# Anyone else have problems with AquaTop canisters?



## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

I made the mistake of suggesting to my husband that he try an Aquatop canister to save a few bucks over a Fluval like I have on my 55g. From the beginning it's been leaking intermittently, but we were able to get it to stop be reseating the top a few times. Then this weekend we woke up to a tank that was about 20 gallons low and a tupperware full of aquarium water. Thank goodness we had it sitting in the giant tub. Plus there's water in the uv sterilizer. Luckily we still had his old ac70's so we put those on the tank for now. The funny thing is we had purigen in the aquatop to help with tannins, but it never seemed to do anything. All of a sudden after about 24 hours of running the ac70 with it, the tannins are gone. This makes me think the circulation in the aquatop is very poor.

Customer service has been a pain as well. They won't issue a refund because we bought it through Amazon and I'm now expected to ship the head back to them and apparently we're responsible for shipping cost of the massive thing. Blah!

I know I've read good thing about this brand or I wouldn't have suggested it in the first place, but I'm wondering if people just don't bother to post their negative experiences. So... anyone else have/had similar problems?


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

I have 3, and I have come home to missing water. But it was my own fault and most the seating probelms our user error. Mine was I 1 did not get the media trays pushed all the way to the bottom, thus causing 2 a bad seal to happen when buckling it up.


I run purigen in all mine, I was having a problem as you if a tank not clearing up. My problem was the filter was not low enough for the gravity circulation to work properly, and as well I had a sponge filter on it for a pre filter. When that gets semi dirty you need to squeeze it out or flow goes to poop and circultion sucks. So I could not move my tank highr and filter further down, so I cut the tubs so it was a direct quick route to the filter no extra. This help a bunch. I also now clean my pre filter every week or week and a half. Mine all woork great, I have 2 Eheim, one wet dry one and they all do as good as that if not better. Wet dry eheoms are tempermental.


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

See, I assumed user error at first too, that's why I didn't return it right away. The whole intermittent thing is what gets me. Sometimes it will be fine for a couple weeks and then all of a sudden it starts leaking with no outside interference.

I have a little Eheim on a 10g, but it's the smallest ECCO one and honestly that thing has been the simplest to use of all of ours. We found it on clearance at Petsmart a while back for $50. Wish I could find a couple more at that price.


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## Aquaticfan (Oct 30, 2011)

I own 5 of the aquatop filters now. 1 cf300, 2 cf400's and 2 cf500's. Only had one issue and that was a bad impeller in one of my cf400's. But I'm sure it was my own issue with sand that got into it. But when I called Truaqua with the issue they sent me another impeller unit no charge. Even though it was probably my fault. Been using them for several months and no leaks or any other issues.

But for the issue your having is the whole reason I make sure I buy from the source. Not Amazon. Have you contacted amazon?


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

That's the kind of positive things I kept reading before we bought it, but that obviously hasn't been the case for us. Bad luck I guess. I didn't contact Amazon initially because we were past our 30 day return window, but I did yesterday after hearing from Aquatop. Amazon said they do partial refunds after 30 days, so we're sending it back to them. I know this was probably a one time thing, but we're going to take our 80% refund and get a different canister when we need. It won't be for awhile anyway because my goldfish are going outside for the summer so my husband is going to use my Fluval. Give me some time to plan my tank anyway since I set it up before I found this site. It looks pretty pathetic at the moment.


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## Aquaticfan (Oct 30, 2011)

I still recommend them highly. But I would suggest going to one of the 3 main places that deal with them and not do Amazon. I've had so so luck using amazon as they are just a middle man. Have you thought about contacting Truaqua or other that is a direct for them and see if they can help you with the parts to fix the issue? I'd bet it would be cheap to do so. Just a thought.


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

Truaqua is who I spoke with before contacting Amazon. I wasn't happy with the customer service (typical runaround of multiple reps, repeating myself over and over, etc) and the end result of them wanting us to ship the entire barrelhead to them before they would replace anything. The partial refund at this point is just easier.


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## Aquaticfan (Oct 30, 2011)

Curious who you spoke to.. Ive delt with them a bunch and have nothing but great things to say.. There may be some language barriers with some people, that ive seen. But They always have had customers first for service. Possibly due that it was a Non- Truaqua sold unit things may take a little more doing. But im sure they can help. One of the people there thats helped me the most is Ben. Sorry to hear of your issue. Maybe when the time is right you might give them another shot, but as i recommended go through a true supplier.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/equipment/170377-aquatop-sunsun-cf400uv-vs-eheim-2026-a.html


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## Hmoobthor (Aug 15, 2011)

a bad seal would cause leak...

what are you doing to the o rings?


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

Nothing yet. We've only had it for about 6 weeks and it's been an issue since day one.


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## In.a.Box (Dec 8, 2011)

I wouldn't buy anything from aquatop.
Y not go with the sunsun? Both filter look alike but I can tell you this 
Sunsun brand will have less stress.

There ton of brand name under the same filter.
I wonder which brand name own these cansiter filter.
Making copy right n changeing the name is asking to be sue for some $$$.


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## Hmoobthor (Aug 15, 2011)

rocksmom said:


> Nothing yet. We've only had it for about 6 weeks and it's been an issue since day one.


 
what i always do with any canister no matter where i purchase them from is lube allt he o-rings wtih silicone grease.

this gives them a very good seal and prevent leaks. Everytimes you open the lid up, you mess up the lube..so you wanna do this.

hope this helps....i do this for HOB filter too


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## Hmoobthor (Aug 15, 2011)

In.a.Box said:


> I wouldn't buy anything from aquatop.
> Y not go with the sunsun? Both filter look alike but I can tell you this
> Sunsun brand will have less stress.
> 
> ...


i ask this question on a youtube video promoting thier aquatop canister.

never heard a reply and my comment was remove....i told them it's the same brand as sunsun and rename ...they were telling people not to buy the sunsun but instead theirs.


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## Aquaticfan (Oct 30, 2011)

In.a.Box said:


> I wouldn't buy anything from aquatop.
> Y not go with the sunsun? Both filter look alike but I can tell you this
> Sunsun brand will have less stress.
> 
> ...


It is the.same filter. But the aquatop is what I understand the US market named unit. While the sun sun is not. 

See any actual us vendors for sun sun? Besides eBay or other mid buying markets? There ate 3 actual vendors for aquatop I believe that are dedicated to that product. Just noticing what i see and have heard. But as I understand they are the same. Not a knock off of one another. By the way. What would make you think the sun sun would have less stress? And what stress would there be? I've got 5 aquatops and no problems.


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## zainey_04 (May 24, 2011)

I have one as well. And unless I coat the O ring with petroleum jelly it leaks every time. Other than that it's a great filter.


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## WVDiscGolfer (Nov 29, 2011)

As a beginner I bought the cf-500 for my first 55g to minimize startup costs. So far it's done excellent and I haven't had any problems with leaks or seals. My problem is that I have a Hydor in-line heater and I had to step down the tubing size for the heater intake. I'm now wondering if it has affected my GPH because the spray bar doesn't have a whole lot of power. However since it's my first tank it could be doing just fine I'm not sure.


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## prototyp3 (Dec 5, 2007)

Maybe I've been incredibly lucky, but I've never had to mess with silicone or lubing a seal. I've used canisters for years, Fluval 03's and G6, Eheim everythings, Rena XPs, ADA, and none had issues with providing a water tight seal. No problems even after a canister had been in storage for years..

I wonder if they use some sub standard material for their gasket?


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## Aquaticfan (Oct 30, 2011)

prototyp3 said:


> Maybe I've been incredibly lucky, but I've never had to mess with silicone or lubing a seal. I've used canisters for years, Fluval 03's and G6, Eheim everythings, Rena XPs, ADA, and none had issues with providing a water tight seal. No problems even after a canister had been in storage for years..
> 
> I wonder if they use some sub standard material for their gasket?


 I doubt its sub standard. I know you don't like the sun sun aquatop line. But on all my canister filters in past I've lubricated all the orings no matter what brand. Most people I know do as well. Not doing so invites the chance for one of them to tear or pinch and leak. Seen it happen on fluvals and Eheims. I've used tons of both in the past. In fact most manufacturers recommend it. I know for a fact Eheim does. Like many other things experinces vary. It's part of the way things are. For me I'm glad there are choices. 

Again, I've got 5 of the aquatops and no issues or leaks. But like anything made by human hands things can go wrong and happen. But that's can be said of any brand.


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## Hmoobthor (Aug 15, 2011)

prototyp3 said:


> Maybe I've been incredibly lucky, but I've never had to mess with silicone or lubing a seal. I've used canisters for years, Fluval 03's and G6, Eheim everythings, Rena XPs, ADA, and none had issues with providing a water tight seal. No problems even after a canister had been in storage for years..
> 
> I wonder if they use some sub standard material for their gasket?


one day you will wake up to a bathtub full fo water because you decide it's not worth lubing.


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## prototyp3 (Dec 5, 2007)

Aquaticfan said:


> I doubt its sub standard. I know you don't like the sun sun aquatop line. But on all my canister filters in past I've lubricated all the orings no matter what brand. Most people I know do as well. Not doing so invites the chance for one of them to tear or pinch and leak. Seen it happen on fluvals and Eheims. I've used tons of both in the past. In fact most manufacturers recommend it. I know for a fact Eheim does. Like many other things experinces vary. It's part of the way things are. For me I'm glad there are choices.
> 
> Again, I've got 5 of the aquatops and no issues or leaks. But like anything made by human hands things can go wrong and happen. But that's can be said of any brand.





Hmoobthor said:


> one day you will wake up to a bathtub full fo water because you decide it's not worth lubing.


That wasn't a shot at Sun Sun. I'm just curious to know why I've never experienced this in 10 years of running multiple tanks with canisters. They're compression seals, so you just seat it properly and go. If you haven't damaged the ring (damaged from pinching, abrasive debris, dried out) I would suspect maybe a poor material that compacts easily. Just a theory of course as I've never experienced it myself.


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## NWA-Planted (Aug 27, 2011)

Lube is just your friend 

Seriously though had a short term issue with a cf500 opened for cleaning one day put three barrel head on... Leaked! found out I was rolling the gasket when I put it in... Lubed it up never another issue.

Sorry your run in with them was that bad, I use a lot of their products and customer service has always been good :-/

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2


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## samamorgan (Dec 31, 2011)

NWA-Planted said:


> Lube is just your friend


True in almost every situation. :hihi:


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