You can get HOT Magnums online for $40, so $45 is not a bad deal. I think the HOT Magnum is a piece of crap, the build quality is bad, there are too many seals on it, it is a pain to service, and the media options are not so great due to how the filter is setup. The Micron cartridge works good, but it can clog fairly quickly...
Here is my review I posted on
www.cichlidforum.com:
"Not something I would purchase again"
I purchased the Bio Pro version of the HOT Magnum and never had much luck with it. For what it does, there are a lot of parts involved. The whole thing goes together with a lot of O rings and snap fit seals designed to make the filter easy to use and maintain.
I got everything assmebled per the manual and it was leaking air. The parts for my unit seem very poorly molded and I had to keep trying re-lubricate and re-seat the ring seals to get everything working right. It took me almost two hours to get it going with no air leak.
Once running, it did a good job for a few weeks. Then when it came time to clean the filter out, and the trouble started all over again with air leaking into the water stream. Marineland sent me new tubes and O rings but I still had trouble and eventually gave up on the filter. Seems like the problem is now with the filter lid seal.
I put the filter back in the box and it went into the closet. I feel like keeping the thing running on the tank is like asking for a disaster =/