When I decided to get my 55 Gallon Aquarium a few weeks ago, I wanted to get a powerful filter that was up to the challenge of keeping my freshwater tank clean and healthy.  I decided to go with the Rena Filstar xP3 Canister Filter mostly based on the recommendation of my brother Bart and my Dad, who both have had the filter for a while now and love it.

When I was originally getting the aquarium setup, they didn’t have the Rena Filstar xP3 in stock and they offered to set me up with a different filter but I decided to wait and get the xP3.  If you’re at your local fish store and there are a bunch of filters available for sale and there is a layer of dust on their box, that’s a pretty good sign that it’s not a good seller.  In my case the xP3 was totally sold out, which goes to show that the filter must be popular.

The Rena Filstar xP3 has a 350 GPH (1350L) flow rate and it can accomodate aquarium tanks of up to 175 Gallons (600 L), so it’s almost a bit overkill for my 55 Gallon tank, but you can always adjust down the flow rate so why not get something that’s going to do the job properly.

This is what the box for the filter looks like.  As the box says, the filter can be used for both Freshwater and Saltwater Aquariums.

The filter came packaged quite nicely and everything was in tact when I got it with no damage from shipping.  They do a good job of packing the filter in such a way that it shouldn’t get damaged in shipping if you were to purchase it online.

The filter comes with an inlet/outlet kit which allows you to adapt the filter for your specific setup in the tank.  You can easily position the inlet on one side of your tank and the outlet on the other side to get the water flowing in the tank.  You can easily customize the length of the inlet to adjust for different aquarium heights which is important.

I took a picture of what the kit looks like, and you can see all the different attachments you can use to customize your aquarium setup.  For your outlet, you can either choose a spray-bar which has small holes in it allowing water to flow into the aquarium throughout the whole length of the tube, or you can put on the power-head nozzle which creates a jet stream in the aquarium.

For my setup I decided to go with the power-head nozzle because I wanted to create a jet-stream for my fish.  My Giant Danios seem to love it.  When they’re bored, they’ll just start swimming against the jet-stream and it looks really funny.  Some of my other fish seem to like it as well.

The other thing I did with my power-head nozzle is that I positioned it just above my aerator so when the bubbles from my air pump float up, they get caught in the jetstream and the jetstream carries them across into the tank.

This allows me to easily see that the filter is working as well because normally it’s so silent I can’t really tell that it’s even on.

The people at Rena knew what they were doing when they built this filter.  They put a thick rubber base on the bottom of the filter to prevent any possibility of vibration or noise so the filter operates very quitly in my cabinet.

There are 3 seperate compartments in the filter, each split into two sections for a total of 6 seperate media baskets.  You can totally customize what kinds of media you put into each of the baskets.  The filter comes with 2 packages each of 20 and 30 ppi cell foam which take up the bottom two sections of the filter occupying the first basket.  It also comes with a package of Bio-Chem Zorb to keep your water looking sparkling clean.  The middle compartment can house your Ceramic Rings, for example, where your population of “Good Bacteria” will grow which will help to keep your aquarium healthy.

The setup of the filter was super simple.  My only complaint would be that the rubber hoses that fit over the inflow and outflow tubes were a bit tough to put on.  I asked my brother about it and he suggested soaking the tubes in hot water for a few minutes to make them a bit softer which makes them easy to slide on.

Overall, I’m very happy with the filter.  It was very simple to prime the filter as well, and you only have to do it once.  There is a quick-release valve on top of the filter which allows you to quickly unplug the tubes from the filter for when you need to clean or replace the media.

As far as aquarium filtration goes, it just doesn’t get any easier than this.

One other thing I’d like to add which my Dad pointed out is that while the box advertises the pump on this filter as being rated at 19 Watts, the actual power on the pump is rated at 28 Watts when you look at the back of the filter power-head.  This means you’re getting about 47% more power from this filter than previously advertised.  I’m not sure when Rena made that upgrade, but my Dad’s filter, my brother’s and mine are all rated at 28 Watts of power.

I highly recommend this filter to anyone running an aquarium at home.

Click Here to find out more information or to purchase the Rena Filstar xP3 Canister Filter.