Quote Originally Posted by deranged chipmunk View Post
Over 30 years of keeping tanks, I have used every sort of filter possible. I personally prefer canisters. Yes, you can run multiple filters, school of thought being is that you can never filter too much. I don't keep aquatic frogs, but have kept pretty much everything else aquatic from octopii to tetras and everything in between.

As far as brands of canisters, they are all pretty comparable, but I would stay away from that API modular canister. It is ****. Any if the others are fine, where it be eheim, fluval, marineland, ect.
I am thinking of converting to a sponge and canister filter. I am not sure whether I am going to keep my tetra whisper ex20, or just leave it there. It produces a fairly low current and I think my frogs are too big to really get sucked in. I tested it with my fingers and the whole barely takes up one finger and it was fairly easy to swim away from. I just hope my darlings aren't stupid enough to swim up the filter tube @_@ However I have heard of no one saying this?

But here are the models I was looking at for my 20 gallon:
Penn Plax Cascade Canister Filters - Aquarium Filter and Fish Tank Filter from petco.com
Fluval 06 External Canister Filters - Aquarium Filter and Fish Tank Filter from petco.com
Hydor Professional Canister Filter at PETCO
Marineland C Series External Canister Filters at PETCO

Any suggestions on which is best? I intend to buy off of Amazon and try to save myself a couple of bucks.

And while you don't have ACFs, have you had any fish meets filter problems? Does the canister option help with that kind of issue? I know the sponge filter will not produce much current and is supposed to last for quite a bit!

Also it is quite strange! API does good liquid test kits, so I would have assumed they would do better in the filter department. ): Thanks for the heads up though!