Picked up a Marina Slim S15 Power Filter

[GMYukonon24s]

So like the title says I picked up a Marina Slim S15 Power Filter. I was at a big name LFS and saw it on the shelf at a reduced price to clear. So I bought it.

I was wondering if anyone owns or has owned one? and if so what's your thoughts/comments on it? thanks in advance for any comments

 

[Jumko]

Seems ok. Bought it at petsmart for ~$6 last week. I replaced the cartridges with Aquaclear sponges and it seems to be running well.

 

[BettaFishMommy]

while i have never used one on my own tanks, i have had the joy (insert sarcastic snort here) of helping a friend with one on their ten gallon tank. my review on these filters? they suck! lol.

because the filter is so slim, you have to watch the amount of sponge used when you replace the cartridges with sponge. too thick and the water level in the filter threatens to come over the top of the filter box. so you have to use a very thin section of sponge, which wouldn't be as good at trapping waste particles. with such a small amount of media, it clogs quickly too.

i helped (translation: cussed and complained about, lol) my friend with this filter for about a month and then finally said 'to heck with it' and swapped it out with one of my older hobs (i think i used an Elite Whisper - the grey/blue one).

i personally will never use a Marina Slim hob on any of my tanks. IMO the reason they are reduced to clear in stores is because many people have realized they are a cruddy filter, and nobody wants to buy them any more.

 

[rastoma]

I posted this in another section in a thread about a Memorial Day sale at Petsmart. The thread had hardly any views, so I was glad to see you posted this. I'm pasting my info here because I REALLY like this filter and wish I could have gotten more at less than $6 each. If anyone says it's not good, then they haven't spent enough time with it:

I was at Petsmart yesterday to get some more $1 guppies and mollies, I browsed the filter isle with no intention of buying anything else. I then saw a small filter on clearance. A Hagen Marina Slim S15, regular price $24.99, clearance $5.47. So I said to myself "self", and myself said "hmmm?". "I think I may need to get this to test out on a new 10gallon I just setup". So myself said "OK".

I didn't know anything about this filter until now. It's a really neat filter. It's slim so the tank can go closer to the wall then usual. It has 3 media compartments. So the idea is to replace 1 or 2 filters at a time so that you always have one filter with bacteria on it for biological filtration at all times.

I found out too that the cartridges are pretty expensive. So I took 3 AquaClear 20 foam sponges (on clearance for $1.99 for all 3) and narrowed them about a 1/4" or less. Than made a sandwich slice on each. When put end to end, it was exactly the same width and length of the Marina filter. I used one of the included filters as a template. And by chance the two halves of the AC20 filter was exactly the same length after joining together.

I hot glued two of them together end to end and they fit perfectly inside each media slot on the filter. It should be easy to fashion an insert for carbon if ever needed or any other media.

The coolest thing about the filter though, besides being literally silent, is because of being so slim, the pump/motor is submersed in the tank. No priming needed. It was so cool to plug up a totally dry filter and watch it fill up and start running without having to add water to the inside of the filter.

It comes with a foam cover for the intake tube so this is a PERFECT filter for a fry tank. I am going to try and raise some guppy fry and/or put in one of my self-cloning marbled cray fish after she berries up.

Overall, this is a very cool filter and after making your own media, very cheap to operate. The wife is on the way as I type to get all of them There were only 3 left I think, hopefully they are still there.

 

[H2Ogal]

I have the Slim 20 (max gph 92) and 10 (max gph 55). Since I don't have high-current tanks, their turnover is okay, and there is a dial to control flow — a feature I always like to have.

I also like the virtually silent operation of the inside-the-tank motor and love that that it's totally self-priming. If there's a power outage (pretty common in my neighborhood) or if the water level drops so far during a WC that the filter empties, I don't have to worry about refilling, etc. Although the motor does take up some room in the tank, it's not too bad visually. I just turned the motor so I don't have to see the bright white HAGEN MARINA or whatever it says ... I forget because I don't see it, see?

A prefilter sponge is provided, but it's a pretty loose, um ... weave? I'd replace it with a denser sponge if I had fry or baby snails/shrimp in the tank.

I don't care for proprietary cartridge media so I cut Fluval/AC sponge media to fit, but it's a pain to get it the right size. And there's just not much room for media of any kind.

The flat, wide design of the unit places the intake tube and the flow outlet farther apart with larger units. I'd wanted to use my Slim 20 on my 10g, but it wouldn't fit inside the very generously sized cutout on my tank hood. I just measured the HOB, and it needs over 9.5 inches of "overhang" space on the back wall of the tank! (The entire unit is even wider.) That's kind of the opposite of the problem I had with the Penguin biowheel, which was too deep to allow my glass cover/strip light to sit properly. Do HOB manufacturers really not understand that there's only so much room to work with? Or do they think that all hobbyists have open tanks, suspended lights and a love for giant HOBs? Darn, I wish there were more nano canisters on the market. [/mini-rant]

Bottom line, I probably wouldn't buy them again. These filters are just not designed to handle much of a bioload. But they do have some cool features, for the right set-up. While I'm using the 10 on my 10g for my betta, if I was moving him out and moving in a number of fish, I'd have to consider upgrading to an AC.

 

[rastoma]

A prefilter sponge is provided, but it's a pretty loose, um ... weave? I'd replace it with a denser sponge if I had fry or baby snails/shrimp in the tank.

The included sponge is fine for fry. 2 days after installing my S15 and bringing home some female guppies from Petsmart, I found 50+ guppy fry. I had the dial set to half way so the current wasn't at full force. Fry was swimming against the sponge on the intake and had no trouble at all. If a filter is strong enough to draw and suck fry to it and IN it, putting a denser sponge isn't going to keep the fry safe. It's just going to suck the fry to the sponge so they can't swim away and will eventually die.

I don't care for proprietary cartridge media so I cut Fluval/AC sponge media to fit, but it's a pain to get it the right size. And there's just not much room for media of any kind.

I agree about the proprietary cartridge, by if you read my solution using the AquaClear 20 sponges, very little modification is needed. They are almost the perfect width to begin with and slicing them in half width wise, they are the perfect width. I'll take pics of mine if anyone needs a better explanation.

These filters are just not designed to handle much of a bioload.

I disagree. I'm not saying these are as good as a AC of the same size tank rating, but for a 10-15 gallon tank they are excellent. And with the 3 media sections for DIY foam inserts, they have 3 times the amount of surface area for biological and physical filtration. As mentioned in my post above about using the AC 20 foam inserts, I used THREE of the AC20 foam sponges in this one S15 filter.

No priming. More surface area for filtration, adjustable flow.... they are awesome filters for their size. Past 15 gallon though I agree, something else would be desired.

 

[H2Ogal]

Rastoma, I had baby snails get through the original sponge when I was using the filter on a 6.6g with ramhorns, which is why I'd mentioned replacing it. As for the ease of replacing media, etc. and the overall usefulness of these filters, we have somewhat divergent views. But that's exactly what the OP was seeking: personal experiences and opinions.

 

[Rbishop]

it is slim..

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[FISHSHROD]

I'm with Bob on this one !

 

[rastoma]

Rastoma, I had baby snails get through the original sponge when I was using the filter on a 6.6g with ramhorns, which is why I'd mentioned replacing it. As for the ease of replacing media, etc. and the overall usefulness of these filters, we have somewhat divergent views. But that's exactly what the OP was seeking: personal experiences and opinions.

I can see the issue with snails, I was just referring to fry basically. But yes baby snails could definitely crawl though the included sponge. Good point.