Review on Penn-Plax Cascade Canister Filter - Ideal for Large Aquariums & Fish Tanks Ranging from 30 to 200 Gallons by Karen Lewis

The last canister filter I had was an old 1990's Marineland Magnum 350, mostly trouble free, that used to be tethered to an Eheim blank filter. It ran for almost 10 years with a biannual cleaning before becoming a major maintenance issue. Needless to say, I have been using or buying an external filter for a number of years. Most of the filters I used were plug-in filters, but using the filter media was becoming too expensive and I was looking for ways to reduce maintenance costs. Every seven to ten years, I buy groups of surge arresters at once, so as not to buy different types of filter media. The Cascade CCF3UL media trays seem ideal for the media cost savings I've been looking for. After a month of testing I now have three Cascade CCF3ULs that I use for wintering fish indoors, which I place on my decent semi-enclosed back porch during the mild spring, summer and fall periods of the year. Some have written that plastic is prone to breakage and I have yet to test this as I know most of the plastic power filters I have used are prone to the same type of breakage if mishandled. So be careful when replacing or cleaning media. Before purchasing, I checked the common parts that can fail and found almost all available. I will be using the Cascade CCF3UL with 55, 65 and 120 gallon tanks and will use smaller drop in filters as backups in combination with the Cascade CCF3UL. Over 30 years in the hobby and I've learned never to throw away a working filter, even if the media is no longer in production, there always seems to be something going on and I'll take the prybar out of the old box and put it back in. A month old Cascade CCF3UL was God sent to ride around in wintering tanks before fishing older fish and fry from the semi-enclosed rearing tanks and back porch aquariums before bringing them in. This year my first breed of Buenos Aires tetras, from seven adults in late spring to over 30 tetras in a 45 gallon tank, went into wintering on October 30, 2018 and even found a few under a half Inch-sized juvenile tetras that managed to survive in the added floating chickweed. What I like more about this review is the relatively easy setup. Most aspects of the Cascade CCF3UL Canister Filter are well thought out, although I would still put a pan underneath before disconnecting the hoses for servicing, a small amount of water will leak out when the canister is depressurized. Make sure the canister is in a sink or on a wide-jaw counter before opening the lid. Overall I like what I've seen so far. Pro: Setup was pretty easy. Two of the three filters purchased ran with no problems, the third required a pump and a little swearing. But I was expecting some problems as the last canister filter I used (an old Marineland Magnum 350) could cause starting problems. Parts for the Cascade 1000 appear to be available online. I like being able to customize the filter media and using cheap homemade hand cut filter pads. Cons: Can be difficult to tank. I also didn't really like that the impeller shaft was made of plastic as this is the first time I've seen a plastic impeller shaft. All I've seen before were stainless steel impeller shafts. It might be worth ordering a spare Cascade 1000 impeller to keep assembly handy. I sent one of the three Cascade 1000s I ordered back for replacement (impeller rattles and doesn't pump water) (free shipping thank god), the replacement unit worked perfectly. Update June 19, 2019: Three of these I bought last year are still working. Two of them go through the third cleaning with the same filter material, except for the carbon, which I change with each cleaning, the material shows wear and definitely needs to be replaced with the next cleaning. I use one outside in the small paddling pool on the back porch where my cat Corey swims and nests in the summer, along with a few pink minnows that stay over the winter with just a de-icing heater. Also add some pictures.