As you can tell from my review of AquaClears I am not a fan of any other HOB filters. They are weak, have dinky cartridges, and you will spend way too much money over time just on the cartridges.
Pros
Technically they do filter.
Cons
These have weak flow. Some are better than others, but none are nearly as good as AquaClears.
Their cartridges are dinky pieces of junk. They are thin, contain a little carbon (if you need it you want more), and cost way too much. Add up the cost of the filter and a few years of cartridges (assuming the filter lasts that long) and you would have saved a lot of money if you had just gotten an AquaClear.
The following are the HOBs I am talking about:
- Aqueon Quiet Flow
- Whisper
- Cascade
- Fluval C-Series
- Azoo Palm
- AquaTop
- Eheim
- Jebo
- And all the others
Summary
Don’t buy any of these. Get an AquaClear.