Product: Fluval Canister Filter MSF x04 series
Manufacturer: Hagen
Price: $63-(104) $76-(204) $102-(304) $140-(404)
Pros: Inexpensive canister filter that does exactly what a canister filter should, great at cleaning the water!
Cons: A substandard part used in the propeller assembly make this filter a bit too fragile. Truly a bear to clean when it comes to maintenance.


Canister filters are a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, due to their high cost, they seem limited to the "expert" portion of the aquarium hobby. This is a shame, as the "beginners" of the hobby could quickly become "experts" by just using them. Canister filters are much larger than typical power filters and usually offer many different types of filtration such as charcoal, floss, peat, zeolite, and many different types of bio-media. The advantage of a canister filter, is that you can often filter using 3 or more types of filtration at the same time. The units are also large, allowing for large amounts of water to be filtered at one time.

It's been said that you could leave a canister filter on a 10 gallon aquarium and only have to clean it once a year. While that may be true of the aquarium, if you are using the Fluval MSF x04 series, you will probably have to clean out the filter every other week, and frankly it's much easier to just clean the tank.

Maintenance (2)

The Fluval MSF x04 series is a nightmare to maintain. The impeller clogs easily. For the purpose of this review, I ran the filter on a 55-gallon aquarium that had two other power filters already connected to it. Without fail, the Fluval had to be cleaned out every 2 weeks, when the water change was made, while the power filters needed only to be plugged back in. Cleaning out the filter is a very involved process. It requires that you disconnect the filter from the tank, break it down to each compartment and clean out everything. The process takes about 25 minutes.

Noise (7)

The Fluval MSF x04 series are a quiet filter. With a canister filter you are required to place the filter below the tank instead of behind it as you do with power filters. This in itself will reduce the noise factor greatly, so it can be somewhat deceiving of how quiet the filter really is. However, suffice to say that the filter won't keep you up nights worrying.

Durability (3)

There are few things that are more frustrating than getting an expensive piece of equipment that has a cheap plastic part that break easily, and causes the entire filter to stop functioning. The fact is that this filter is less expensive because it is made of lower quality parts than some of the other canister filters you could purchase. The plastic impeller of this filter is of extreme concern. It fits onto a thin metal rod and both seem very fragile. Due to the fact that you have to clean out the impeller so often, it seems not unlikely that one or both pieces will break over time. In fact, on the filter I tested, the impeller did break after several months of running. After breaking, the filter is unusable until a replacement is purchased. In the meantime, you had better have a backup, or you will lose all your fish. On the other hand, after speaking with 3 customer service representatives I found one that did care about the broken filter and it's impact on my aquaria. She sent out a replacement part, which I received one week later. If I had not already been running two power filters on the tank, I'm afraid that the tank would have become devoid of inhabitants.

Quality (10)

Canister filters are supposed to clean the tank much more thoroughly than a normal power filter would do. In this category, the Fluval MSF x04 performed admirably. I connected it to a tank that was consistently dirty with very yellow-brown water. 12 hours later, the tank was sparkling. It stayed sparkling clear for 3 weeks, at which point the filter needed replacement floss and charcoal. If you are looking for a filter that will clean your tanks extremely well, you'll certainly want a canister filter. The Fluval MSF x04 series delivers well on it's promise as a canister filter, and is recommendable based solely on it's ability to keep water clean.

Overall (6)

While the Fluval MSF x04 series does meet the basic requirements of a canister filter in cleaning with up most zeal, it falls short of being a suggested product based on the fact that it is a monster pain to clean and it is not built with parts that will keep it running for a lifetime. Still, if you need your tank extremely clean, and you can't afford a better quality canister filter, it is likely to serve you well for about one year.

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