# Which External Filter is best?



## CupcakeMurder (8 Jun 2021)

I'm new into the hobby.

I have now a 60l (about 15gallons) tank with some live plants along with the fish. It's an old Tetra tank (very similar to Tetra AquaArt LED that is out now) so with lid and everything.
Now I have an internal filter (*Biobox 1*) which is ok I guess 🤔.

I want to change it for an external. The furniture that the tank sits on is not made for an aquarium so the space below is limited. I have a square space of 32cmx32cm box to place the filter in.
I was looking at the *Tetra EX 400 plus* or *Eheim *(not sure which model so suggestions are welcome). I've also looked into *Fluval 107* but it's not easy to come by in my country although it looks nice.
Do you guys have any reviews or suggestions for these external filters? I want it to be as quiet as possible and easy to use so I would appreciate your input as you are more experienced people.

I also like to to mentioned that I currently have 3 cats and at least one is trying to swim (or i guess see the fish from the top) whenever I do the water changes so removing the lid to accommodate a hanging setup is not an option at the moment.


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## Matt1994 (8 Jun 2021)

I have an oase biomaster thermo 350 on my 100L 60x50x36cm tank and can't reccomend them enough. Been running six months had no issues what so ever . Very queit only time I really hear any noise is for literally a minute or two after cleaning pre filter which takes around 5 minutes if that and the added bonus of the thermo is the heater in the filter . 
Going to be getting another for my next tank

I have media wise in mine is matrix and top orange foam with a bag of purigen under it .

You can also change the coarseness of the pre filter Sponges,  however I'm just using the supplied and clean it 3x a week but probably get away with once or twice! I iust like knowing its always clean and then not slowing the flow at all etc ...

Flow is perfect for what I needed, using steel lily pipes.


I know they do internals and smaller externals too. 
Definitely worth a look id say . I cannot fault it in anyway 

Thanks 
Matt 😃


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## CupcakeMurder (8 Jun 2021)

Matt1994 said:


> I have an oase biomaster thermo 350 on my 100L 60x50x36cm tank and can't reccomend them enough. Been running six months had no issues what so ever . Very queit only time I really hear any noise is for literally a minute or two after cleaning pre filter which takes around 5 minutes if that and the added bonus of the thermo is the heater in the filter .
> Going to be getting another for my next tank
> 
> I have media wise in mine is matrix and top orange foam with a bag of purigen under it .
> ...


Thank you for the info Matt.

I searched for it but it's a but over my budget.


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## Matt1994 (8 Jun 2021)

Hi, no problem at all 

They do a smaller one what litres and size is your tank ?,
They do an oase filtosmart 
Can find them online starting at around £60 UK pounds for the filtosmart 60 

As appose to the like £180 for oase biomaster thermos etc


Hope you manage to get sorted anyway 

Regards 
Matt 😃


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## Aqua sobriquet (9 Jun 2021)

I’ve got a Tetra EX400 and an Eheim 2213 on a couple of Nano’s at the moment. The Tetra EX400 is virtually silent whilst I’ve had to do some stuff to the Eheim to reduce the noise from it. Both work well enough.


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## dino21 (10 Jun 2021)

Aqua sobriquet said:


> I’ve got a Tetra EX400 and an Eheim 2213 on a couple of Nano’s at the moment. The Tetra EX400 is virtually silent whilst I’ve had to do some stuff to the Eheim to reduce the noise from it. Both work well enough.



Be interested to know what "stuff" you did to your Eheim, assume it was to reduce the humming /vibration noise ?

Got our Eheim Ecco Pro as friends said theirs was so quiet, but found it very noisey , possibly something to do with later models using different coils or rotors or different housing  plastics ??


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## Aqua sobriquet (10 Jun 2021)

Some of the Eheim Classic models were available as “Thermo Filters”. As a result there is a space at the top of the filter to contain the controls. This open space (arrowed in the picture) on standard filters acts like a amplifier to increase any noise coming from the impeller. On my filter I took off the top of the head and crammed this open space with high density foam. This reduced the noise a bit. I also made a PTFE washer that fits on the shaft under the impeller, this helped a little as well.


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## shangman (10 Jun 2021)

I have a 60L with an Eheim Classic 250 on it and it's very quiet. It's in my bedroom, not in a cabinet and I don't notice it until I get really close. It's a great filter, but you need to also buy the 2 extra doubletaps or it will be way more annoying to set up and clean. With the doubletaps it's easy. I think they sell the classic with 2 doubletaps and the filter media as the "Eheim Classic 250 Plus".


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## Aqua sobriquet (10 Jun 2021)

Yes, that’s how I bought mine. It came with everything in the box. I’ve stopped using the filter basket with mine though as I found once the media started to get clogged I was getting bypass.


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## sparkyweasel (10 Jun 2021)

dino21 said:


> Got our Eheim Ecco Pro as friends said theirs was so quiet, but found it very noisey , possibly something to do with later models using different coils or rotors or different housing  plastics ??


I think a lot of Eheim's current problems are down to quality control, - or lack of it. It sems to be a gamble where you could get a really good one, or you might not.
It's rather sad, they used to make nothing but good stuff once.


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## Aqua sobriquet (11 Jun 2021)

sparkyweasel said:


> I think a lot of Eheim's current problems are down to quality control, - or lack of it. It sems to be a gamble where you could get a really good one, or you might not.
> It's rather sad, they used to make nothing but good stuff once.


You may be right. I’d like to visit the factory where the Eheim Classic’s are made to see exactly how the pump heads are assembled. It may give an insight into why some of them are so noisy?


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