• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Oase BioMaster Thermo External Filter

I thought I'd jump into this thread with a quick question, given how many people have experience with these filters here.

I've got a 90 litre cube I'm about to scape, and need to decide on a filter. Stuck between the fluval 307 or the oase biomaster 350 thermo. Both obviously have their downsides, the flow issues with the oase, and claims of water bypassing in the fluval. I feel there would be more DIY needed to get the Oase running well (in terms of drilling holes), but I like the integrated heater.

It was suggested to me to get the biomaster 600, and that you can easily ram 12/16mm tubing directly onto it, which will produce a reasonable flow with lily pipes. Has anyone got any experience with that?
 
The flows not terrible from the 600, but it definitely isn't as powerful as when i first set it up, especially when cleaning the prefilter twice a week. I doubt my inside sponges are blocked, i only have a blue one in the bottom and orange at the top. I basically have an empty basket after the bottom tray, then 2 half full baskets of matrix, then the next basket has a bags of purigen and carbon with the top basket being the original thing orange foam.

I use 16/22 clear hoses with lily pipe and surface skimmer inlet, having bigger pipes than what is supplied with the filter will make the flow rate less? I'm not sure what the original sized hoses are but they are a little smaller, maybe they are the same but one has thin wall while the other has thick wall. I have drilled holes in the prefilter and have the course foam too. I will only know if my flow increases after my first major filter clean.
 
I think I’ve said it a few times!

I use the oase 600 2nd generation and eheim pro4 600. Both are rated at 1250 l/ph.

both have the exact same media in them, a mix of eheim pro and AquaRio Soft. I have changed the oase prefilter to the courser orange ones though.

the flow rate on the oase is only marginally lower than my eheim. Pretty much academic on a 100L - 200L tank.

I think the problem comes from people assuming that because they clean the oase prefilter, they never have to open the main filter......!

Yes oase are pushing them well. But I feel it is unfair to say the flow in my filter has dropped off over the past 2 months, I’m unhappy, without adding the ps. I’ve never cleaned it either! 🙂

Ps. I’m not pushing oase (I’ve always been a lifelong eheim fan). Just feel there is a bit of a bandwagon going on here!

pps. My reply wasn’t to you @Sammy Islam . (I replied on the page before your post!) Just feel that this thread is getting a bit like let’s knock oase.
 
Agreed @Siege I think there getting a rough ride here. I have two of these filters and never a problem in fact I wouldnt hesitate to buy another purely because of the pre filter and the heater for me it's as good as any other in this class of filter
 
@Siege i know! Don't worry. :thumbup: i haven't cleaned the inside yet as we both know i'm only 5 weeks in and still technically cycling.

I think generally the filter is great, everything just worked out the box without any worry or weird noises or any sort of leaks. The prefilter and heater integration is genius and i would definitely buy another. When i clean my filter and tubes, while spreading my matrix out a bit more i think flow should improve but other than that i don't know. :crazy:
 
You. Should be good after a clean. It is normally the top orange foam that gets clogged and slows down flow. Open it and see what you think.

i try to clean the whole of a filter every 2 weeks, Be it eheim, ADA or oase.

wash all the media under a running tap....no problem :lol:

opened an oase today that had not been done since tank set up at xmas. Flow was super low. That filter is absolutely packed with ADA BioRio (super fine) and ADA Carbon (again super fine). Media was all good. It was the orange top sponge that was causing the issue!

I think this sponge does cause the flow to drop more than say eheim after a couple of months, but is is marginal in difference imo.
 
Cool makes sense! The matrix is pretty small in general too so i'll probably just spread that over the 3 baskets instead of leaving one basically empty - currently has 2 hand fulls of old fluval ceramic rings to help cycle the tank.
The orange foam is more than likely the choke point, i can't wait to clean it now :lol: Generally i would clean the filter every 3 weeks, so will start doing that soon now the scape is going well and isn't heavily stocked.
 
Jayefc1 said:
I loose the top.sponge and add floss to.both with no difference in flow think it just polishes the water better
Click to expand...

I was thinking of doing this, as I always liked the Eheim final stage floss. Do you just buy it is a roll and cut to size?
 
I cleaned my biomaster 600 the other day, i only have the blue foam at the bottom and orange foam at the top and bio/chemical filtration in between.

The whole thing was relatively clean, when cleaned in a bucket the water was still see through rather than dark brown. The prefilter obviously does a great job if regularly cleaned but i have found that it seems like the top 2 sponges are always the dirtiest and the other 4 are much cleaner.

I also redistributed my seachem matrix more evenly across 3 baskets. I would say the flow has definitely improved, maybe not to it's original output but that's hard to gage. my rotala has more movement, so overall it has improved! :thumbup:
 
I had a bit of a fiddle with my filter too, to try and increase the flow a bit. When I looked on the underside of the media basket, it was clear that the media was blocking a large number of the holes:

upload_2020-2-25_18-22-25.jpeg

So I got hold of some 10-15ppi foam, and cut it really thin so I could see through it, and added it as an interface layer between the basket base and the media:

upload_2020-2-25_18-23-44.jpeg

upload_2020-2-25_18-23-59.jpeg

upload_2020-2-25_18-24-12.jpeg

It seemed to make a small improvement to the flow, but I can’t be 100% sure. It stopped the little niggle in the back of my brain about it being a potential bottle neck anyway, so at least I can rest easier 😀
 
Hi all - THREAD BUMP!

I'll post elsewhere about my general situation, as I'm debating moving from a sump setup to an external filter and the Oase 600 Thermo is my most probable choice.

This is my tank, it's an older picture mind you hence the Christmas decorations...

Tank.jpg

This is a more recent one:
tank 2.jpg

It's a 380l tank and until now I've had a 100l sump in the cabinet with an Eheim 3000 return pump. However in 5 years I've never managed to get the setup to be anywhere near quiet. Whether it's the pump itself (I've tried 2 separate ones), vibration of the return hose against the sump or cabinet, the water flowing down from the weir, flow through the sump etc. It's obnoxiously loud. I've come to the point of considering selling up and getting rid of the whole damn thing so my last chance is to change to an external filter instead.

I'll post elsewhere on the site in the off chance that someone can figure out a way to stick with the sump and solve the noise problems, but other than that here are my questions specific to the Oase filter.

* Is this my only realistic option in terms of a filter with built in heater? I definitely don't want one in the tank. Currently it is in the sump but if I get rid of that I would prefer a built in one. I know Eheim do one but it's north of £400 for a tank my size. I've read too many horror stories about inline heaters either reducing flow or breaking down/leaking.

* Does the height of my tank cause an issue? From the floor to the top of the tank is about 5ft so given that the filter is about 19" tall, that leaves a height from the filter to the tank of about 3.5ft Is that likely to affect my flow as it's a fair height to pump?

* In my tank, the down pipe is concealed in the weir in the back left corner. If I switch to the Oase, is it possible/advisable to leave that weir in place (but remove the exit pipe and seal the hole), then place the intake hose in the weir so it won't be visible?

* Having read through the rest of this thread, I've heard complaints about air being pushed through, and noise issues. Are these still around or have more recent models solved these issues? Silence (or as close as possible) is a big deal for me but with the racket I'm enduring at the minute I imagine that what others would still call noisy, I would call bliss.


Thanks all!
 
@DrPhilG I have the Biomaster 600 Thermo and am very happy with it. I haven't experienced any of the issues reported previously, probably because I believe Oase did make some updates to the filter following poor reviews and feedback.

That's quite a big tank you have there, and I don't think one filter will be sufficient for you. Media in the flyer plus the head hight of 90 cm will reduce the flow on the filter. You could either try to raise the filter in the cabinet or better still have two filters. By the time you buy two filters, you might be better off getting a more powerful Eheim. the problem with the Rheims is that the heater isn't replaceable if it breaks, whereas on the Biomaster, you simply put in a new heater, and the pre-filter is great.
 
DrPhilG said:
Hi all - THREAD BUMP!

I'll post elsewhere about my general situation, as I'm debating moving from a sump setup to an external filter and the Oase 600 Thermo is my most probable choice.

This is my tank, it's an older picture mind you hence the Christmas decorations...

View attachment 153713

This is a more recent one:
View attachment 153714

It's a 380l tank and until now I've had a 100l sump in the cabinet with an Eheim 3000 return pump. However in 5 years I've never managed to get the setup to be anywhere near quiet. Whether it's the pump itself (I've tried 2 separate ones), vibration of the return hose against the sump or cabinet, the water flowing down from the weir, flow through the sump etc. It's obnoxiously loud. I've come to the point of considering selling up and getting rid of the whole damn thing so my last chance is to change to an external filter instead.

I'll post elsewhere on the site in the off chance that someone can figure out a way to stick with the sump and solve the noise problems, but other than that here are my questions specific to the Oase filter.

* Is this my only realistic option in terms of a filter with built in heater? I definitely don't want one in the tank. Currently it is in the sump but if I get rid of that I would prefer a built in one. I know Eheim do one but it's north of £400 for a tank my size. I've read too many horror stories about inline heaters either reducing flow or breaking down/leaking.

* Does the height of my tank cause an issue? From the floor to the top of the tank is about 5ft so given that the filter is about 19" tall, that leaves a height from the filter to the tank of about 3.5ft Is that likely to affect my flow as it's a fair height to pump?

* In my tank, the down pipe is concealed in the weir in the back left corner. If I switch to the Oase, is it possible/advisable to leave that weir in place (but remove the exit pipe and seal the hole), then place the intake hose in the weir so it won't be visible?

* Having read through the rest of this thread, I've heard complaints about air being pushed through, and noise issues. Are these still around or have more recent models solved these issues? Silence (or as close as possible) is a big deal for me but with the racket I'm enduring at the minute I imagine that what others would still call noisy, I would call bliss.


Thanks all!
Click to expand...

As far as I can tell in my own research, a sump is a far superior, more flexible and easier to maintain solution than a canister filter - the complexity comes in the set-up and flooding fail safes. If you already have a sump set up and working properly (albeit with some unwanted noise issues to solve), I would not be considering moving to a canister filter. I would concentrate on finding solutions to your noise issues, be they simply noise/vibration isolation for your pump and pipework, or modification to your overflow pipework to reduce water noise. I would suggest setting up a different thread to help investigate your noise issues, as there are a fair number of folks here who have successful and quiet sumps.

In addition the Biomaster will give you no way near the flow rate your Eheim 3000 provides, nor likely the filter capacity (given your very low plant mass), I imagine you'd need at least two, which will double up on filter maintenance requirements.
 
Last edited:
Thanks folks. I feared that may be the outcome. I can barely justify the cost of one external filter never mind 2.

I'll go back to the drawing board and seek a noise resolution.

😵
 
@DrPhilG Can you provide more details of your sump setup, drains & weir configuration. People can then probably help out, probably best as a new thread.
 
@davidgorman74 Out of interest, how are you finding the noise levels in comparison to eheim. I measured my biomaster yesterday at 44db close up, and 33 at 80cm where Oase measure theirs. It falls within their limits, but I’m finding it noisier than eheim that had in the past.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top