SeaChem – Large Aquarium Fish Tank Filter, Tidal 75 Gallon (300 Liters) by Sicce

I had another brand HOB filter that uses filter cartridges. I tried to reuse them, but they're too fragile and would practically fall apart cleaning and the filter would stop up quickly.I then started looking and found this Seachem Tidal 75 HOB filter, there we're high praises for this being one of the best of the HOB style filters. This filter is easy to service. The filter has a filter basket. To do media changeovers, you unlock the filter basket by pulling the blue lock button towards the front and lift basket out. The lid has a detail on the bottom side to snap the bottom of the basket to the lid to keep from dribbling water on the floor as you carry it to a sink to setvice the sponge and bio-media.The sponge and Seachem Matrix comes included. I added some sintered ceramic rings into the zippered mesh bag (included) to fill the bag and have bio-media bag on top of the sponge inside the basket. Your options are endless in regards to filter media. I plan on using Purigen or something similar later to crystalize the water and make appear like there's no water.The water is pumped by a pump on the intake submersed below the waterline, so it never needs priming, power outage, no worries because it will start back up immediately when the power comes back. The Tidal 75 has 2 intakes, the intake tube on the bottom and the skimmer. Then it has a intake control valve that controls the flow between the 2. I have the most of my intake coming from the intake tube on the bottom and the least amount of flow possible on the skimmer intake.It has a flow control on the outake to control how fast water is pumping through. All the way down will slow the flow to a trickle, all the way up gives you 350 g/h. I have mine on a 40 gallon and it is working extremely well. It is very quiet. I highly recommend the Seachem Tidal HOB filter. I have absolutely no regrets, excellent filter for the price point.

It might be a little loud but not enough to bother me. Awesome design and easy to clean. It has a ton of room for whatever media you choose. It’s powerful and I’m glad the flow can be adjusted.

I had to return my purchase of this filter that I bought here, and ended up buying somewhere else for other reasons. I ultimately bought same Tidal 75 filter for my 55 gal hexagon acrylic aquarium. Keeping discus, I need a filter that can clean the water and keeping it clean. Due to its unique shape, the backwall of the aquarium was not wide enough to accommodate canister spray bar. Otherwise, that would've been my choice since they are much better than HOB type. Tidal has their pump in the front instead of in the back of the HOB like some others. This in turn makes it a bit quieter because the pump is fully submerged in the aquarium. For regular aquarium with open top, having the pump in the front is not a problem. It is however for acrylic aquarium where the opening for regular HOB filter is about 1" too small for Tidal because of the motor in the front. To get the Tidal to fit, I had to enlarge the opening of the aquarium.What I like about Tidal 75? I like that the intake has an extended tube as well as intake on top to pull in floating proteins and uneaten food into it. You can also adjust intake level by opening and closing it, as well as adjusting water flow rate. If I want to increase or decrease surface water movement, I can easily do that. It comes with one foam pad, bio media bag and a bag of biomedia. Inside the Tidal is a container where the foam pad and biomedia bag goes. If you don't need to clean the filter unit, just remove the container, clean the foam and the media, and put it back. Easy peasy. I definitely recommend that you also get polishing pads. I bought polishing pads separately. I however since then bought a huge roll of it as well as a huge roll of first stage filter pad and cut the shape to fit inside the Tidal. It is much more cost effective than buying the seachem polishing pads. In my Tidal, I have the blue sponge that came with it, a layer of first stage filter to trap larger debris that the sponge didn't trap, two layers of the polishing pads, and the biomedia bag. I do water change every 3 or 4 days, and I rinsed bio media bag in bucket that has some of the water from the aquarium. I rinsed the polishing pads and reuse. Once it gets too dirty, I replace it.Overall it is an excellent HOB filter. I would love to get another one for my other 40 gal hex acrylic aquarium, but I don't want to deal with cutting the top of the aquarium again.