Marineland C-360 Question.

Hey guys, I currently have a brand new 55 gallon aquarium that I just purchased to set up as a freshwater tank. This will be my first time setting up a planted/ fish fresh water aquarium (we have had saltwater tanks for about 6 years now but freshwater is kind of new to me).

My question is, Is the Marineland C-360 canister filter an adequate filter for a 55 gallon tank that is going to be heavily planted with a dirt/rock substrate? I have the C-360 filter left over from an old turtle tank I use to have so If I can use that on the 55 gallon I figure it would save me some cash in the overall setup of the tank.

Let me know what you guys think, any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated,

thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Jurdak on February 26, 2012 at 1:50pm

I have had a lot of experience with Marineland Canister filters over the past 2 years (currently do not run them). I have a 46 gallon tank that ran the 360 and it did a great job as a filter. The biggest positive about Marineland products is their customer service. It is the best. The reason I know this and why I don't run their canister filters anymore, is that they will break. Not a question if, but when. Several key components on the canister filters end up snapping because they are made of plastic, which I broke twice, was the locking tabs on the hose block. This hose block is designed as a quick disconnect to perform maintenance. A symptom of this is sucking air into the canister and shooting it back into your tank. You can live with it, but it is annoying. The second time I had this happen, the canister ended up leaking all over my floor. As an emergency I went to my local pet store and purchased a C-530 (Issues that I had with the 360, I also had with the 530). The second issue is the motor block retention clamps end up breaking, these also are plastic. This holds the motor block to the canister bucket. The filter will still work, but again, air getting in is the issue.

So, why the customer service was so great... over the 2 years Marineland sent me two brand new C-360's, one brand new C-530, and several hose blocks at little cost to me. For the replacement filters I had to ship the motor blocks to them for around 20 bucks. In the end I was getting tired of having to replace these parts so Marineland Canister filters and I went our separate ways.

To summarize:

Customer service: the best

Filtration: excellent

Maintenance: C-360 was good. Easy to carry to where you clean it. C-530 a little too big to be convenient to carry, so C-530 was ok.

Reliability: not good, usually have a back-up so you can take advantage of the customer service and not jeopardize your tank conditions while you wait for a replacement.

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Permalink Reply by Garret Trezona on February 26, 2012 at 5:41pm

Thanks for the great info. You actually helped me to figure out why my filter was constantly spitting air into the tank.

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Permalink Reply by Keith Keppler on February 26, 2012 at 4:25pm

Eheim 2217, clean it every couple months in tank water in a bucket and you'll be happy for what could be 35+ years. Quiet, takes any media, runs forever. Not much more you need to ask of a canister.