Review on Sunsun HW302, HW303, HW304: Advanced 3 Stage Aquarium Canister Filters for Optimal Filtration by Katrina Coniglio

I am a layman in the aquarium hobby. I tried to do enough research beforehand, but I also didn't want to spend a lot of money on a pet turtle. I ended up buying this filter for our 40 gallon aquarium because aquatic turtles are dirtier than fish and need a heavier filter. I have no point of comparison with other filters but having read some of the negative reviews I was surprised at how quick the installation was. It seemed pretty self explanatory which was a relief as the instructions are in very poor English and don't help at all. (What's a "dirty inlet?" lol) Someone said the hoses need tape to prevent leakage, but I don't see how that's even possible. The hose is pushed very tightly over the fitting (can you call that a nipple?) and then the sleeve is screwed onto it to hold it in place. Waterproof on the first try. I installed the filter and had it running within half an hour. You may need to pump the primer about 50 times, but eventually enough water will get into the canister to turn it on. Tilt it back and forth until all the air bubbles are exhausted, move the hoses and you're golden. So far I am very satisfied with this product and the price. It's obviously foreign made, but the filter itself seems very durable, it's quiet (provided the water level is close enough to the horizontal outlet pipe) and I think it would be great for our turtle tank. A word of caution - do not buy the filter media recommended by SunSun like I did, especially Biobeads. Those are just plastic balls. The sides are too smooth to hold bacteria and I think they are for the moving bed/sump filter anyway. Simply use the coarse/fine filter pads provided with this model for the lower bowl and some porous ceramic material to fill the two upper bowls. Biohome media is highly recommended on YouTube. The product comes with three medium(?) filter pads, but you must have regular, medium and fine pads on the bottom to filter out dirt. The rest should be ceramic biocarrier.