I never personally done a review of anything so bare with me.
I got my Rena Xp2 Filstar yesterday. This is first canister filter I am ever using and after a lot of research I made a decision to go with Rena Xp series of filters. Rena Xp comes with 2 trays. Xp1 comes with 1 tray and Xp3 comes with 3 trays. Here are the specs of Xp2
1.) 300 US
GPH (Flow rate, but don’t be fooled by this)
2.) Rated for up to 75 US Gallons aquarium
3.) Canister volume is 1.4 Gallons
4.) Water flow with everything installed is 160 U.S.
GPH
5.) Uses 16W of power
It came with everything the filter needed to run smoothly. It came with Foam 20 - (20 ppi - pores per inch) and Foam 30 - (30 ppi - pores per inch) that goes in the bottom tray. It also came with Bio-Chem Zorb which is for chemical filtration (useless in my opinion) and it went into my cabinet of aquarium supplies. Lastly it came with Micro-Filtration Pad that is supposed to polish the water and goes on the top. I’ll base my points out of 5….5 being the best and 1 being the worst.
So onto installation of Rena Xp.
It came with a manual with 5 different languages on how to install the Xp2. I followed the direction but had to jump back and forth with the manual on assembling the inlet pipe and outlet pipe assembly. For the outlet, you have 2 options, either go with the Spray bar option (went with this) or Power Jet nozzle. There’s an outflow regulator on the spray you can install to regulate the outflow. There’s one more option you can install on Xp series and it’s called Venturi Kit. The manual doesn’t say what it does and how to install it. You have to go online and look up how to install Venturi Kit at
www.aquariumpharm.com
They also had a big label on the parts of the Xp2 kit to call AP if don’t know how to install and don’t return the product to the store.
Score – 3/5
They should really work on the Manual and tell us what is up with the Venturi kit. Oh yea, there online manual is a lot more confusing.
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Built of Xp 2.
I say the parts are of very high quality and the construction looks very sturdy.
Score 5/5
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Priming filter
I really like the self priming feature. To prime the filter, you raise the Quick Disconnect valve on the filter, open the Inlet cap, put the funnel in the inlet pipe tube, and fill it with water until the Inlet Pipe is full of water. Remove the funnel, close the Inlet valve, and then close the Quick Disconnect valve and you’re done. The filter will self prime and then you plug in the power cord.
Score 5/5
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Maintenance
To check out how easy it is to clean the filter, I did the maintenance part of it so I can learn it. Plus I wanted to put Bio Max media I had sitting in my cabinet for Biological filtering. To clean the filter, unplug the filter…raise the Quick Disconnect Valve and take it out of the filter. Take the filter to the sink or wherever, clean it, bring it back connect the Quick Disconnect Valve, and the filter automatically self prime. Plug in the power cord and you’re good to go.
Score 5/5
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Noise Factor
While I was researching the internet, I heard many different opinions on how loud or how silent it is. My filter is really silent. I mean really silent. I have put my head near the filter to listen to the motor if it’s running or not. Did I say it was silent??
Score 5/5
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Overall I am very pleased with the filter, its running in conjunction with my AquaClear 200 on my 30 gallon tank. I haven’t seen my water that clear ever, maybe its just running 2 filters together or the Micro-pad that comes with Rena Xp really work .
Why did I buy it? Because it was really good deal and also because I plan on getting a bigger tank (at least 125 gallon in near future) I probably have to buy one more filter then and I’ll look no further then Rena Filstar series of filters.
For the money I paid for it, it was a steal $77 + tax = ~ $84 shipped
I don’t know how it compares to Ehiem series or Fluval
03 or 04 series. All I can say is that I probably won’t ever try Ehiem or Fluval unless they’re dirt cheap.
IMO, from what I have read online, Rena is very comparable to Ehiem filters.
Bottom Line: Kick *ss product
8)
Linear Mode
