are so lightly stocked it seems pointless - they were more for backup anyway in case the internal ever stopped running for any reason. However, the Rio 300 and Rio 180 are more heavily stocked (plecs), so I feel they need external filters. I can't decide whether to stick with the Tetratecs and pray they don't start leaking when I'm not in the house, or whether to rip them out and replace them with something else, such as an Eheim.
I have no experience of Eheims. I know they are expensive, but I'm prepared to spend the money rather than risk causing problems for my fish and wrecking my carpets! Can anyone offer me some advice? Cheers. B.
The EX1200 was purchased in August 2007, and the rest were bought between Jan 2008 and Sept 2009. I have had numerous problems with leaks from the motorheads, and normally replacing the hose adaptor unit has normally fixed this. However, one of them started leaking the other night and ended up spewing water everywhere. I spent literally hours trying to fix it - new seal, new hose adaptor etc (I have a spares box), but nothing I did worked. Soaking wet and thoroughly hacked off, I ended up ripping the whole thing out in disgust. :wb: The bioload on that tank is very light and to be honest, the internal is more than enough - the fish, thankfully, are all fine and I don't plan to replace that particular external.
I've lost confidence in these filters now and I'm seriously thinking about getting rid of them, as most of my tanks are so lightly stocked it seems pointless - they were more for backup anyway in case the internal ever stopped running for any reason. However, the Rio 300 and Rio 180 are more heavily stocked (plecs), so I feel they need external filters. I can't decide whether to stick with the Tetratecs and pray they don't start leaking when I'm not in the house, or whether to rip them out and replace them with something else, such as an Eheim.
I have no experience of Eheims. I know they are expensive, but I'm prepared to spend the money rather than risk causing problems for my fish and wrecking my carpets! Can anyone offer me some advice? Cheers. B.
