EheimPickup 200 Internal Filter

This, was bought as replacement. Easy to use easy to clean. Great for baby fry to be sucked into bottom away from hungry mouths. Have always used this brand over past 8 years

Best filter you can buy

Das Produkt ist in gewohnter Qualität tut auf jeden Fall seinen Dienst, aber es war definitiv der falsche Stecker. Den Stecker, den ich bekommen hatte der war definitiv nicht Wechselbar oder abnehmbar. Ich habe mir jetzt ein Adapter dazu gekauft, weil es einfach dringend war.

I see this filter gets mixed reviews. I am giving it a massive thumbs up. I went back to keeping tropical fish after ten years of not doing so due to house moves etc. It's interesting to see how a hobby changes. Internal filters used to be a powerhead with an impeller and a filter sponge. Nowadays the influence of external filters is evident in all current designs with several sponges and biological media, carbon elements and cartridges and different compartments for everything.The current Fluval models epitomise this but anything by Interpret and the rest are pretty well the same. This slavish imitation of external filter systems is I am sure very useful for enthusiasts keeping specialised fish but for the rest of us with a pleco and some neon tetras it is just unnecessary complication. Somewhere along the road the fact that a sponge can perform both mechanical and biological filtration seems to have been forgotten. Well guess what a sponge can do both quite adequately as the supreme water quality in my tank bears testament.I read theses blurbs for modern internal filters saying you need two or more separate sponges in a filter so you can clean them alternately and not jeopardise the bacteria in your tank. Yes true up to a point but when you rinse out your sponge to clean it ,the filter and the substrate and the rocks and the rest of the tank is still going to be coated in the same bacteria which will rapidly recolonise the sponge so there is a distinct element of marketing buzz about multiple sponge set ups.The other great thing about the Eheim Pick up models is that they push the water through from the bottom unlike all other filters including more recent Eheim designs which pull the water through from a motor in the top. This does look a bit mad on paper but it works fine and it means you can flip the lid off it and pull out the sponge and clean it in about five minutes as opposed to taking the whole filter out of the tank and dismantling it then getting the sponge out then putting it back together then back into the tank.My only caveat about the Pickup range would be the continued availability of replacement sponges. The Pickup is an older design which still features on the Eheim website and replacement sponges can be easily bought. However I notice that the Powerline which is another older design still features on the website and is still on sale if you look hard enough on the internet but I cannot find refill sponges for either Poweline model anywhere and I am slightly concerned the same fate might befall the Pickup range.Fluval has always had a better sales and marketing set up than Eheim in the UK anyway as long as I can remember but when you buy stuff for your tank you are not buying the sales and marketing operation you are buying the product and generally Eheim's products are superior.

I swapped this from a Flaval 250L filter because my 60l Eheim was so easy to use and clean. Big sponges all the way for me, and you just pop the top of to clean the sponge. My tank is all Elheim now including the heater. Simple quality that works.