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My Review: SunSun "Outside Filter" HW-302

260K views 762 replies 253 participants last post by  Remmy 
#1 ·
Many of us have seen these filters popping up on Ebay and other aquatic sites, but few people have taken the plunge(and admitted it) on this and other forums. When searching for reviews of the SunSun filter/product line, usually all you find is other forum members asking for reviews and a little speculation about the quality of said products. The thought is simple--you get what you pay for....

Or do you? Having looked around for a good canister filter to replace my obnoxiously loud AC300, I pondered many options. I tossed around the idea about Eheims, Fluvals, and the like. I have used Eheims and the Magnum series in the past, and while happy with both, I was never impressed, especially when it came to cost.

About the subject tank:

This tank is only sorta planted/sorta riparium/most about the fish(a midas and pictus cat). It is a standard 75g, 4 foot with inert white sand, a boatload of snails, driftwood, small rock pile, a koralia 1 for circulation, and a pretty rambunctious Midas Cichlid.

This tank was initially filtered by an Marineland biowheel and an AC300. They became so noisy you could hear them inside my bedroom with noisemaker running... Being in the livingroom, next to our 10 month old sons wall, this just wasn't acceptable to us(my wife informed me that it was to be fixed... or it would find itself fixed in a pile next to the dumpster...).

I set out exploring my options. I know Eheims are great filters. The trouble is the sticker shock involved. They are great, but they are not THAT great. Fluvals are good too, but I just wasn't impressed with the price point. The Marineland C Series is nice, but again, the price is still not all that impressive. I'm sure all of you think I'm crazy at this point. You are all willing to spend this money on these filters, but I just wasnt--not after seeing that there ARE other options out there.

This brought me to the Ebay Special SunSun filters. I looked through every auction, over, and over. I read feedback, checked out the few reviews out there, and was uneasy at first. Not because of poor reviews, cause there really aren't any--but because there just aren't many reviews at all. I decided it was worth the risk and you can all thank me for it!

I went with buying from someone domestic on Ebay. The item shipped from N. Cali and arrived in 4 business days via UPS Ground. It was packed well, in a nice think shipping box, inside was a standard package with really, really piss poor English. The grammar makes zero sense. It is essentially a big box of Engrish Fail. Bad grammar aside, the box is also the closest thing to directions you get with it... SO look close! This brings me to the negative things first:

  1. Directions are non-existent
  2. The intake and spray bar are a little flimsy, but solid enough. I have no intention of using them as a hammer.
  3. One of the filter baskets is a little too snug, but with some manipulation it came out fine.
  4. Did I mention no directions!
  5. The surface extractor seems to be useless if you run water up to the top. If you used this with a rimless tank it would be fine. It is too short for my water level.

It took me a bit to figure out how to hook up hoses, but once I did it was a no brainer. The Quick disconnect for the hoses works as a shut off just like on the JBJ Reaction series and the Marineland C Series. Flip it and you can pull the hoses off, take the lid off, and head to the sink to do maintenance. The three baskets plus prefilter tray are more than spacious. I have a prefilter, carbon, ac 110 bio media bag, another filter floss, a basket of beads as bio media, then a basket with filter wool.



Now lets go over the positive sides:

  1. Primer works great and quick.
  2. Baskets have plenty of room
  3. On/Off quick release is super handy. One lever shuts off and disconnects both inlet and outlet.
  4. This filter is silent. Dead silent. I even leaned it up to my stand, put it on blocks, did everything I could to make it make noise. It doesn't make a sound. My wife thought something was broken when she came back from work because it was so silent.
  5. The Filter housing itself is strong--feels identical to that of the marineland or jbj.
  6. The latching system is idiot proof
  7. The flow is great
  8. THE PRICE!!!!


After one week of using this filter I am sold. At a mere 55 dollars shipped, this filter blows the competition out of the water. There are also several models with higher flow than the one I list here, but this does the job for me. In combination with my Koralia 1 in my 75 G tank, it more than does the job. Some might say I need more flow, but it IS doing the job. Please ask if you have questions, and I will continue to post my experiences.


For the money, I really don't think there is any competition. This filter seriously rocks my socks off. I have used the "great" filters out there and can't find a logical reason yet to spend the extra money. The quality seems solid enough that I am not concerned about product life, despite having owned it for a short while.
:proud::proud::proud::proud::proud:
 
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#4 ·
I have looked at them so many times. I just couldn't hold out any longer when the AC started to go to crap, so this was an easy choice just based on price. The fact that it turned out so great is even better. My tank is crystal clear. i will post (crappy) pics tomorrow from my Droid.
 
#11 ·
Thank you very much for the review. I think a lot of the lower price items out there are great for some and not others because of quality control issues. Each item manufactured may or may not be the same as the next. One might work great, the other be a big piece of junk. All of that said, just having options for not spending 175 dollars on a canister is worth the price alone.

One question, anyone ever have to order replacement parts? That is the one thing about Eheim, they have a whole site dedicated to it. This is like buying and off brand car and then needed to get parts for it. All is great until you need a new seal or something. Anyone have any thoughts on that?
 
#19 ·
+1 on the Sun Sun canister, i have one going on now 3 almost 4 months

solid canister, uses a ceramic impeller shaft so it stays quiet, the surface extractor works great for my setup.

only issue ive had is that one of the O-rings in the quick disconnect split causing a slow leak that i found after a few days, good thing i had it sitting in a bucket. but easy fix two screws one o-ring and i was golden.

havent had an expensive canister to judge the intake spraybar quality against but it felt as strong if not more so than any of the pipes on my HOB setup.

as for replacement parts i would suspect you can use parts from the marineland c series equipment.


and now we need the sun sun pimp crew
 
#22 ·
Thats great. However what is funny about it, I'm not sure. Like I've said, i have owned Eheims, a FX5, and pretty much every HOB filter on the market. I can't find anything about them that was worth the added cost.

I love the god complex some people have because they spent more money on something. I have a 3700 dollar rifle. Does that make me a better shot than the next guy?
 
#23 ·
I have a 3700 dollar rifle. Does that make me a better shot than the next guy?
LOL so true. There is some formula somewhere that correlates the degree of ferocity someone defends an item based on the expense of said item. The more expensive the item, the greater the intensity of the defense/fanboyism.

Excellent examples are older mac users (macs are now affordable so not really a big deal), and any car forum on the web, in the "wheels/tires" section. Where someone buy giant 19 or 20 inch rims, then complains about his car being slow and having horrible mileage, and refusing to admit their purchase caused it :).

You never see forum threads about people arguing about purchases made in the dollar store!
 
#24 ·
This might seem like a dollar store purchase to some people here, but this filter is great quality and I am completely happy with it. I hope they become more available soon. When other vendors start carrying them, I think they will be more accepted by the masses.


The irony is I have never defended something just because I blew money on it. I'm a tech dork and go through phones like no tomorrow. I paid full price for the Droid and would never defend its weaknesses like the fanbois out there.

Eheims are great filters, but they are NOT the end all of filtration.
 
#28 ·
well, i decided to bite the bullet like you did and bought it today to pair in conjunction with my ecco 2234 on my 29 gallon.

currently i'm running about 415 gph worth of flow throughout my tank, but with this i should hopefully be able to remove 2 of the power heads (red sea and a hagen mini elite originally used for co2) and replace it with this SunSun to come out a little over 550 gph. Not that i necessarily needed the flow aspect, i certainly don't have any problems with detritus. However, I've been looking for some redundancy in case something were to go wrong with my ecco.

I do have another ecco 2234 sitting around here, but i was in need of parts that are always out of stock and have no known time of being ordered/received.. or highly priced. Soooo, this came out to be a cheaper and overall better option.

Thanks for taking the time for the review and i'll post what results I have after I've received my SunSun.
 
#31 ·
That is the JBJ I mention earlier. I believe they are all the same filter, the JBJ has UV, the others do not. I think the intake kit is better on the SunSUn. I got the Skimmer to work(had nasty protein build up) and I am still in love.

The filter pads for either the JBJ or Marineland will work.
 
#38 ·
The skimmer is interesting. It looks fixed. Is it fixed or does it float with water level? Keep us posted on how that works. If it's fixed I guess you'd have to ensure water level is very consistent. That would be a pain if the range is too narrow.

Great feature to have included at this price point. Lookng forward to more updates.
 
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