Product: Whisper Power Filters
Manufacturer: Tetra
Price: $12-(5-15 gal) $65-(50-100 gal)
Pros: These filters are among the cheapest on the market, and the filter media (ie pads) for them are certainly the lest expensive among all power filters.
Cons: Impellor mechanism has a terrible habit of freezing up, filter media is not very effective, no secondary Bio-filter


Tetra is one of the pioneers in aquarium supplies. They have been part of the marketplace for a very long time and produce a wide range of products. This month, we review their filter series, the Whisper Power Filters. This line of power filters has been closely copied and is also sold as Top Fin power filters from such places as PetSmart. While they typically get the job done, they are not one of the better choices for filters.

Maintenance (5)

The typical maintenance of this filter, that is removing and replacing the filter pads is about on par with most other power filters. However, the bags used, must be manually filled. This is in stark contrast to most filter pads which come ready to rinse and plug directly into the filter.  The good news is that it allows you to use whatever type of media you want in the filtration bags.

The bigger problem of maintenance comes with cleaning aquariums and daily usage of the filter. The impellor often will freeze up. In all models I've run of this filter, within 1 year, the filter impellor will seize at every water changing, requiring that the filter be cleaned, or at least the intake, and impellor be cleaned for the unit to begin functioning again. The impellor will also seize periodically while the filter is running, making a daily checking of the filter a good suggestion to ensure that it doesn't overheat and ruin the impellor or motor assembly. While this type of problem is common to all power filters to some degree, it seems to plague the whisper series more than any other series of filter I have ever used.

When it is not seizing, Whisper filters require very little priming in order to start it up. It may be at the head of its class in this aspect.

Noise (8)

The filters are typically not noisy. However, when the impellor starts seizing, it will cause large amounts of noise as it is not running smoothly. A quick, though pricey resolution is to replace the impellor. Since I  rate the filter base on its long-term ability, it was dinged in this category. When the impellor is working properly, it is a very quiet filter and you will not even notice it running in your room.

Durability (4)

As mentioned before, these filters do not do well over the long-term. The impellors will often seize and require a series cleaning of the entire unit, and/or replacing. This is the only series of filter I've ever tested where I had an impellor come apart, and it has happened on 3 different occasions. The plastic detached from the magnet, forcing a replacement of the piece. In my experience, compared to other power filters on the market, both the impellor and motor, need to be replaced more often on Whisper filters. This filter is not recommended to someone who wants to use the filter for many years, or who does not clean their filter on at least a monthly schedule.

Quality (6)

This filter does what any mechanical filter is supposed to do. It does not do well with biological filtration. Tetra has tried to compete with the Bio-Wheel series of filter by retro-fitting these filters with a wet/dry apparatus and renaming the filter the "Triad." (adding biological to the chemical and mechanical filtration already in place) However, this retro-fitting is quickly being abandoned by Tetra, and appears to have been not as useful as they hoped. The filter pads on the filter do not distribute Carbon at all and are the worst available for chemical filtration due to this point.  However, the low price of the pads, leads to making them economical to replace, where you might not replace the pad of a more expensive filter.  If economics is your chief concern, Tetra Whisper Filters are a good choice.

Overall (6)

This filter is passable as a filter, but the low quality of the filtration and the lack of biological filtration make it a filter I would tend to pass over. There are many other filters out there that won't cost much more than the price of this one and will give you a much better output for your money.

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