I just wanted to drop a note to let you guys know my experiences with the Hydor.
I moved my Eheim to my new zebra tank and needed a canister filter for my 37 gallon community tank. I had read positive things about the Hydor and decided to give it a try. I purchased a Prime 20 for use of aquariums 25-65 gallon range.
I really like the way it was put together but the darn thing didn't work. According to the red indicator ring (lets you know when its time to clean filter) I had to clean the filter every day or every two days. Two weeks of this and I was not a happy camper. Hydor is an Italian company and I'm afraid the English translation in the manual was somewhat lacking; I thought I had assembled the filter incorrectly. I called Big Al's Online (where I purchased the filter) and talked to them. According to them Hydor has a very low return rate but they were willing to take the item back. I requested to speak to a US Hydor representative before returning the item.
It took a couple of days for the rep to call me back (moving his office). He was very responsive. We went over the assembly of the filter and I had it correct. He asked for the lot number off the box and the filter was somewhat an older model even though I had just purchased it. He offered to replace it. He didn't have the model I had and upgraded me to the Prime 30. Very Nice!!!
He even threw in an Ario Color four as a gift. Needless to say I am very happy with the service and the new filter is working like a top.I had not seen the Ario and was pleasantly surprised. This aerator works like a dream and puts out a lot of oxygen. As all of us know who have zebra tanks; zebras like oxygenated water and higher temps in tanks rob the water of its oxygen. This solves that problem and this model has a light in it so at night it produces a beautiful column of lighted bubbles. Oh, the air flow is adjustable too. It’s rather big so I buried it in the substrate and hid the top behind a piece of drift wood.
Customer service is somewhat lacking in this modern world of ours. I am happy to report a responsive representative and would recommend these products. Don't get me wrong, Eheim is my preferred work horse choice but for a more affordable alternative you may want to give the Hydor a try.
