what are you going to stock ut with?
I have no idea.
The wife wants some Angels.
So I'm thinking about a 'beginner' cichlid tank, nothing too crazy.
I need to do some reading up on good mixes.

Got the tank moved into its corner and scrubbed it down.
Then I took a flat piece of metal (a Tee square) and prised off the filter enclosure like that article said (I didn't have a knife but the tee worked just fine). Very happy with the results, got to clean the tank 100% instead of leaving lots of shitty dirt behind the filter. Really filthy. Had to lightly scrub the glass to get the dirt and calcium deposits off.
Shiny clean now and full of water.

Bought a Fluval 4 plus (internal) off ebay for €40 delivered.
Don't know if I'll have it till after the holidays though, so I might have to start the cycle with my Fluval 2, or just wait. Either way I'm going to transfer some cycled filter medium into the new one to kick start a colony.
Should work well and I'll pick up a couple of zebra danios or a couple of mollies for cycling.

That Fluval 4 is not good enough for a tank that size. I only used them as extra filthers with the Juwel. The Juwel would have been far superior to the Fluval. They clog up very easily.
Get yourself an external as soon as possible. The fluval externals are super.

I'd have to agree with anthony, ont only are they far superior....they make aquascaping a doddle.

I always liked the Juwel tanks.
I am gradually fasing my internal out. External is running 2 months.Removing pads from internal 1 at a time each month.

I like the Juwel Internal Filter, Plenty of space for the sponge/bacteria. You can always hide them with a few plants.

I have a Fluval canister running with the Internal, no problems to date.

Its also good as when you can stagger the cleaning of filters, i.e clean the Internal in January, External in February etc...etc...

The internal Juwel filters are very efficient, as long as you don't let them clog up. I agree with Peter on the space for sponge/bacteria. I recall Practical fishkeeping reviewing filters, internal and external a few months ago and they were quite complimentary, again as long as you don't let it clog. I run the internal Juwel with a TetraEx 1200 external which I find great. The way I look at it is if the Juwel internal, like Processor says, appears to catch more debris that the external then why remove it ?

Cheers,

Monty

OK I'm still going with the Fluval 4+, but will get an extra filter cheap to aid performance.
The internal is history and I'm glad I did it, don't care how much space for bacteria there is, the enclosure is huge and I've heard too many stories about dissapearing fish. Plus it was caked in mineral deposits, impossible to clean behind and just plain ugly.

Moving on, I'll set up with two smaller internals and see how it goes.
I'll put a big external on my wishlist for next year sometime.

Thanks guys.

I don't know about the Fuval 405 but I once had a 404 and it was a piece of bad design. After a wile I found it very hard to get an airtight seal on the filter after cleaning. Very badly done. I have no idea if the 05 range has a better sealing system. I'd go for a Eheim or one of the knock offs. I bought one of them on ebay.

I don't know about the Fuval 405 but I once had a 404 and it was a piece of bad design. After a wile I found it very hard to get an airtight seal on the filter after cleaning. Very badly done. I have no idea if the 05 range has a better sealing system. I'd go for a Eheim or one of the knock offs. I bought one of them on ebay.

I have a 405 and it is excellent IMO

did they change that flimsy two clip closing system? The filter itself was fine just a pain in the rear to get it watertight after cleaning it. And that rubber seal wasn't the greatest invention either