5 Gallon Aquarium Filter with Surface Skimmer, Small Quiet Fish Tank Filter, Biochemical Cotton Filtration & Adjustable Water Flow, Waterfall Design for Increasing Oxygen, Hang on Back Filter

I’m using this for my small 20 cube tank. In the tank, I have live plants, soil, and dragon rocks. Planning to get a betta fish soon. It’s made of plastic. I used my own filter media and cut the sponge to fit in (3rd picture). When I saw many negative reviews, I noticed they didn’t follow the directions such as minimum water level, etc. You also need to fill the filter with water before plugging in. It’s working perfectly as expected. The filter doesn’t make a sound after properly starting. It’s cheap too! If it’s broken, I will buy the same product. In the picture, I intensionally blocked the outlet with my plant hanger to slow down the water flow, but you can also adjust it without doing so. I didn’t use the skimmer because my new betta doesn’t seem like it. Without the skimmer and blocked water flow, he swims peacefully and doesn’t swish due to water flow Update after 1 week of use: Still five stars. I didn’t use the skimmer at the first time, but noticed there is some oily surface. Added skimmer, and it works fine. Attached the video for sucking up the floating plants. It removed the oils on the surface and my betta swims ok.

This is the littlest filter that could! It has been filtering the water in a heavily planted 7 gallon tank for a year now and shows no signs of slowing down! The population is limited to a Beta female and some unfortunate snails but plant detritus is picked up and I am not even using the extension tube that came with it. I use pieces of water polishing material and they absolutely let me know that the filter is working because they pick up all that yucky stuff. I clean using some straw brushes. Note that the knob you turn to increase or decrease the flow does come out for cleaning so the tubing is not as hard to clean as one might think at first. The biggest “con” is that the motor cannot be pulled out for cleaning but since the impeller can, this is not a real impediment to longevity, the straw brushes fit right around the stick that remains when you pull the impeller out and presto! It is a bit finicky when it comes to water level but it is a small filter and I think that is to be expected. There is no media except their media for this filter and that is not an issue for me because of the heavily planted environment but someone else might not be willing to put up with the smell for a few days during the early days and might want to use charcoal and this may become an issue.

Don't waste your money. I set this up on a 5 gal aquarium and it did not work. Parts are very cheap, and they won't stay together. The part that attaches to the actual "pump" will not stay on and the few minutes it does, the extension part on the tube won't stay on. The whole item is useless. Returned. If I could go with zero stars I would.

The downstem is several pieces so you can adjust it to what you need and water height, I DIY'd the media to include bio balls and a sponge and trade off rinsing them out. This fits on the back of my 2.5 gal mini bow aquarium by placing an unwrapped coin towel between the filter and outside of the tank to wedge it in the right place. Looks really nice and works well. If it makes noise I just open the back and turkey baster some tank water into the first chamber and it quiets right down. Prefilter sponge keeps shrimps out of the filter, easily rinsed to reuse.

I ordered this as a replacement for the pump that came with the aquarium. This pump is slightly different. The tube is not as long (missing the small extender section) and it didn't come with the sponge screen filter for the end of the tube. The biggest disappointment is that it isn't as quiet as my old pump was. That one was practically silent. This one is quiet, but definitely has a low hum vibration, similar to what started happening with my old pump at the start of its downfall. The old pump did great for 10 months, then started getting noisy. We'll see how long this one lasts. Quality is questionable.

Works great, looks good, quiet

The pump did not work, and it was noisy. The quality of the pump was actually very nice. I’ve gone through my fair share of pumps and this little one is made fairly well, but it didn’t work and was very noisy. I returned it. Not sure if I got a lemon and they all are noisy, or if the excessive noise was from a faulty pump (and a properly working one would be quiet).

I find this filter a great option for my 5 and ten gallon tanks. It's simple to set up and easy to maintain. Others have complained that it is noisy which I believe is from not using the little round disk on the outside of the tank to make the filter level if not actually tilting forward just a bit. We have these on four tanks and it's a great option for an inexpensive filter that works as well as the more popular expensive name brands. It's made of clear plastic which makes it so easy to see the condition of the filter medium. I usually have to prime them upon start up and after cleaning but that's easy enough to do. My betta tanks are perfect for these filters because I can slow the water down enough for the fishes not to be bothered by the flow, All in all I have to say that this is probably the best think I have ever bought on amazon over the last 25 years!

Dont buy this garbage filter, within 15 minutes of running, the motor was so hot that I couldn’t even touch it, as you can see in the picture, the motor was almost gonna blew up, thank god i checked it, wish i could give it 0 star

Do not buy this waste of money

Great little filter. On a 10g its got enough power. My surface skimmer was broken but still functional. The plastic is very brittle. Not a filter that can be taken apart and cleaned often. 5 stars had it not been broken and very brittle plastic.

Solid quiet HOB for a Pico saltwater tank. Using it on a 3 gallon cube and it has been doing a great job of surface skimming and keeping the water clear. i replaced the stock sponge with filter floss and its much easier to see when its dirty. The only downside to it being clear is algae growth from my light. i recommend placing a thin pad between it and the glass near its bottom foot. this cut down on its noise dramatically.

Nice little filter. The skimmer minimum elevation setting is too high, it forces you to have the tank water level to almost overflow. The next lower setting is too low, leaving a big empty gap at the top.