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Ho appena acquistato un nuovo filtro per il mio acquario e devo dire che sono davvero soddisfatto dei risultati ottenuti. Questo filtro funziona in modo eccellente, garantendo una pulizia costante dell'acqua senza alcuno sforzo.La cosa che più mi ha colpito è la sua silenziosità. Rispetto al mio vecchio filtro, questo è praticamente inudibile. Non solo è piacevole per me non sentire costantemente il rumore del filtraggio, ma anche la mia tartaruga sembra apprezzare la tranquillità. Posso dire con certezza che il mio animale si sente più a suo agio senza interferenze sonore fastidiose.Inoltre, la facilità di pulizia di questo filtro è davvero un punto a suo favore. Basta rimuovere il meccanismo di filtraggio e sciacquarlo con acqua corrente per eliminare i residui accumulati. Non è necessaria alcuna procedura complicata o l'uso di prodotti chimici. È un'operazione rapida e indolore che mi permette di risparmiare tempo e fatica.Ma la cosa migliore di tutte è che grazie a questo filtro, posso cambiare l'acqua del mio acquario con meno frequenza rispetto al filtro precedente. La qualità dell'acqua rimane costantemente alta e pulita, senza dover fare interventi continui.La mia tartaruga sembra molto più felice e il suo ambiente è molto più salubre. Sono davvero contento di aver acquistato questo filtro per il mio acquario. Lo consiglio a tutti coloro che cercano un prodotto efficiente, silenzioso e facile da pulire. Non ne rimarrete delusi!

Manque les filtres. A acheter séparément mais ce n'est pas indiqué ici. Dommage. Retour et remboursement.

I really like it. It works well for my 30l aquarium and I prefer this one rather than Stingray, that I had before. It is easier to clean, less chances for fish to be trapped and there is a space for bacterial substrate. And it is silent. The only downside is that you cannot change sponge without detouching the filter from the wall. I hoped it will be as easy as with Fluval U2. But it's very minor problem.

This is a long term review as this exact filter was bought April 2018 and used yearly/monthly/weekly/daily/hourly/minute by minute ever since !I've been a Fluval customer for decades, I've had a number of their filters with dozens upon dozens of tanks over the years and what keeps on me being loyal?1. Quality2. Dependable3. Does it's job day in day outI've been in the hobby for decades and have kept salt/fresh bare bottom/planted and everything in between. I've given speeches, helped 100's of people in this hobby and in all that time and experience you can easily weed out poor manufacturers and you quickly gravitate to manufacturers who provide that dependability that is DEMANDED with the aquarium hobby.In all my years I've never had any Fluval filter quit working for me. Personally I'm in the underwater/submerged phase of tank keeping I guess you can say. I've converted all my main tanks with the Fluval U series and three tanks have this same Fluval U3 for a few different reasons, most importantly is for it's silent operation. I have a couple tanks in bedrooms and the old HOB Hang On Back type filters tend to let the water drop too far as to create that waterfall noise. Some may like that noise but I call it noise for a reason. With the underwater series such as this U3 there is zero and I mean ZERO noise from the filter.No fish stories here so I included the three U3 series filters as proof.For the filter itself, you can adjust the outflow in various regards, the filter unit itself clips into a holder which is suction cupped to the aquarium glass wall and opening the top door to change filter material is quick and painless. If the filter does not sit well in the filter cage something is just blocking it a tad, most likely it is the power cord so just rerun the cord past the clips on the back of the filter and your good to go again.TIP ► When doing any tank filter maintenance I strongly suggest to turn it off first. When I do filter maintenance I completely remove the entire filter into a bucket and then open it to change out filter pads. I do this because if you change filter pads in the tank and plug the filter back in, debris will shoot out of the filter like a hurricane. Change out filter pads in a bucket, rinse the filter itself in some water and you've minimized the debris hurricane.TIP ► There are 5 basic areas within the filter.1. The ceramic media. Never clean this part...leave it nice and dirty. Caked in debris isn't needed but if there is just remove that debris, don't try to 'wash' the ceramic rings. They also don't need to be replaced. If they are turning into powder, sure but in all my years I've never had to replace ANY ceramic media !2. On either side of the filter there is a course then fine area. The course is the sponge and material is first trapped into this. When you do your REGULAR maintenance squeeze this out in water only. You don't need to replace this as the sponge will last for many, many, many years.3. The final stage is a bad that 'polishes' the water and this includes activated carbon within that filter pad. In my tanks I don't run activated carbon and I caution against using that in most cases actually, so when my filter pad gets dirty I only squeeze this filter pad out in water and I don't replace it. The filter material's integrity against the plastic filter pad cage will last for years and years. People replace their filter material much too frequently.Sorry aquarium filter manufacturers... But they all tend to advocate replacing the filter material wayyyyy to frequently. Replacing filter materials is a huge profit maker for manufacturers.TIP ► In doing filter maintenance when a filter sponge or pad needs to be rinsed some people state to not use tap water as it contains chlorine and possible chloramine so those people say you should only rinse out filter material in cycled tank water. For my own practice I use tap water and I'm never concerned with the tap water chlorine or chloramine.TIP ► In doing filter maintenance only do ONE SIDE at a time. Since the beneficial nitrifying bacteria is held in the filter material if someone were to 'clean' the entire filter - all filter material, the tank can be put into a mini-cycle. Not really a good thing. Only clean 50% of the filter per time, doing this will give a more chemically stable aquarium.TIP ► A dirty filter is a wonderful filter. While you don't need to live with 50% water flow rate from the original brand new condition, people hurt their tanks by cleaning filters too frequently. The nitrifying bacteria is held in the filter material so cleaning the filter too often will easily cause a mini-cycle which will always put stress on livestock. Crystal clear water = dirty filter. Clean filter = zero cycle. Might sound strange but it's the truth.TIP ► If you hear the word ' cycle ' with this hobby that is in reference to a naturally and beneficial occurring chemical process where ammonia is converted to nitrite and then over to nitrate. A brand new tank will take aprox 30 days naturally for this to happen. At that rough 30 day mark PPM readings will be 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and a reading of nitrate. In terms of fish you need really nothing for nitrate so your reading can be low however if you have live aquarium plants a reading of nitrate is mandatory.TIP ► In all my impeller filters, right out of the box I use a small dab of 100% pure petroleum jelly and rub it all around the magnetic part of the impeller. This will help with lubrication and a small tweak we can do to even further make the tank more quiet. Not gobs are used just a thin coat. I've done this for a very long time and there have been ZERO negative effects in any of my tanks. If this is not done, that beautiful slime coating found in mature aquariums will form within a couple weeks and naturally coat the impeller. I still just use the petroleum jelly anyways.TIP ► Please be very careful about filter placement especially if someone has fine substrate material especially such as sand. This can easily get sucked into the filter and once it hits the impeller it could easily give a louder grinding sound. When people come to me about grinding filter noise this is the first thing I ask them to check. Make sure the impeller cage is 100% clean of any debris. I typically say no closer than 4" so the substrate bottom when people have those fine grain substrates. Standard type gravel size which I only use, I can let the filter stand right on the substrate itself.TIP ► If by chance you have any sort of filter that the impeller appears to be caked with material and cannot be washed off just use a fine piece of sandpaper. Something like a 200 grit is what I have used in the past to make sure there is nothing 'stuck' on the magnet that can cause unwanted noise. This goes to any brand of magnetic impeller filter. You don't need to grind the magnet away just make the surface clean once again.TIP ► My first tip above talked about a dirty filter being wonderful and people clean it too frequently. This is 100% the case...however if your filter requires cleaning more than every 2-3 weeks then it is not the filter but the tank itself has a maintenance issue. If could very well be a buildup of mulm/detritus from lack of regular tank maintenance. Your filter will collect floating debris however if there is too much floating debris then any filter no matter brand or size will clog. That is our issue not a filters issue of not functioning properly. An aquarium filter's purpose is to COLLECT floating material not to magically make floating material 100% disappear. It is OUR regular maintenance job to remove that collected material.TIP ► A simple way to see if a filter is working properly, HOB, underwater or whatever is if water is being moved by the output. If water is being moved, the filter itself works. If the water is only moving 50% from original flow rates that means it is a very dirty filter that needs our cleaning maintenance...the filter did it's job just fine as it collected the floating material....the 50% flow rate is our issue with tank maintenance.There is much more I can write but I'll cut it off there. Good luck with the hobby, keeping aquariums is a wonderful thing.This brand is legend...please don't let someone else tell you otherwise.=====================Overall: 10/5 Yes a 10 out of 5. Fluval filters are amazing.Suction power: 5/5Easy to clean: 5/5Noise level: 5/5=====================Helpful, is how I hope you find my review

I have a planted 40 Gal Long (48 x 13 x 17) and needed a replacement for an older Fluval 202 canister filter. I really didn't want a new canister filter and a biowheel wasn't going to work for me due to the plants. There are HOB filters that would have worked out but in my experience they're just as clunky and hard to clean as a full canister. So the U3 seemed like the perfect compromise; no priming, no tubing, just dip and drive!This filter appears very easy to clean and maintain. I love the central 'spray bar' between the two main outlets. The flow adjustment knob makes it easy to find the perfect balance between the three outlets, very clever and useful feature. I also appreciate that the trays are vertically aligned, no stacking or digging for trays.My only gripe with the U3 is that it is quite small for the job it claims to do. It claims to be good for up to 40 Gal but truthfully 40 Gal may be too much for this filter. I suppose if you had a stock tank with no plants and minimal population it would be fine. But most people may want to consider moving up to the U4.I myself am considering purchasing a second U3. The output is strong enough to provide all of the circulation I need meaning I can remove my power heads. They fit so nicely in the corners of the tank that I should end up with a really nice clean look. Also I think even two of these little submersible filters will still be easier to clean and maintain than one big canister filter.

The Fluval U3 Filter is a very good underwater filter. It does a good job keeping the water clean. There are adjustable flow vents so you can adjust how you want the water to flow, and you can change it anytime with a turn or a twist. It is very quiet underwater, and changing the filter and filter media is quick and easy. You can do it all underwater pretty much.The filter media can add up if you don't buy it at a good price. Amazon does have some good pricing and some items are sold in bulk which make it cheaper. The bio-media you only change half at a time so to not destroy the cycle you have in the tank. The filter sponge can be squeeze rinsed in a bucket of tank water to remove the yucky stuff at put back. The poly/carbon cartridge i the only think you need to replace completely. You can try to squeeze and rinse out the poly/carbon in a bucket of tank water to buy more time with it, but the poly and the carbon side may both be less effective over time. As mentioned, these things can be purchased in a bulk quantity on Amazon for a great price saving you a lot of money.I recommend the Fluval U3 Underwater Filter because it works great and is very quiet where you here nothing. No more crashing waterfall from your overhang filter. Amazon usually has one of the best prices on the Fluval filters. If you have Amazon Prime, the 2-day Free shipping is a huge money saving plus.

__________________________________________________________________________UPDATED 7/26/12-- see bottom part of entry-- upgrade from 3 to 5 stars__________________________________________________________________________Original review June 2012:I'm writing a long review because I found it helpful to hear others' experience specifically with turtles. They are a little different than fish when it comes to what works.I have a painted turtle, about 5-6 inches long right now. We have an algae eater too who helps keep the tank clean (we call it a sucker fish, not sure what its real name is). We also periodically add small minnows and goldfish to entertain the turtle and for food if we forget to feed her or go on vacation. Since she's primarily a water turtle, her tank consists of mostly water with a few haul out spots.We just upgraded from a 20G tank to this one. Previously we've always used the Whisper Quiet filters with great success. People would rave about how clean the turtle tank was, and we could pretty much ignore it (don't worry about changing water, etc.) In the 20G tank we had the 20-40G Whisper Quiet in about 16G of water, no plants, a few submerged items, and a floating plastic "log" for basking. For the 50G, we added a few more submerged and surface items, but all are plastic or rocks, nothing living.Upgrading to the 50G tank (with about 40-42G water) posed a problem for me. All of the larger hang on back filters required the water level to be higher than I wanted, since the turtle needs some land, and I didn't want it climbing out. I tried rigging a few up-- the larger Tetra one worked very well, but I had to rig it inside of the tank, and it just took up too much room.I decided to try the underwater Fluval for two reasons-- never need to worry about water level, and because I'm not willing to invest in a canister filter.PROS:--silence. it's golden--ease of changing filter media (it's really simple, you can lift it up so you don't contaminate everything or spit junk back out)--will never dry out or burn out if you lose power and it restarts (since submerged)--ability to place where I like in the tank for optimal filtering and flow to stir things up--ability to change parts of filter at a time to preserve beneficial bacteria--foam pad separate from other pieces so you can rinse that and not everything--no splashing, so no hard water stains on side of tankCONS:--I want to love this filter and I hope it works long term. We used it in a tank that had been recently filled and set up, with the Tetra running for about a week. Initially this worked really well, but about a week into it, the water turned nasty green. First off, TURTLES ARE DIRTY. By nature I don't think this filter accomodates that. I'm holding off judgement since it sometimes takes a while to get things right when you set up a new tank, as it happened before with other filters too at times. However, in this case, I think it's because of a lack of active carbon in the filter. There is just a tiny bit there, and in my experience (6 years with this turtle), the active carbon is ESSENTIAL to keeping them from getting stinky and gross. I decided to remove the bio pellets from the middle part (step 3) since I never had them before in my tanks anyway, and instead fill that space with one of the tetra filters filled with activated carbon. It's been about 10 hours. The nastiness is gone and the tank looks much better. There still seem to be a lot of particles in the water, but I am continuing to work on that-- not sure if I can blame it on the filter at this time. I will keep adjusting, because I think this filter is worth figuring out how to make it work for turtles.I gave it three stars because it advertises that it can be used for my purpose, but I don't think it comes through with the media it uses. I also think their media replacements are expensive relative to other filters (which is especially frustrating when they aren't even working for me). However, if the makeshift adjustment of using other carbon filters inside the third chamber is effective, I would upgrade to 4 stars. If I get to perfectly crystal clear water without the need to pay attention to the tank every week (yes, it's possible with some cheap filters), I'd go to 5 stars. I ask a lot from my filters!___________________________________________UPDATE 7/26/12This definitely deserved the upgrade to five stars. I had to leave for three weeks after adding the Tetra carbon filter to the center in place of the bio pellets, so I filled it with a bunch of minnows for her to eat over time, then came home to a tank that was still crystal clear after 24 days. (Trust me, I was almost afraid to look at the tank when I returned for fear of how gross it might be.) A few minnows were still swimming around happily too. I went ahead and swapped out the carbon filter, but it looks like I can simply wash out the outer sponge and pathetic carbon insert supplied with it periodically and replace the Tetra carbon insert in the center chamber monthly. I still don't like that I had to adjust it, but I don't think there's a great product out there for turtles, and this is working VERY well. Plus, I am now purchasing the cheaper Tetra filters, so my ongoing costs will be less.If you go this route, it does seem like a very tight fit to fold over the Tetra filter and slip it in the middle chamber, so don't be shy. Just wiggle it as you push it in and be gentle.All that remains to be seen is longevity, but for now I am one happy consumer!