Installed in about thirty minutes, packaged well with no damage. Got this unit for a new 75 gal tank. To make things a little easier going together take the green clear hoses and but them in hot water for about 30 minutes makes them easier to work with. Wet the inside on the hose before trying to attach them to the pieces on either end. I went with everyone else and put the inlet and out on backwards, well they fixed the issue they are now marked correct. In is the inlet from the tank out is the tank return. Very quiet no leaks. Cleared the water in about an hour. Will update in a few months on any issues.

I have had this filter for 2 1/2 months. I had never set up a canister filter and watched several videos on it and set it up correctly the first time. I filled it mostly with water before priming. It only took maybe 10 pumps and everything was going smoothly. The filter was silent and I couldn't be happier. I completely didn't understand why other people were having such problems with their filters.

Then I ordered my second one a couple of weeks ago. The hoses, like other people had commented, were reversed. So I had to switch the hoses so the input was attached to the "out" and vice versa. That wasn't a huge deal, but then I went to prime it. Now I understand why people were complaining! I couldn't get it to prime. My husband finally had to help me and it even took him a long, long time to get it going. The filter wasn't silent at all. Everyone else's complaints all in one! I immediately requested a replacement. I got one tonight and just switched out the top and it primed perfectly and easily. It's also silent.

One other thing to note, I was doing maintenance on my original and had it outside the cabinet with the hoses attached and "open" but I hadn't turned the pump back on. I got a phone call and was away from the filter for a little bit and came back to water everywhere and my aquarium a good two inches down. The black part where the hoses attach had come up and was gushing water. Quite distraught I cleaned it up, pressed it down to have it come up several more times. I finally put it back in the cabinet, primed it and got it going hoping that it would stay down. The way the hoses are curled up in the cabinet puts pressure on the black hose connection thing and keeps it down. I had never left it out of the cabinet with the valve part open but the filter not on but since I have had the power on, it has been behaving properly. I'll just not do that again.

All that aside, if you get one of these that doesn't prime or is loud, please return it! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these filters but only ones that aren't dysfunctional. I am keeping a 36 gl bowfront way overstocked and don't have any issues with water quality with this filter. I set up a 304b for my mom's larger aquarium and it is ok, but not silent like these.

I just got this a few days ago, so this is an early review. In the past 6 years I've gone through 2x Fluval 400 models (404 & 405). Both had issues with the impeller cover cracking upon maintenance and eventually stopped pumping water. I bought replacement covers and impellers - which bought me maybe an additional 6 months; but after the 405 stopped working again, I've given up on Fluvals. I have a 125 gallon tank and the canister filter is secondary to my trickle filter that pumps about 800 gph. So, I just need this for a little filtration and some water agitation on the other side of the tank. This fit the bill nicely. The first thing you will notice upon setup is the instructions were written by a non-English speaker using something like Google Translate from (I'm guessing) Chinese. There are a few pictures; but unlike, say an IKEA manual, there are no real step by step instructions and what is there is hard to decipher. The intake has a secondary tube that floats called a "dirtiness entrance" what its purpose is - I have no idea. I think I set it up right; but there is really no explanation in the instructions on what it does or how to maintain it. The second thing I was unsure of - should I cut the intake and outtake hoses to fit my setup? There was nothing indicating trimming them. So, for now, I kept the hoses at full length. They have probably an extra foot in a curl - nothing is crimped so I didn't see any harm. The three baskets are very spacious. I added my Fluval ceramic "bio tube" media to two baskets and Carbon bags to one basket. They all come with a base layer of cotton filtration media I left in place. Another quirk I noticed is you can connect the hoses to the filter both ways. Even though I connected the spray bar to the connector labeled "out" I noticed the filter was spitting water out of the intake nozzle. It was easy to just detatch the leak proof valve (called the "input and output discreteness" in the manual) and turn it 180 degrees and re-attach. I'm used to the Fluval attachment only being able to attach one way and "idiot proofing" this step for me. The pump used to prime the filter was much more powerful than what I was used to - needs some muscle but it was very easy to start vs the cheap little bar attached to a suction cup you get with the Fluval. When I started it up, I had to double check it was on. The filter is super quiet with very little vibration. There is also a light at the top that tells you the UV light is working. This may not be ideal for beginners; but if you've used a canister filter before, I'm sure you'll be able to piece this one together. It's so much cheaper than the big brand name units and fit the bill for me. So far, so good!

Pump is quiet, even to my wife! It was time to clean the tank, so this time I decided to use an external pump/filter and my current under gravel filter in a reverse flow under gravel filter. I simply plumped the filter output into the UGF. Water now flows up through the gravel(I use a coarse gravel). I did have to add an air stone to create some water movement, otherwise it was lake like still. It has now been a month and all is well, fish are happy, wife is happy(the most important). Gravel is clean, except for in the corners where there are many rocks piled up. I still need to come up with a way to tell when I need to clean the filter elements as there is no rushing water anywhere, therefore no tell-tale flow loss. I am considering replacing this filter with the 304B 525 GPH model to see if I can keep all the gravel clean, even in the corners. The UV is a wonderful thing. Usually after a complete tank break down and cleaning I am plagued with an algae bloom, not so this time. So far I'm happy too!

Tried about 4-5 different filter options before this one with my daughters Red Eared Slider. Longest it ever stayed clean was a week. Now it can go a month before I need to clean it. Very happy so far. The instructions are worthless (broken english) but it's not hard to figure out. Very difficult to prime it. Instructions say to push the prime button a couple of times, which does not work at all. I found it easiest to place the hard plastic inlet tube under the water to expell any air. Then, pour water into the soft clear inlet tube until full. Then, place your thumb over the end so no air can enter and submerge the tubing under the tank water to make the connection with the hard plastic tube. That is the only way i have found to expell all air from the system, sounds difficult but pretty easy once you figure it out.