How To Clean A Sunsun Canister Filter

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Are SunSun canister filters hard to clean?

LiterallyHydro

Jul 3, 2015

I'm considering getting one or two for my 75 or 90G setup (Haven't decided yet based on price.. Almost $100 difference at my LFS) I really like their low price and good reviews, but I've never had them. I only have dealt with Fluval canister filters until now. Are they harder to maintain than the Fluval filters, or are they also simple to maintain?

My top priority with my tank is going to be ease of maintenance. I don't want to get equipment that will be hard to maintain in this aquarium.

Dom90

Jul 3, 2015

The Fluval canisters aren't too hard to clean though. Plus I like the self primer.

LiterallyHydro

Jul 3, 2015

Thread Starter
#3

The Fluval canisters aren't too hard to clean though. Plus I like the self primer.

They aren't hard to clean, but they are over twice the price of SunSun canisters and I want to set up this tank on a budget.

APColorado

Jul 3, 2015

I've never had a fluval canister, but I do have sun canister and they are easy to maintain

LiterallyHydro

Jul 3, 2015

Thread Starter
#5

I've never had a fluval canister, but I do have sun canister and they are easy to maintain

Are you able to disconnect the hoses without water spilling everywhere? I like the aquastop valves on fluvals where I can remove the canister for maintenance without any water spilling.

Jim

Jul 3, 2015

IMO, two down sides to the Fluvals- corrugated hoses and self prime thingy, just another place to eventually leak. GO EHEIM!!!!!!Happy July 4 to all !!!!!!!

Erbarry

Jul 3, 2015

Are you able to disconnect the hoses without water spilling everywhere? I like the aquastop valves on fluvals where I can remove the canister for maintenance without any water spilling.

They are easy to clean and yes you can disconnect the hoses with out water spilling everywhere. Just be careful with the spray bar and intake tube as they are pretty weak.

junebug

Jul 3, 2015

The main problem I've found with my sunsun was the setup. Once we had it set up, everything was fine, priming it was easy, and to clean, the hoses are super long, so my boyfriend and I just move the filter to a big tub before we open it, to prevent water spillage on the floor. IMO well worth it for the money you save and it's an extremely high quality filter.

LiterallyHydro

Jul 3, 2015

Thread Starter
#9

The main problem I've found with my sunsun was the setup. Once we had it set up, everything was fine, priming it was easy, and to clean, the hoses are super long, so my boyfriend and I just move the filter to a big tub before we open it, to prevent water spillage on the floor. IMO well worth it for the money you save and it's an extremely high quality filter.

Alright, I don't mind taking the time to set it all up right as long as the maintenance isn't annoyingly difficult on them. How do you prime these? Do you have to fill the canister first or is there another way to prime it?

Erbarry

Jul 3, 2015

Alright, I don't mind taking the time to set it all up right as long as the maintenance isn't annoyingly difficult on them. How do you prime these? Do you have to fill the canister first or is there another way to prime it?

Some will tell you to add water to it but I personally didn't have to. I cut the hoses to the length I needed and pushed the prime button once and it began to fill up immediately.

junebug

Jul 3, 2015

The instructions that come with the filter are terrible. That was the main issue, we tried to follow the instructions. Don't bother with them LOL they are awful and actually they kind of say to put it together backwards.

As for priming it, yeah, you'll want to fill it up at least partially. There is a pump on the filter housing that you must pump slowly to get water flowing once the filter is turned on. Actually I only filled the filter the first time upon setup. When we cleaned it, we only half primed it and it started right up.

LiterallyHydro

Jul 3, 2015

Thread Starter
#12

Thanks for the help guys Which SunSun canister would you guys recommend for a 75G planted tank? I think I'm going to have a single canister and a sponge filter for QT purposes.

junebug

Jul 5, 2015

What GPH are you looking for?

LiterallyHydro

Jul 5, 2015

Thread Starter
#14

I've completely decided on 75. And since the tank is going to be a bit heavily stocked, I'm going to aI'm for around 7-8x flow rate so 550-650 GPH.

Dom90

Jul 5, 2015

Only canister I can think of is the Fluval FX6 maybe you can get a still-in-the-box brand new FX5?

LiterallyHydro

Jul 5, 2015

Thread Starter
#16

Only canister I can think of is the Fluval FX6 maybe you can get a still-in-the-box brand new FX5?

I'm looking specifically at SunSun filters for this setup. I don't mind getting a second filter to match that amount of flow, since even two would be cheaper than buying a Fluval FX6.

Dom90

Jul 5, 2015

Right, but time is money my friend. If you have one big canister, you clean one canister. If you have two, you spend twice the amount of time spent cleaning them.

LiterallyHydro

Jul 5, 2015

Thread Starter
#18

True, but at the same time if one canister filter were to stop working, it's not a moment to panic having a fully stocked uncycled aquarium.

Dom90

Jul 5, 2015

I'm not dictating how you should spend your money. Just giving my opinion what I would do, personally. Time is a valuable resource that most of us don't have enough of. I am looking at long term costs of purchasing stuff, including time factored in. Spend a little more now, save a lot of time later. That sort of thing.

LiterallyHydro

Jul 5, 2015

Thread Starter
#20

I'm not dictating how you should spend your money. Just giving my opinion what I would do, personally. Time is a valuable resource that most of us don't have enough of. I am looking at long term costs of purchasing stuff, including time factored in. Spend a little more now, save a lot of time later. That sort of thing.

I'm not discounting the value of time. I just figure that redundancy is a bit safer than having a single unit running. That's also why I asked earlier about how difficult it is to maintain the SunSun canister filters. Since they aren't difficult to maintain, I can just take out one of the two filters every two weeks or something to clean.

SnyperTodd

Jul 5, 2015

I see a lot of people talk about having a backup filter "in case one dies". While I agree it's a good idea, that fear is exactly why I run the filters I run. My oldest one has been running 24/7 for more than 13 years, and my newest has been running for 4 years nonstop. I also have a parts filter I bought off of eBay, but haven't needed it. My point is if you buy a high quality filter rather than the cheapest option, there's less fear (at least for me) of a failure. Just my 2¢...

Dom90

Jul 5, 2015

Exactly my point... I stick with one filter, if it dies, I go out and buy one same day. It's not like your fish will die within an hour if you dont. Most quality filters will last you a good 3 years at least.

SnyperTodd

Jul 5, 2015

Right, but personally I'd be very disappointed with just 3 years of use before a failure.....
I'd rather spend $150-200 once than spend $65 every few years.

Dom90

Jul 5, 2015

Right, but personally I'd be very disappointed with just 3 years of use before a failure.....
I'd rather spend $150-200 once than spend $65 every few years.

Just giving an example though, haven't been in the hobby long enough to know the actual duration of a filter, or how long one should last if properly maintained

Dolfan

Jul 5, 2015

For the OP's question about easy to clean, I think they are super easy to clean and maintain. I have one on my 40 gallon breeder for about 2 years now with no issues.

As for being reliable, while I've only had mine running for about 2 years, so hard to compare, I did a lot of research on them before I bought my SunSun. There are many people who have been running them for many years with no issues. Hard to compare really, but I know I've seen a lot more threads on various forums about some of the more expensive brands like Fluval leaking or having other issues, as opposed to those having issues with a SunSun. Granted that's not a great way to estimate, but it counts for something in my book.

I look at this way, most agree that Eheims are top of the line, sort of like a Cadillac of filters. While the SunSun is more of a reliable average car, like a Honda. If you want the top of the line go with the Cadillac, if you want something that will do the same job and cost a lot less money, then go with the Honda.

Bluestreakfl

Jul 5, 2015

I'm running a Sun Sun HW505A on my 55 gallon alongside the 2 whisper 30 filters it came with. The sunsun HW505A is 264gph and has lots of trays for media, you could always get two of those. I love mine, super quiet, puts out good flow and hold a TON of media. I can't speak for maintenance yet, as I haven't cracked it open since setting it up, but I think its about due any day now, so ill follow up with my experience. So far its been an excellent filter. The directions are kinda confusing but once you figure out setting it up it starts to make since. I'm all for having multiple filters, even a top name brand could be a lemon. Unlikely, but it could happen. Sun sun has been proven to be a good brand. The only complaint some have had is that the plastic the trays are made out of is "brittle" but if you handle them with care as you should any aquarium equipment, you should be fine.

Edit: Heres the link to the one I bought on ebay, $55 and free shipping.

SnyperTodd

Jul 5, 2015

I have read several reviews where longtime Eheim fans have said it seemed like with newer filters, Eheim was kind of coasting on their reputation. I don't know, I've never had one and no matter the brand, I wouldn't buy a canister filter without media baskets.
The baskets are the key to making a canister filter easy to clean, and SunSun filters have baskets, so I assume they're comparable in ease-of-cleaning to any other canister filter with baskets. I can tear my Rena filters down, clean them, and reassemble in about 10 minutes per filter. Should be similar for a SunSun, I would guess.

LiterallyHydro

Jul 6, 2015

Thread Starter
#28

Thanks for all of the suggestions I see the HW-302 on Amazon right now for around $41. I think I'm going to get two of those for my 75 when it's time to set up. From what I see though, it doesn't come with bio-media, but that isn't expensive anyway.

Dom90

Jul 6, 2015

Hmm, if it doesn't come with the filter media and the other canisters do, I'm thinking the price would come out the same as other canisters after buying the filter media...

LiterallyHydro

Jul 6, 2015

Thread Starter
#30

I don't think the media is going to cost as much as the canister filter itself to make it compare to that of Fluvals and Eheims.

Dom90

Jul 6, 2015

Maybe not, but about the same price as PennPlax Cascade and maybe Marineland. How many GPH is the 302?

LiterallyHydro

Jul 6, 2015

Thread Starter
#32

Maybe not, but about the same price as PennPlax Cascade and maybe Marineland. How many GPH is the 302?

Each 302 is 265 GPH, which will leave me at 530 GPH. That would put me at around 7x flow rate, which should be fine for canisters. Would be low on HOB filters but I think this will be fine.

Bluestreakfl

Jul 6, 2015

My LFS sells Seachem matrix to me for like $11 per liter. Good price, and the best biological media out there in my opinion. LiterallyHydro I believe the only difference between the 302 and the 505 is the 505 has one more media tray. I found each tray holds about 1 liter of media. I loaded mine starting with the bottom tray and going up, coarse sponge in first tray, fine floss pads in the 2nd tray, Fluval biomax ceramic rings in the 3rd tray, and then Seachem matrix topped with one fine floss pad for the last tray.

junebug

Jul 6, 2015

Good lord, people. LOL. Sun suns are great quality filters and not high cost. They come in TONS of sizes.

The first item on ebay when you search "Sun sun canister" is this: A 525 GPH filter for large tanks.

You could also get two smaller ones if you'd like, such as these:

Mine came with filter media, all of the hoses, and spare parts.

marytsharp

Jul 6, 2015

Have you considered that there are substances (filter media) for other applications that can be used instead of the specific and expensive stuff?

Dolfan

Jul 6, 2015

Thanks for all of the suggestions I see the HW-302 on Amazon right now for around $41. I think I'm going to get two of those for my 75 when it's time to set up. From what I see though, it doesn't come with bio-media, but that isn't expensive anyway.

You are exactly correct, buying the media is super cheap, and you can get better media then comes in most standard canisters. Here is what I did for my HW-302, the same concept can be applied if you get the larger SunSun......

I get the 4 pack of filter pads (1 coarse blue, 3 fine white pads) from ebay for cheap around $6 which includes shipping.....

Then get 1 liter of Seachem Matrix (awesome bio media with tons of space for bacteria to grow), around $10 from bigalspets.com (may be able to find cheaper but bigalspets.com is usually super cheap)....

There you go, all the media you will need for $16. You may need to buy some more of the fine white filter pads in a year or so, but that's another $5-6 at that point. The blue pads and matrix will last forever basically.

If I were you, I would go with 1 large canister, less to clean. You can get the larger sunsun for around $70 including shipping. At 525 gallons per hour, you will be set.

Dom90

Jul 6, 2015

That is what I said, one large canister means less cleaning. I think the whole "just in case" is just a waste and not necessary personally.

LiterallyHydro

Jul 6, 2015

Thread Starter
#38

I noticed a lot of the higher end SunSun have built in UV sterilizers. I've never used them on my tanks before. Could I just remove the UV sterilizer and only use it when needed?

junebug

Jul 7, 2015

The one I got for the 55 is the 304B. It advertised a UV sterilizer, but didn't come with one. I think the sellers just use generic titles for the filters, so it would surprise me if yours came with a sterilizer unit and light.

Bijou88

Jul 7, 2015

Some of them with uv say they have an on/off switch so you can use it or not.

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