The Planted Tank Forum banner

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:
 
See less See more
1
#616 · (Edited)
HW-404B Canister/Outside filter? I hope I'm in the right forum...

I'm new to this type of filter as I was using the Whisper 30-60 for years in my 35 and 55 gallon with never a problem. Still using one in the 35 and replaced the 55 with a 180 tall. I decided to get two of these as they were offered from the vendor when I purchased the new tank, so I went with it as he advised against using the HOB for this volume of water.

They were more $$ than what's written in here, but they've been running 24/7 and quiet as a mouse. The tank is 180 with 7 Oscars, 3 pictus, 1 pleco, 1 zebra, and 1 eclipse/sun cat. The only thing that didn't impress me was the primer pump, which is really my problem, but both canisters are next to each other, as I didn't want to bore another hole in the base cabinet. So I got longer hose to reach the other end of the tank, making a longer run to prime. Other than that...I just stayed with it and kept turning the unit on and off, priming in between, and in minutes I was up and running.

The tank is not rimless thus the intake and output sat low in the tank. I ended up using industrial strength hook and loop on the glass and the tubes (using cable ties on the hose to hold the loops on as the loops were pulling off the tubes) and then setting the hoses higher to where they functioned for my app. The outputs are right to the top of the tank now, breaking the surface of the water and making a running water sound and you can lower it if you don't like the sound...(it's really not that loud).

Only one problem with the hook and loop is that I can't comfortably add my background, but I'll get around that somehow.

The "skimmer" actually works well for me now that it's in the right spot, and I can actually have the water level where I want it. I guess we'll be in touch as time goes on and see how they last. I think so far, good bang for the buck when you get the deals. I'm still not disappointed! :)
 
#617 ·
Finally having a issue with the hw-302

After a year or so of use I'm finally having a problem with my HW-302. The impeller is rattling so loud i have to wrap the filter with blankets to muffle the noise. I believe the problem is with the cap holding the impeller in place, it only has two tabs that lock down allowing the whole cap to tilt to one side or the other as you tighten it down. My o-ring has a crease in it now and i cant get it to set flat. So far I'm not having any luck finding a replacement cap, o-ring, and impeller. I'll have to e-mail a few people on e-bay that sell the filters and see if i can get parts from one of them.
 
#619 ·
After a year or so of use I'm finally having a problem with my HW-302. The impeller is rattling so loud i have to wrap the filter with blankets to muffle the noise. I believe the problem is with the cap holding the impeller in place, it only has two tabs that lock down allowing the whole cap to tilt to one side or the other as you tighten it down. My o-ring has a crease in it now and i cant get it to set flat. So far I'm not having any luck finding a replacement cap, o-ring, and impeller. I'll have to e-mail a few people on e-bay that sell the filters and see if i can get parts from one of them.
Let me get home later tonight and i can direct you to at least a couple places that service the parts for these filters. Easy to get and pretty inexpensive.

A years wear and tear on a filter isn't a big deal. Something I'd expect. Especially for the price. I would say a great buy. I've seen filters that cost more with plenty more issues.

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2
 
#620 ·
#621 ·
After some tinkering, i got it to quiet it down a little, but the bottom of the impeller is a bit loose on the shaft so it has some noise still. Putting a fresh coat of petroleum Jelly on the o-rings helped a bit, i was able to get the impeller cap to sit better and the lid and valve now slide back together nice and smooth.
I found a site with replacement parts here: http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com
The impeller is only $6, but they charge you $7 to ship it ($10 s/h if you add on a set of pads).

Hopefully Aquaticfan's site is better.

Thanks for the link Evil, if those are similar to the sunsun filters (the case is dead on), the ones with the UV bulbs seem have slightly different impellers.

I still really like this filter, the only one that is doing better performance wise is my odyssea cfs4 (a.k.a jebo 838). I've had it 2-3 years now and haven't done a thing to it other than cleaning out the pads when ever i remember I still have it. ;)

I do like the cfs4's filter pads a little better though, I've only had to replace one so far.
 
#624 · (Edited)
My impeller finally came today, it is a lot more quiet, but still not near as quiet as it use to be. :(

I'm not sure if it is due to having to use the the old rubber impeller mount since i couldn't get it out of the motor housing, or if something else is wearing out.
 
#625 ·
Dear Friends,

My name is Diego Jesus and I'm talking over Rio de Janeiro - Brazil. I'll be mounting a 53Gal tank with African Cichlids, and I'd like to buy this SunSun external filter. On ebay I found only one seller that ship's to Brazil, but price is not so good. Could you please give me a hint of a website I can buy this ? The one's I found here in the forum, only 1 sends it, but shipping tarif was too high.

Tks and Brgds

Diego Jesus
 
#626 ·
look for aquatop filters, they are the same thing.

not as cheap though.. :/

try searching for hw-302 (3 stage no uv) or hw-402 (4 stage, no uv), or swap out the 2's with 3's if you want the uv version. You'll get more results than if you just search for sunsun.
 
#627 ·
I have been using ehiem ecco and fluval canisters and love those just not the price. I was also very skeptical about the price/performance of this cheap filter, but I bought it anyway as I need a second filter along with my ecco 2234 for my new 40B tank and bought a box of fluval bio rings and mix with some of my extra eheim bio media. I didn't want to risk for any leaks, so I tested the filter with a bucket of water in the bath tub overnight, no leaks and virtually silent. Very happy for a well spent $50 dollars, great flow as well. The only problem I have is I can't really get the skimmer to work, it doesn't seem to suck any water down the tube, but I replaced it with one that I have laying around and it works perfectly. Can someone show me how you get the skimmer (Photo or video the better) to work as I tried everything I can? Other than that, this filter is perfect so far even if it only lasts me for 1 year as I don't like to clean filter anyway. Thank OP for posting it because I would never buy if I see it on *bay.
 
#630 ·
Dear Clint,

I can't use hang on filters since the back and right side of my tank will be touching my apt walls. Or I use this canister or an internal filter with a power head ( I didn't want to since it just doesn't look nice ).

I googled through many sites but couldn't find any that would send to Brazil. Wouldn't anyone help this aquarist lover and send me one her in Brazil ? :icon_roll I could make a Paypal transfer in advance!

TKs and Brgds
 
#631 ·
HW-302 isn't a hang on filter, that is just the model number for the sunsun 3 stage canister with out the uv sterilizer. The bands of this filter seem to vary, but the part number usually stays the same.

After a week of use the new impeller has quieted down a bit on mine.


A bit off topic, but i just bought a used tank yesterday and it came with the fluval FX5.. that thing is MASSIVE, from the pictures i was expecting something about the size of a cfs 500, not even close. That thing is larger than most modern pool filters, lol
 
#633 ·
I got the Sun-Sun HW-304B.

I have read that the skimmers are useless and just won't work.
I see how people were saying that because when you fill your tank all the way up the skimmer would slide off and float around the tank making it useless.

What I did was raised the Curvy pipe so it would sit higher so that the skimmer wouldn't be so deep in the water and now it works great.

Here are some pics
 

Attachments

#637 ·
Ok so my filter came in, The SunSun-HW-402B.

My first impressions of this was that the packaging was very good. The box came inside another box. All the parts were there. The Instructions still lack but just what i expected as i read reviews.

The canister itself feels pretty sturdy< however I have nothing to compare it to. It has a 4 lock system to secure the Lid/Pimp/Uv sterilizer to the base. This model appears to have a larger (Piston?) for priming. I know others have stated that it was hard to get theirs to prime hope this new design takes care of that.

The trays look like they will hold a lot of media and it still comes with the thin sponge filters in each tray. All and all i really feel this was a great buy at 58$ shipped to my door.

Hope these pics may help anyone interested in purchasing this model. Sorry if my camera phone pics suck.:icon_roll
 

Attachments

#649 ·
I use ceramic rings and bio balls for 2 trays on bottom. You can get the round agitator balls at home depot for your biological filter. Anything with alot of surface area. I then use the blue and white bonded pad in bulk and cut to fit the tray with purigen in a bag in the third tray. I then use bear/pillow floss/stuffing from walmart for my water polishing/added filtering in my sunsun 505 for my 150gallon planted fahaka puffer tank. It works great and my levels are always on point. I also use a cascade 1200 too which i use the same in that.
 
#639 ·
Glad to see these things are still being made. For a cheap filter, my 303B has exceeded all of my expectations. It's been running for over 2.5 years now, no problems at all other than having to replace the UV bulb a few times (I need to do that again, actually.) When I start up another tank, I'll get another SunSun without hesitation.
 
#640 ·
Can someone please tell me the diameter for the outlet hosing? I would like to try these out with a Hydor ETH so I hope they're compatible - I imagine these dont have the great flow rate they claim to have so I wouldn't want to restrict it anymore with hose conversions.
 
#644 ·
Hi
This tread is little bit old but I have one "stupid" question. I got my hw-302 today (it's my first canister filter), set it up and it works, its not "dead" silent like some of you stated but it's OK.

Now the stupid question. Do canisters leak when you lean them on side (not completely, maybe just 10-15 degrees) or shake them harder?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top