Marineland Magnum 290 GPH Polishing Canister Aquarium Filter

I can only attribute it to a lack of understanding of what "water polishing" does. It's not meant to be the exclusive filtering in a tank. It's meant to be used as needed only. Also, I find this a perfectly silent filter unit. Any noise is likely due to debris left in the unit or air being sucked in. It MAY also mean an unlikely defect if this is so, JUST RETURN/EXCHANGE the device. This is Amazon after all. I'm using mine as an occasional polisher and I'll swap in the floss and cartridge with bio-media. I like that it can be placed in the back of the tank behind my plants. The outlet is currently aimed at my heater and a media bag. There's no reason for many of the complaints I'm reading. Please research before you purchase. You'll be much happier and you won't be misrepresenting the product for other people just because you don't understand things. UPDATE 3/23/2017: I've had this for just about a month now and IT'S MAKING A HORRIBLE NOISE! Buzzing and all. So, I disconnected it from power and removed it from my tank. I then removed the filter canister and cleaned the power head. It was easy and took all of 2 minutes. I also took the opportunity to clean the filter media (using tank water in the canister) to just wring it out well. Since the impeller is a high-speed rotating device, any buildup of sludge on the blades will cause it to become unbalanced and that causes vibration. It's the vibration that causes the noise. Cleaning the filter assembly from time to time is all part of routine maintenance. I reassembled the components and reinstalled in my tank. It's again, quiet as a whisper. In fact, my Penn-Plax SA-X6 air pump makes more noise than this filter unit. Unlike my Marineland canister filter, this is a breeze to maintain. Well done Marineland. This product delivers. Year later update: 4/9/2018 This is still a great polisher. I just did a rebuild on a planted/shrimp/snail tank that I decided to go with sand covering planting substrate. I rinsed and rinsed the sand and substrate, but the water got completely cloudy. So much so I couldn't see the back of the tank. A little Seachem Clarity 500ml and some polishing and the tank is crystal less than 2 hours later. I was almost completely stunned. Not that it worked, but that it worked so completely and quickly. Once it'd done it's task, I just removed it and let the tank's canister filter take over cleaning duties. If I had ONE issue with this filter, is that it's not safe for smaller shrimp or fish fry. There really needs to be a finer intake screen on this. But other than that, it's a winner.

After 35 years using a Vortex D-1 filter, its pump head started leaking. Imagine that!!! After some searching, I found the Marineland Polishing Canister Filter at a reasonable price here on Amazon that can polish your aquarium's water with diatomaceous earth much easier. First try IT WORKED COMPLETELY. I say easier because, the Vortex had hoses and a large filter canister that were all external. The Marineland filter sits in your tank and does the same job. My tank is 35 gallons connected to Fluval 306 Canister Filter and the Marineland filter is not too big and visible if I put it on a sidewall. First day - it's very quiet - so we'll see what happens in the future as other buyers have reported increased noise as filter ages. Charging it is a breeze. After running for about 3 hours, my cloudy water completely cleared - just as the Vortex did. I'll shut the Marineland down and run it as needed just like I did with my Vortex. The only question now is, do I have to recharge the Marineland Filter after each use to get particle coverage on the internal filter element. We'll see on that. Make sure when you charge your filter with diatom powder, you use the Marineland recipe - 6 tablespoons/charge, not what other YouTube Bloggers say - 6 teaspoons/charge. (By the way, 6 tablespoons is 1/3 of a cup.) Enjoy this product - my Vortex has been relegated to recycle! PS The Middle photo is a before and the far right photo is an after 1 hour of filtering.

I've only had this filter for one day, so I will update this review if needed. So far, I really like it. If you have a smaller tank, it may seem huge, but in my 75 gallon, you hardly notice it. It does have some noise when it needs to be cleaned, but when it is clean, it is super quiet. It seems to be doing its job very well. Taking it apart to clean the filter is very easy, and takes just a few minutes. One tip to pass on: if your tank is very dirty, or if you have extremely large goldfish, I would start by using the regular filter insert to do the main cleaning, then switch over to the micron cartridge. The micron cartridge will get clogged very quickly otherwise. Charging the micron cartridge with diatomaceous earth is very fast and easy, and polishes your water even further. So in order, for the clearest water, I would first use the regular filter insert, then switch over to the micron cartridge, then if you really want, charge the micron cartridge with DE and do that last. Cleaning the micron cartridge is simple, just soak the cartridge overnight in a 1 to 3 bleach and water mix, rinse well, and you are good to go. Overall, very happy with this filter.

Ive got a 55 gallon I use to quarantine fish and plants, as well as to have some kind of "pet" in my home office other than my fry growout tanks. I had a massive explosion of algae. A real bloom. Massive cloud of algae. The worst. I tried water changes and darkness which made a minimal impact. Ive attached pictures. Isnt that what everyone comes for? The pictures. Ive had biological, mechanical, carbon bags, on this tank. an old Fluval 303, and the aforementioned water changes. I used to have a diatom filter back in the day and had thought of getting another one. I came across this by chance due to the fact that you can "charge' this filter with diatoms. I ordered cheap diatom powder from another source which was a better deal than what I could get here, and I ordered the filter on Amazon as it was the best deal, a lot less than what the pet stores carry this filter for. On to the important part. I received the filter and affixed it to the front pane of the tank where I could actually see it. IT was so cloudy and green that I could not even properly see the back panels to affix the filter. I could see almost nothing. The camera actually seems to be seeing more than I could. I put the filter on with the Micron "polishing" insert and shut the lights off for 2 days. The second picture you see with the filter moved to the side pane is the result- A small improvement. I could make out slightly more. I am not saying the filter is useless in this form- not at all. It works well and flows very strong but it was not doing a whole lot for my situation outside moving water and maybe helping incrementally over what I was already using. Then I charged the filter with Diatoms ( put the filter in a bucket of tank water, so it was submerged, and while it was running I scooped in 6 tablespoons of diatom powder / DE. Once the water is clear it is "Charged" with powder. I then put the filter back in the tank and pretended to be a functional member of society for a couple hours. The final picture is the result after less than 3 hours on the tank. Please disregard the dirty smudged glass, I had very little reason to clean the glass in the previous state. The tank is essentially crystal clear. The filter worked exactly as well-... no... BETTER than the old Vortex diatom filter I burned out many years ago. Fantastic! For the money- this is a great tool. And saved me a massive headache of keeping the lights off and continually changing water and so on hoping to turn the green tide.

TL;DR: Major design flaw. Impeller is not designed to properly sit in the motor unit and just grinds unbearably. Taking apart and cleaning (a nuisance at best) will temporarily resolve. Seems impossible to order replacement impellers so if you need to fix it you're SOL unless you want to drop money on a new one, which will inevitably have this issue again. I've been a fish hobbyist for over a decade, and in that time I've concurrently kept dozens of tanks with different species, sizes, water types (fresh, salt, brackish). I've even worked in the trade before. When I moved into my house a year ago I decided to get a large show tank for the living room, and decided to go with an internal filter because on average they're easier to maintain than external canisters and less ugly than overhanging ones. I've used many different brands for my other tanks, mainly Fluval and Aqueon, but I went with a Marineland for this one because they used to be really good. This thing will be whisper-quiet right until you're passed the return window (convenient!), and will do a good job keeping your tank clear. Within a month or two, the filter started making a grinding noise, and per manufacturer's instructions cleaning out the impeller blade helped for a short while. It wasn't long until no amount of cleaning, weekly or daily, could fix the horrible grinding noise that this thing would make. Seriously, I'm great at tuning out sound but this was god-awful. I felt embarassed to have guests over it was so bad. I concluded after taking apart every inch of the motor that the impeller blade that I received was just faulty, but as of writing this review YOU CANNOT GET REPLACEMENTS, as looking at their website it appears they've been out of stock since pre-pandemic. They're still selling the model, but you cannot buy the impeller separately, which means the only option is to buy a new unit, which is ridiculous company practice. But don't worry! Customer service responses on their Q&A indicate that the part will be coming back "soon." This is, of course, the same response that you'll see if you keep scrolling to customer questions from 2+ years ago. They're not intermittently out of stock, because you can see multiple people have been patiently awaiting replacements for all that time. I bit the bullet because I assumed I just got a bad one, and I didn't want to completely change my set-up. But less than two months in to this new one, it's already making the grinding noise. I'm writing this review with the unit completely stripped and disassembled in the other room, and after doing extensive research it seems like this is a common problem for this model. Their company page for the impeller is littered with people complaining about this issue and canned service responses indicating "it just needs a good clean." I've taken apart MANY motors, and the issue is not that it needs a good clean. It's not even that it needs some oil (tried), some o-rings to soften the impeller rod ends (tried), or a good flush (tried). You'd have to re-cast the piece entirely and tweak the housing to get it to work as intended. My partner, handy with bigger motors and mechanical parts, took one look at it spinning and concluded the same before I even managed to get it off the motor housing. I know this is long-winded, but honestly I'm just frustrated that it seems like they're willfully ignoring a severe design flaw, and seem to be fine selling more units of this without offering the replacement parts they must know will be needed at some point. Shame, but I don't think I'm going to buy Marineland ever again. Marineland used to be my number one recommendation to new hobbyists but even though set up is simple, maintenance of this model is NOT beginner- or consumer-friendly. Blegh. If you get this model, just use it for infrequent water-polishing (note, it doesn't come with DE or a polishing medium, so you still would have to get that separately, and ensure that it's the right size for the housing unless you want dirt soup in your tank). Don't purchase it as a filter.

I had slightly cloudy water in my 125 gallon freshwater planted tank. After cleaning my large canister filter, it was better but still cloudy. I put the Marineland Polishing filter with the 1 micron cartridge in the tank, and it is crystal clear in about 4-6 hours. The difference is unbelievable. Update: Still doing great!! I change my filter cartridges on Monday-Wednesday-Friday, soaking the dirty one and replacing. The two cartridges seem just fine after a couple of months. The filter pulls out a lot of dark suspended material, and the water looks very clear. This is one of the nicest improvements I have done to my tank. On smaller tanks, you could probably extend the service interval too. Thanks again Update: (Potential electrical danger) After two years of twice weekly filter changes, I noticed buzzing sounds which I narrowed to this filter. I decided to take it out for a thorough inspection and cleaning. After all this use, it was remarkably clean. After I put it back together, I plugged it in to be sure it ran properly. Nothing. On closer inspection the insulation on the power wires had completely cracked and separated where they enter the motor. I got a small shock when I touched it accidentally. Well after a couple hundred filter changes and the necessary bending and twisting of the motor and wires, the plastic insulation had become brittle and cracked. I immediately ordered a new unit, which I still love. This tells you that you need a GFCI outlet for your aquarium! I'm lucky that I don't seem to have harmed my fish, or myself. Also keep an eye on your electrical wires, especially ones that get moved around often. Still a great product! Just be careful!

UPDATE 12/2022: Died after 8 months!! Ran great and then slowly started getting louder and then poof...stopped turning on! ------- I am new to aquariums. I wanted to start keeping them power shrimp and was told I needed a high-flow filter so after hours of reading reviews and research, I decided on this one. Wow! It's powerful like a motorboat so be sure to put it in a big tank. I have it in a 40 gallon breeder. The flow is amazing and it's cleaning properties are second to none. I've never used the polishing sleeve. I have a bit of floss and bio balls within the canister cage. I have pantyhose over the inlets to avoid shrimp from getting sucked in. Inevitably there's at least a few babies when I dump the canister each week, but I just net them out and put them back in the tank and they are good to go. The nozzle is adjustable which is nice. It would be nice if there was flow control, but for the size of my tank, I don't need it. My tank is always super clear. The only time it gets loud is when the floss needs to get changed, but I don't mind it because it reminds me to do it! Some people may consider it an eyesore, but I have a fake plant in front of it. I don't mind it at all. Highly recommend!

5 years later still works well. Not using it continuously, but during major tank cleanings. Finally ordered more filters for it as the one it came with was getting very thin, but still worked.

Funciona muy bien lo recomiendo

Super noisy like impeller not fitted correctly checked it was fine still the same then stopped running Maybe a faulty item I'm returning it anyway

Bought this to replace a canister pressure filter that I use with my pond because it's messy, and made for outdoor use. This little baby is very powerful, and got rid of the tannins in my water (along with some Seachem Puregel product). Very happy, but not the quietest unit on the market. If you want silence from your filter, this isn't the one. Doesn't bother me at all.

Keep cutting out blowing fuses

This filter is great. Before, I had Aqua Clear Filter that destroyed my floor and my wall and it was so noisy it was driving everyone crazy. I feel like this is the best item for the price if you don't want to invest in a refugium. It starts to make a little noise when it gets dirty. I keep it clean (clean up once a week) and my water is perfect without even hearing the thing so I really don't understand people saying it is noisy... I have a 90g reef tank with 7 fishes so except the fact that having it is not perfect because of the aesthetics, it is still a great item for the price.