20 Best 30 Gallon Aquarium Filter (2022 Updated)

A few days ago I purchased my first fish tank bigger than 10 gallons. I keep all kinds of bettas, but I finally decided to branch out into larger community tanks. I bought a 45 gallon kit. It included the Aqueon QuietFlow 30 LED Pro.

I just went with it because that was what was included. Unfortunately, it was anything but quiet! The hum on that thing measured 70 decibels, with an annoying hum that grated my ears. Even after dissembling and cleaning 3 times, as well as lubricating impeller with Vaseline, it was so loud.

I did decide to give it a shot and buy this 60 gallon filter for my 45 gallon. It is amazing. It is very quiet, measuring about 46 decibels. It does not bother me at all. It provides good water flow, and you can turn that up and down which is interesting.

We’ll see how nice the actual filtration is. but I’m optimistic. If noise is a big con for you like it is for me, I recommend this filter. I hope this helped someone :).

I’ve been using the aqua-tech filter for about a year now, while the filters worked property they were great. i replaced the filter for the first time about 4 to 5 months ago and now today the filter went out again.

now i cant complain to much as it is a 40 dollar filter. needless to say i wont be buying this filter again. the product is great for beginners just getting in the the aquarium world. ive been in the hobby for a long while now.

the product did a nice job keeping the water clear while it was working.

I’ve had this for my 55 gallon tank for about a year, with small turtles and fish, the turtles go to the pond when they get bigger. The only problem I had with it after one year was the flow slowed down.

After cleaning and taking apart, it seems there is a rubber washer that holds the propeller next to the motor to move the water. It seems that the rubber washer looses it’s ability to hold the propeller down next to the motor correctly every time the propeller is reinserted.

But the media replacement is inexpensive and easy to find with multiple brands making the type “C” cartridges. It is very quiet and moves a lot of water for the price. Even if I have to replace the main filter every year or two the money I save on cartridges will more than make up for that.

I was going to go with a bio-wheel filter, but read many reviews about how noisy they can get over time, not worth it to me. I’ll stick with the less expensive above average filter.

I’m very happy with this small filter in the 2. 5 months it’s been in constant operation. I have it on the back of a small 5-gallon tank that is on my office desk next to the desktop computer, so that while I’m waiting for videos or whatever, I can glance over at the tank; therefore, it’s imperative that the filter be very quiet and not a distraction.

This filter is so quiet in operation that I have to look at the filter box to see motion and know it’s working. There’s an adjustment knob to change the rate of operation, which is useful when feeding the fish.

The plastic filter box is a pretty blue color and quite roomy (6″ wide, 6″ high, 2. 5″ deep). I don’t use the carbon insert because I don’t believe in that form of filtration; instead, I replaced it with a nylon media bag full to the maximum of Biohome filter medium thus providing more surface for beneficial bacteria growth.

The filter intake wand is extendable to go deep into the tank to catch the debris at the bottom. The unit is relatively easy to clean. Finally, I like the fact that the filter motor is only 4 watts, so it’s energy-efficient, doing the job using little electricity!.

As soon as I took it out of the box, small pieces fell everywhere. A piece that holds the pump away from the side of the tank had broken. The plastic on the blue part was very scratched up. If you are ordering this for a 10 gallon tank that has a lid on it then you should know that your fish tank lid will not fit back on because this pump is very wide.

wider than the slot on the tank lid. I took the lid off and hung this pump over the back of the tank to see if it worked ok. It seems functional but after four days it still hasn’t done much to clear the water.

I will probably order a different pump so I can use my tank lid again.

First, the description on the item is wrong — this item does not have the UV Sterilizer component to it. Unfortunately, I did not realize it before installing and running. Had I realized it, the item would have been returned — pronto.

So, now that the item is running it is woefully inadequate — surface space on the “filter” medium is small and will clog within hours, forcing the water over the lip by the intake siphon, effectively bypassing the filter cartridge.

The only good thing to be said about the unit is it’s quiet! Bottom line, don’t waste your money.

Ran this filter in 2 separate tanks. In a 30 gallon with aquatic frogs as the main filter and as a redundant filter in a 72 gallon tropical fish tank. I have had 4 of these filters, all have come with small cracks on the plastic housing.

I have cleaned and replaced media on these filters on a 3 to 6 month basis and they all have the same issue. They will eventually stop pushing water out at a steady rate. The motor makes a ton of noise as well.

I do not recommend this filter unless you are in a pinch and just need a temporary solution.

It works well enough. My problem is taking it apart! You have to press and pull at the same time. It is impossible with longer fingernails, small or arthritic hands. I’m looking for a second non submersible filter, so I won’t have to clean this one as often.

Should have gotten my son a bigger one for his turtle. Water is still cloudy after a week and a half of waiting to see if it was just going to take a bit of time to work. I’m going to cave and just clean the tank.

Also when it came the bottom part where the 2nd filter is was jammed together and the clips to hold it together were broken. We put the end of it against the glass of his tank to keep it together so that was an easy fix but still when you pay hard earned money you don’t expect it to be broken and jammed together.

I can’t fault it ,they literally thought of everything. the pump is in the water so its very quiet , it has a pop up indicator to tell you if it needs cleaning , a large tray for media,you can remove the tray and it clips onto the lid so you dont spill water everywhere , you can adjust the intake and the flow ,you can remove the media basket without moving or switching off the filter and it self fills so if you have power outtage it will start up again with no problems.

there is a cable tidy and a holding clip you can attach to the side for a heater and it has a surface skimmer. the only thing that might be a problem is the intake,small fry would be sucked through the gaps but that can be solved by placing sponge inside the skimmer and sponge over the intake pipe.

i cannot recommend this filter enough , love it.

Bought 2 of these for a new 75 gallon tank. Product is very very noisy, bypasses with anything but the sponge in it on full flow. Did I mention they are noisy & rattle like they are full of rocks? How noisy? I have to turn up TV to cover the rattling noise at full flow.

Even pulled impeller out, shaft axle is a very sloppy fit & probably has a lot to do with the rattling. Why no bushing or bearing where shaft passes through the plastic? Very cheap build! I lubed the very dry shaft & it was better for about 10 minutes, then back to noisy.

Right now, I have the output on both 75’s cranked down to 1/2 flow. Why would I buy 2 75’s that I’m turning down to a 55 or 35 just to use the bagged media it came with? Set at 1/2 flow, running the sponge & media it came with & the float is up- telling me time to clean! It’s brand new running on an empty tank that’s fishless cycling.

So disappointed. I also bought polishing pads for it too & more Seachem charcoal to run later- no way will that work! Wish I never bought it. I even did all the online hacks & those didn’t work. I guess I’m stuck with it now.

I have the Tidal 35 on a smaller tank & I can’t even hear it running sitting right next to it. Not the case with the 75’s. I can’t trust these 2 75 HOB’s cranked to half flow to keep up witha proposed African Cichlid tank now.

What a wast of 2 weeks messing with them.

I just cant understand why they dont make the 35 gallon variant in the same fashion as the other sizes of the same model. If they did i wouldnt have any issues with it so its a real shame. However it doesnt even come with an intake tube, leaving it to only suck water through an impeller with a poorly crafted plastic cage around it which has large enough slots that if you have shrimp theyre surely going to get sucked in.

And there is no way to cover this impeller because of the way it is crafted. But that shouldnt even be an issue as it should just come with, as aforementioned, an intake tube like every other model does.

Really wish I didnt have to send this back. I havent seen any other HOB with a surface skimmer and if the 35 at least had the intake tube like the other models it would probably be the best smaller HOB on the market by far.

Excellent filtering capacity, compact, using small space, the tubes are a bit too solid, less flexible due to its wall thickness. Could be bit more silent when operating, but its actual noise level is not disturbing, you could sleep well next it :-).

Give yourself a couple of hours for set-up, as I needed to read and follow the instruction carefully. It is extremely quiet, as I can only hear a very low hum of the water passing through.

This is my second Whisper 10-30, I purchased the first one used and it lasted about 10 years before finally giving out. Probably would have lasted longer if I hadn’t neglected to clean it out and let the water run down (we are in the middle of a remodel).

Definitely worth the price and works great!.

I have two of these running in a tank with about 25 gallons of water with a turtle and it isn’t getting the water crystal clean. Turtles are really messy though so I have been working on a new way to counteract this as I figure this wasn’t made for turtles.

However, if you look at the image of the box, the bottom left shows a turtle so honestly this power filter really doesn’t perform as well as it should. The water has been steadily changing to a goldish-brown color and getting more and more cloudy.

I had this in my 10 gallon tank with perfect water level and after TWO DAYS it was dumping goldfish water into my living room carpet, which is drying out as I type this. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY WITH THIS FILTER! Buy a good quality one.

I regret replacing my Grreat Choice filter as it was much better than this one. The only reason I switched was because I could not get the Grreat Choice filter replacements in my town. I will be ordering them online to get them.

Stay away from this filter. JUNK! I wish I’d paid more attention to the negative reviews here on this item. I’d give it negative stars if I could, -5!.

I have 2 of these Aquaclear 30 filters on an overstocked 20 gallon long. I set them on the lowest flow setting and they keep my tank perfect. One is an older version from when it still had Fluval name on the top, and a newer one after Hagen name replaced Fluval.

You can tell the plastic quality is not as nice now, compared to what it was, and also the top piece vibrates when it didn’t on the old filter. Not a big deal though. I’m guessing it is due to the cheaper quality plastic now being used.

The design stayed the same though, and the filter functions great. Easy to clean, easy to maintain, and seems to be dependable. I’ve read some complaints about these filters not restarting after a power outage but I’ve not had that problem.

As long as you have the proper water height in your tank and you keep the filter parts clean and clear of gunk it seems to start right up every time.

When I first decided to buy my red eared slider (turtle) a pet store set me up with supplies along with a filter. I’ve had the other filter for about a year and it just wasn’t doing the job. My water was constantly murky, even when I cleaned the tank once a week along with the filter! I was tired of seeing my turtle living in this condition and started researching for a new filter.

Some reviews under this filter on this website or other say, “it came broken”, “missing pieces” or “don’t buy, didn’t work”. That was not the case for me. The filter came with everything, including one back up intake in case it broke! After only 12 hours of the filter running, my tank has NEVER been so CLEAR! This filter is definitely a must.

I don’t usually write reviews, but after seeing the progress it’s done to my tank along with how happy my turtle is I couldn’t resist. I would 100% recommended this filter!.

Perfect size I bought this to go inside the S10 filter in the first chamber. I’ve used these for years and they last forever. everyone should run some of these it just in case you have to set up a new aquarium than you’ve got biological media ready to go.

Great product! Clear aquarium! Used along with the other 2 products in the Fluval filter and it really works great. I change 1 item every 2 weeks or so and I have thriving healthy fish. Would recommend.

This works great with my Aquaclear 110 filter. So Glad chewy had them!

Not worth the cost OR the gymnastics you have to perform to get into the canister. Pros: Relatively quiet as long as you have the canister located away from you. Cons: Top locking knobs pop off the canister easily but are practically impossible to pop back on.

Inner layers of the canister are awkward and messy to remove and place back in (locking arms to lift the canisters falls out of place and off way too easily) Despite the fx4 being overkill for my 125 gallon tank that only has 3 juvenile tinfoil barbs and a pleco, it doesn’t keep the tank crystal clear, and I have to dig into the canister almost weekly to change out the polishing pad because any debris in the polishing pad stifles the outflow of water down to a trickle and throws my tank cycle off.

Starting up the canister filter after cleaning the tank and changing even just the cleaning pad jettisons residual particles from the lines into the newly filled tank making it look dirty again. The particles eventually cycle out of the tank but add to the burden on the polishing pad and it’s a never ending cycle.

I’ve been struggling with this canister filter for 7 months thinking it would be a better alternative to hang on the back filters, but find myself wishing I would have just bought two of those for a fraction of the price of this canister filter.

Although Fluval customer service was very timely in responding to my questions, the only real solution they had was to purchase more of their brand liquid products to help with tank clarity (I had already informed them I use Seachem products).

For the price of this unit, and the continued cost of replacement medias internal to the canister itself, if the only solution to get the quality performance I wanted is to purchase even more Fluval products in addition to the unit, it’s a good indicator that the fx4 unit is not all it’s cracked up to be.

I have used fluval filters for Years , They never let Me down , I still have 2 Fluval C-3 filters that are still going strong after 4 years So I just upgraded from a 20 gal tank to a 40 gal tank , the old fluval 207 is just not going to cut it anymore.

, after 2 years of faithful service I needed to upgrade. And the 307 did not disappoint. Strong flow , so much so I had to dial down the flow. But that is the nice thing about Fluval, adjustable flow ! In case anyone is wondering the difference between the 207 and the 307 , obviously one is flow, the other is it has 2x the media capacity , the 407 has 4 instead of 3 baskets.

I highly recommend this filter , if You need help setting it up their are a ton of You tube vids available. This filter is highly customizable with what ever media You like. I get cut to fit rolls of floss and sponges to make my own at a fraction of the premade stuff.

Eheim or Fluval. The neverending debate. I wont settle this question. All I can tell you is the Fluval 407 is very quiet. It is easy to set up (although tubing is a bit stiff). For someone who wants inline co2 I would go for eheim as the tubing is not rippled and you wouldt have to hack your way around to install.

I run it in tank so not an issue for me. It is a powerful filter and very silent. It is in my room on a 90g tank and all I can hear are the hobs running in the living room 20 feet away. Maintenance is easy and for those who might still own a 404, there are many improvements.

The baskets are held by a long stick that goes trouvh them so that they can be removed all at once. The quality of the moving pieces ( in and outake shutoff; tubing holding pins; cover pins) are of better quality even though still plastic.

It is a great quality filter and should last for years.

So I don’t have the aquaclear 20, but the mini, the predecessor to the 20. This filter is at least 20 years old and still running! All I do is keep the motor clean and maintained, and keep it out of direct sunlight to avoid uv rays damaging the plastic.

It just keeps going. I also have an aquaclear 200 which is the predecessor to the 50 I think, that one is easily just as old if not older and is still running as well. If the new ones are still made like the old ones, these filters last! Aquaclear also has an extensive parts catalog if anything does happen to break.

I’ve never needed parts for these filters though, except a couple o rings I have to order for the motors (they are starting to dry rot from age). Overall great long lasting filter. Will recommend to anyone looking for a good, reliable filter.

Good filter solution for 2. 5 gal aquariums. A lot better setup for individual guppy brood tanks than using a small breeder box. Plant the tank well for the new babies to hide. Remove the mother after she is through dropping babies.

Then raise the babies in this tank until they are large enough to be moved to a larger tank or the display tank.

This is the second time I’ve ordered an under gravel filtration system from Petguys for one of my fish tanks. They are such a good company, not only do I receive my product from them faster than any other company I’ve ordered from but their prices are outstanding.

I will always order my fish tank products from them and I recommend them to everyone because they will not let you down. Great company!.

Sorry I hate long reviews but there’s a lot to cover I’ve been running aquariums for over 25 years and have been disgusted with how difficult it is to buy anything without compromising something, they leak, their noisy, they only last a few years it seams.

My real problem is is noisy. This “Quite Flow” is anything but quiet. It has a rattle sound after just a week. I find it strange how every other company has a “quick release” were you just pull up a lever and pull both tubes out at once.

This so called “quick release” involves shutting the valve on each tube and then unscrewing both from the lid. That’s kind of a picky thing, but I was really not expecting to be less easy than my old Rena that I bought 15 years ago.

Next let’s talk about this hype over the back filter type water return. The thing is huge for what it needs to do. Inside is the cartridge filter is a joke, you can see right through it. The lid has no clips or snaps it just literally sets on top, and I can only imagine working on it and knocking that behind the tank.

It is so horribly designed it won’t fit any aquarium with hoods. I have glass hoods on my 55 gal and to add hoses or cords there’s a plastic on the back and you can just Dremel tool it out. Even if I took that off entirely off it still is too big, I would have to move my light forward and cut the glass.

Next, the tray’s have the intake tube running through them that need to be lined up. My old Rena simply flowed water down around the outside of the trays and then back up. I know a lot of filters use this method, these days.

The problem is the carbon comes in those cute little bags. Well when you put the bag in, there of course is no way to arrange arrange that to go around and to get behind the inlet tube, it leaves an area about an inch in wide on the side of the entire tray where there’s nothing.

Water flows through the least resistant place, I would think most of it would just by pass the bag of carbon, Next is the media that they give you. Upon unboxing they have bags of media in the tray’s.

I thought it was strange the order which they were in, upon reading the directions they are telling you completely the wrong way. First or bottom tray, they have the ceramic rings. Then the middle tray has a very thick fine pad, also in that tray comes a small pack of bio balls, that I guess your supposed to put on to of the foam.

WRONG! On top of that the instructions as it comes in the box tells the wrong way too. That you should be using the ceramic rings as the first layer, (bottom tray). NO that’s totally wrong, there should be a course pad followed by a fine pad then the media, then the carbon.

The instructions show 3 different set ups, none of them showing pads at all, and all show the ceramics on the bottom. There’s no course pad that even comes with it. And there’s no finishing pad on top.

I use those on top of the carbon before the lid goes on. They are expecting this back inlet thing with it’s horrid filter to be the finishing pad. If you choose not to use the back filter thingy it comes with nice tinted inlet and outlet tubes, and includes various exits.

It comes with the straight out with the direction plate. We’ll if you decide to use any of the other ones you need to get the one that’s on it off. This is held on with little plastic hooks that go over a lip in the tube.

There is no way to get that apart. I tried until if felt like my finger nails were going to get pulled off. So I got a small screw driver hoping to open at least on side. We’ll it broke right off, leaving one left and if that would break, that exit is useless, it wouldn’t stay on.

I just used the exit from my old filter. Finally there is no way that this flows 200gph. I have a power head right next to the outlet that is 160 and that flows way harder then this. Bottom line, I can’t say don’t buy it.

It seems like any new filter has problems, just make sure you put the media in the right order try to get a course foam for the bottom and please ditch the outlet box and last expect noise.

I really dont like doing reviews but I have to. Havent had a tank in a while so decided to go back into it. Went and purchased everything I needed. Was so excited about getting a tank again. Brought everything home cleaned everything, got tank set up and no fish for couple weeks.

Then I went and got a couple platys to help get the tank ready once I did went and got couple more. I have a 29 gal tank with Aqueon canister Filter 200 this is the worst filter I have ever seen. Suppose to be very quiet, it is not quiet at all, water constantly gushes out of filter.

Granted Aqueon did replace my filter but this one is no better, very noisy, gushing water our of filter. Cleaned the tank about a couple days before I got the new one and it needs it again, just dont feel like its working at all bt Iam havinh to make due.

I’m an employee with Petco and highly recommend this filter. I use it for my 75 gallon, I unfortunately don’t have the output for the water director-setup, but it is commonly used for the Petco tanks.

The spray bar works wonderfully and provides more circulation around the tank, however the lights create a lot of algae along the spray bar. I switched to the water polishing unit setup and it is also working like a charm.

The circulation and filtration run great, it’s a very quiet filter and fits underneath my tank. It came with instructions, fairly simple to setup all three different outputs.

This is the only filter for an overstocked goldfish tank! It has a HUGE bio media capacity, it has a life-saving pre filter, and it’s the MOST QUIET filter I have ever used! I’ve been keeping fish since I was 7 years old and let me tell you that this filter literally makes less noise than a bubbler! Every time I would go to bed I would get up just to make sure my filter was plugged in! It’s THAT quiet! The company is the best too! I was having some issues with it and they answered back FAST.

Like that hour fast! They were a breeze to work with and now my filter is like new!.

The Ultramax 2000 is a great product. It is very quiet in operation and the pre filter is an amazing concept. It cleans my tank great BUT the spray bar set up is pretty rubbish the pie fitting don’t really fit together that well and it sits far to low in the water.

you have to make some adjustments and retro fit with a better spray or return outlet. Other than that it is a great filter. It come with a lot of materials but I used Biohome Ultimate Filter Media in mine and it works brilliantly.

The media supplied is good compared with other filters and what is provided but it just isn’t as good at providing the biological bacteria and balancing the water as this product.

The filter can hold a lot of biological media. But it is impossble to get all the air out of the filter, Its not a huge problem it worls fine anyway, but it is really irritating to hear the air in the filter.

The filter is suposed to be very quit, and I am sure it can be if you can get all the air out of the filter. Still suprior to Eheim Pro 4 serie.

This Fluval 206 Canister Filter is another in a series of “outside the tank” canister filters for aquariums. This model is distinguished from earlier models because of its design to be more leakproof than prior Fluval filters.

Most Fluval filters have 2 or 3 or 4 compartments which allow the use of various types of filter media to help keep the water as clean and pure as possible. The filter media consists of polishing pads, charcoal, and other various substances.

Experimentation leads to the best combination of the media. One nice feature is the ability to disconnect the filter for routine cleaning while leaving the hoses in place by the use of the connection on the top of the future.

It would be nice if Fluval would design a handle on the top of the filter to carry the filter from the tank to the sink for the maintenance. As such, always carry the filter by the bottom to avoid any damage to the filter canister.

It still requires attention at least monthly on average. As such, it is probably one of the best filters on the market for its purpose.

Paid top dollar for bottom of the barrel quality. There are two main chronic problems. First chronic problem is the water leak between the canister top and top motor unit cover O-ring. Poor design. It’s very touchy/finicky when reinstalling top to canister.

You will replace O-ring and even apply seal lubricant and experience leaks. The other chronic problem is the flow can significantly drop at anytime but more critically the flow will stop at anytime. You need to check out flow daily.

The top is hard to pull-off and reinstall but even with precise workmanship and patients, good luck. I keep a pan under pump and check it everyday when feeding.

I purchased the 406 in a desperate moment when my primary canister on my biggest tank quit and I had to rush to get filtration going again. My first impression of the fluval was that it was small for a 380 gph filter and i was concerned about surface area of mechanical media making the filter need to be cleaned more frequently.

Then I saw the hose kit it came with and was even more concerned. The hose it came with was ribbed for flexibility, and therefore the texture inside the hose will allow for significant debris to collect and be a real pain to clean, so I discarded the hoses and rigged some smooth clear hoses I had laying around to plumb the filter, which added considerable time to the set up process.

Even though the filter is physically small, I was able to fit a fair amount of biomedia into it. Once it was up and running the flow rate seems pretty decent for its advertised gph flow. Other things I found problematic is the valve block directs the hoses vertically out of the filter head, so even though the filter is physically smaller than my other canisters, it doesn’t fit as we under my cabinet and it took a little messing with to keep hoses from kinking.

I opened the filter up after it had run for a couple weeks just to see how clogged the filter pads were getting and was surprised at how clean they looked and decided that the filter should be okay to leave on the every 2-3 month cleaning cycle all my other canisters are on.

Ultimately the fluval 406 is a decent filter, but it’s over priced for what you get. Poor hoses, no spray bar, and the valve block routing hoses straight out of the top of the power head devalue this filter significantly.

The flow rate is not enough to properly handle the size of the tank it went on and I am currently waiting for another higher flow filter to arrive for the same tank. For a smaller tank, say 40g breeder, I think this filter would be sufficient by my personal standards (I want my tanks cycling 10x per hour at the bare minimum).

I will not be purchasing another fluval 406 as they are over priced for what you get. I might consider an FX4 or 6 when I get around to setting up an even larger tank though. Happy fish keeping!.

I use Aqua Clear sponges in all my filters including brands not made by Aqua Clears. You can find a size that will fit many other brands replaceable pricey cartridges if you do a little research on youtube.

Aqua Clear sponges work great and will save you money because they can be washed in tank water and reused multiple times before they need to be replaced. You will save money and your Aquarium family will appreciate it!.

Excellent quality, well built. Plant growth is almost guaranteed with this filter system. Nutrients collect in the substrate, thus inducing growth, and healthy bacterial system (clear water) is a nice result of this type of system, all particles are trapped in the root column.

plants love it, and bottom feeders too!.

This is excellent under gravel filter. I would purchase again. The under gravel filter is made of excellent quality material. The filter fit my 75 gallon aquarium perfectly.

manufacturer misrepresented item. The length and width are correct for a 65 gallon aquarium but the uplift tubes are far to short and had to purchase correct ones separately. the charcoal inserts are difficult to attach and don’t seat properly.