CFS 130 Hang on Aquarium Canister Filter External

I love this, I have a 7 gallon tank with a built in.. Never could keep up even with only 3 or 4 tiny fish.. and constant filter changes etc. I even tried some of smaller in tank filters to add more filtration and movement in the dead zones. I say this while looking for a Small external filter. well I found it. I modified it by putting the outlet pipe in the built in filter in tank and have the intake on on the outside.. works fantastic and you hear nothing... its on a stand just below the tv ,so it would be really bad if noisy. it keeps the tank super clean no more making a horrific mess cleaning out just unhook and go clean it.. Going to set up a planted betta tank and get another for it..it may be over kill but all do just add sponge to intake so no one gets sucked up.. and a great pre filter.

Super super easy.... perfect for my 40 gal breeder.... will definitely buy this brand as needed

The Odyssea CFS 130 is a unique filter. It's some where in that grey area between a Aquaclear 30 and a Penn-Plax 500 canister filter.I was surprised by it's filter media capacity. Other users have claimed it is too small for anything over 20 gallons. I beg to differ: For one thing it comes with a pair of large sponge filters and two pretty useless pot scrubbies masquerading as polishing media. In addition to the tiny handful of rather overly coarse wet-dry bio-balls packed in around the pump under the media grating at the bottom, you can dispense with both the bio-balls and the scrubbies and get a rough cupful or more of some real ceramic bio-torus' to place under the sponges as additional bio media. Let's look at other features about this unique filter. It's motor pump shares an impeller with a half dozen inexpensive powerheads of the 302 type model out of China.. They're very common, have the exact same rotor, same shaft size, same magnet length and wattage. These powerheads are roughly 235 GPH in wide open configuration. There's even a chance you can use the China sourced pumps as a replacement for the CFS130's pump, which will add to the life of the filter.Some complaints about how fragile this filter is: Well yes to big, clumsy Americans, it's a bit flimsy.It's not a freakin' garbage disposal! Us cation when disassembling and removing the pipes, maybe a small smear of silicone lube on the tube O-rings and the top gasket would help.Compare this with the really fragile Ehiem Classic 22XX series with the bottom inlet that frequently breaks. The tubes are on top and are easily removed while in place. Plan the aquarium's works space to include having ergonomic access to the unit, as it is really designed to be hung from the back of an aquarium, meant to be viewed from two or three sides at best.The metal clips seem to fall off frequently. I notice this while I was testing my unit. You know the thing is you can do to keep them from falling off is keep the hanger support collar on, and apply a tiny dab of silicone cement between the filter body and the bottom of each clip while they are unfastened. The silicone will stretch and twist with the clips but will keep them in place when you service it. I would put a small 2"~3" high tray under the filter to catch the clips when servicing, but that's getting a bit OCD.It's a very simple pump/filter and should provide you with years of service, and appeal to those not afraid to tinker and improve it. And it's pretty cheap for a filter that can be used to upwards of a 29 gallon tank. It's prefect for planted tanks because of the lack of an HOB's water return chute and it provides a good choice for a economical filter for a first toe dip into CO2 injection, heavily planted and 'scaped aquariums.Have fun with it.Two month update. It's still working well. I have noticed that over a period of time that it takes on tiny bits of air so that it's eventually losing it's internal water. In a CO2 fertilized planted tank this is frequently caused by bubbles of air /oxygen being ingested by the intake. One way to slow this down is to open the intake flow control to full and turn the outflow to it's lowest flow. Do make sure the O-ring on the flow knobs is fully sealed against the tube end they reside in so they're not leaking in small amounts of air. You can refill it with water by unplugging the motor and removing the intake flow control and feeding a airline plumbed into a 2 liter plastic bottle to squirt replacement water into the filter until it over flows out the opened intake pipe. No need to disassemble the intake tube from the filter. Do clean the intake tube's screen on a weekly basis, that will also increase the time between refillings

I was really hoping that this filter would work out. I was looking for a canister filter so I wouldn't take up space in my tank. This seemed like it was a decent price and was a nice size. However, it did not work out at all. The product was simple enough to assemble with it's easy to follow instruction, but during assembly I discovered that there was a crack in the long tube that flows into the tank. When I put the end cap on said tube and turned it on, it caused water to spray erratically all over the place (wall, floor, etc) from the crack. I did not want to go thru the hassle of a return so tried to see if it would work without the cap. It seemed to work okay in this manner.After thinking I had finally found a good canister for my tank (albeit with a broken piece), I had gone out of town for a week or so. When I returned home, my house smelled horrible and I went to the tank and found that the device had stopped working all together at some point while I was away and now my tank was done for.I should have returned as soon as I saw it arrived damaged.

So, I have been using Oddysea brand filters for a while but only the much larger cannister. Recently I decided I needed better filtration for my 20g hex tank as all I am using is a sponge filter. I got this little HOB Cannister in hopes it would fit the bill and not take alot of room. Well it does just that. Assembly is fairly straight forward, instructions are on the side of the box. Just a note, if you install the tubes backwards and turn it on like I did (I wasn't paying attention), and then are worried about leaking water by removing them - the tubes are identical, just swap the tips out.One thing to check before you fill it, make sure the pump inside the cannister is hooked to it's proper place. It might pop off during shipping, much easier to fix while it's dry.Only down side: my spray bar cracked while I was trying to get it aimed right, I may have been a little rough with it so just be gentle when messing with it.Overall very happy with the product, and looking forward to enjoying a cleaner tank

**Update: 1/25/19, it worked really well for my 33 gallon tank. Then around November it just died. The pump stopped working. Unfortunately it cannot be substituted. **I just assembled and installed this filter. It was easy to put together. It runs very quietly and it appears to do the job. I will update this review in a couple of weeks if it performs poorly. Based on my experience working on aquariums and different types of filters though, this one appears to be a good product and excellent value.