SunSun Tech'n'Toy HW-603B 106 GPH 3-Stage External Canister Filter, 12 Piece Set

I bought one and it didn’t work so they sent a replacement then I figured out it was just me doing it wrong so I paid for both. I have giant clam tank ect. I use them both and both run well

I am new to fishkeeping. In fact I’m still cycling my tank, went from a nearly cycled 5 gallon to a 10, and I didn’t eat filter in the tank anymore. I decided to try a canister filter, and saw this one. I nearly didn’t buy it because of the sketchy reviews. I was really nervous about the stage of cycling my tank was at, but did finally decide to switch today. I moved everything I could from old to new, and when moving substrate a lot of cloudiness occurred. I packed this filter with previous rings and filter media, set it up and crossed my fingers. An hour later the tank is nearly clear, and the filter is so quiet! Priming was easy using videos from YouTube, to get the siphon going, and done! Of course I don’t know about longevity, but I am impressed with it so far.Update 3/8/24I’ve only had this filter a few months, and I’m new to fish keeping and canister filter use. I still love this filter! I have torn it down to clean it 3 times now, I purchased some silicone to lubricate all the o rings each time, and so far no leaks. It is so quiet and has plenty of room for my filter media, and gph is perfect for my 10 gallon. In fact I am upgrading to a 29 gallon and just purchased the Sunsun 302 to run with it. I’m hoping it’s as good as this one has been!

This thing work so good that I bought 2. But both of them failed after 2 years and leaked water all over my apartment multiple times. I assumed it was something i did wrong initially. But after a certain amount of time the wheels fall off. The final straw was when my outtake pump failed and couldn’t stay up right. No matter what I did to try and tighten the nut, it just kept falling over, and either twisted the tube causing water to pump out everywhere or the last straw for me was this slow leak. The gaskets are its critical failure point. Having 2 of these helped me realize they suck. The 1st one I purchased did this so I just put away, then the 2nd one did the exact same thing. This happened after a couple of years. Save yourself a headache and most likely the health of your aquarium and pay the extra money for a name brand. All these no-name Chinese companies are the same. Pump and dump.Again it works fine up till a 2-3 years. Then the gaskets fail. This is a critical failure point. Thank god I was home when it happened, it could have cause an electrical fire. Don’t risk your family’s or pets lives on this garbage.

Very good small filter for its cost. I replaced half of the the sponge filter that is provided with the kit using other bio media and love it. I use 2 of these with a 55 gallon tank. It would be great by itself for a 10 gallon or a 20 gallon. The best part is that you can put the canister out of sight so your tanks looks less crowded and messy than using most other type filters.I would have given this filter 5 stars but for 2 problems. First the green tubing that is supplied if extremely difficult to attach to the other connectors. I heated the tubing in boiling water for a while to make it more flexible so it would stretch over the plastic connectors, but it was still extremely hard work getting them all attached. I'm a big strong guy, but I have problems with arthritis in my hands that made it nearly impossible. It took me a couple of hours. If you don't have strong hands, this might be a problem. I would have gone to the hardware store for replacement tubing that fit more easily, but I started working on it late one evening after stores were closed and wanted to finish it rather than wait. Yeah, I one of those guys that before GPS used to drive around forever lost rather than stop and ask directions.The second problem might not matter with some tanks. With my tank the plastic parts did not fit well that hang on the back edge of the tank to hold the intake and output lines. They are "U" shaped connectors through which the water passes over the back edge. The plastic rim around the top of my 55 gallon glass tank is too wide to fit between the narrow notch in the "U" shaped connector. I'm planning to replace these with some PVC plumbing connector when I'm next at the hardware store. My tank is 35 years old, so modern tanks might be designed differently so this might not be a problem. Since lots of the green tubing is supplied, right now I've just drooped the green tube over the back and into the water. Until I get some PVC connectors for a better solution, I've just fastened the green tubing using a suction cup and some small zip-ties to keep the hoses in the water. The problem long term with this solution is that the green hose is gradually collapsing and closing shut where it hangs over the back edge, which is why a rigid connector is needed to pass the water up and over the back edge, both to and from the filter.If you have semi useful DIY skills this is a great little filter. Its far easier and better than the many DIY videos on how to make a filter using soda bottles. It is Infinitely better and worth the cost. If you include the cost of a pump with those "free" DIY filters, this filter with it own pump doesn't cost much more than a good air pump to use with the DIY types. If cost is not an issue, and you want something that works straight our of the box quickly, this filter might not be it. If you don't mind tinkering a bit, this filter is super for its cost. The canister holds about a half gallon of media. You can use the supplied sponge filters by themselves or replace some or all of the sponges with whatever bio media you prefer. I put ceramic tube type in one, and bio balls in the other.If you have a 40 or 55 gallon tank, there are larger sized version of this SunSun filter that would work better by themselves. I bought this one and then decided I wanted more capacity and ordered another. It would probably have been easier to have ordered a single larger one if I had planned better.If you have any small fish, especially live bearers like guppy, platty, or molly, I wold suggest a pre-filter on the intake to keep fry from getting hurt and killed by getting sucked into the filter's intake.If you search for "Hydro Sponge Filter" these are super to use to cover the intake line. Besides keeping your small fish safe from getting hurt, they work wonderfully as a pre-filter to keep the media in the canister from getting clogged up with algae and debris. It's much easier to turn off the pump, remove the hydro sponge pre-filter and wash it, etc. Not needing to take the canister apart to clean frequently not only saves time and mess, it leaves the beneficial bacterial inside the canister undisturbed. Using a Hrdro Sponge as a pre-filter for the canister filter will provide additional surface area for beneficial bacteria as well. This helps keep your water quality good, especially if you are like many of us who sometimes overstock our tank or feed too frequently.If you enjoying tinkering and want to try a larger and/or additional pump with this canister, don't put it on the intake, as this can result in too much pressure in the canister resulting in leaks. Its pump is on the canister's outflow so it doesn't cause pressure in the canister that results in leaks. Before I ordered my second one of these SunSun filters, I first tried an additional pump to increase flow using a really strong a power head I already had and wasn't using. I put it inside the tank on the end of the return line. It worked well, but I finally decided I wanted the second filter with slower flow rates instead of one filter with a really high flow rate. The bigger pump kept the water quality good, but the water turbulence was excessive and messing with plants and stuff.

I've run a couple larger SunSun canisters for a number of years now without issue. After burning through 4 separate filters trying to find something that would work for my 5.5 gallon tank without ruining the aesthetics, I finally pulled the trigger on the HW-603B. Man, it is awesome! It is efficiently polishing the water so quickly, it makes effectively zero noise (Same cannot be said for competitors in this size range) and it has more media storage capacity in a smaller footprint than the competition. I think I'm going to actually be replacing some supposedly larger capacity filters on 10 gallons for these. I won't be creating nano scapes without one of these ever again.