MarineLand Magnum Polishing Internal Canister Filter, For aquariums Up To 97 Gallons, 10.5 IN (ML90770)

Powerful little filter. Bought this for a 55 gallon tank cleared up in hours. Read a lot of complaints about noise but if you fully submerged the filter as directed it's whisper quiet. If you leave the top sticking out of the water it makes a rattling clicking noise. I'd be careful on smaller tanks it moves a lot of water.

I typically use sponge filters in my tanks. However, during gravel cleaning and water changes lot of contaminants get stirred up into the water column that I don't want floating around... I want them removed. I do not rely on this canister filter for anything else other than assisting the sponge filters with supplemental debris collection during those times.The filter arrived packaged well and the overall quality of the unit is great. I love that the unit is 100% serviceable and parts are readily available in the event I need to repair it... which I haven't had to do. The debris removal rate is seriously impressive, and I really appreciate how quiet it is. In reality the only noise it makes is the water disruption on the surface, not the filter motor itself. If you refrain from pointing the filter outlet towards the surface of the water this unit is essentially silent. Lastly, you can put whatever media in the canister that you want. This is super helpful when you need to switch filtration types for different things happening with your aquarium.I cannot think of any real down sides to this filter other than the size of tank you would want to use it in. My application is polishing a 30gal tank about once a week. I think the filter would do really well as a main filter for a 40-50gal+ sized aquarium, but I cannot speak to the longevity of the unit because I just don't use it that way. The output is also very powerful... it cycles a lot of water very quickly and could generate too much current for certain tanks or fish. Implementing an adjustable flow rate would be the only upgrade I could think of to improve this system.Overall, I am extremely happy with my purchase and would highly recommend this to anyone needing this type of capability.

TL;DR: Major design flaw. Impeller is not designed to properly sit in the motor unit and just grinds unbearably. Taking apart and cleaning (a nuisance at best) will temporarily resolve. Seems impossible to order replacement impellers so if you need to fix it you're SOL unless you want to drop money on a new one, which will inevitably have this issue again.I've been a fish hobbyist for over a decade, and in that time I've concurrently kept dozens of tanks with different species, sizes, water types (fresh, salt, brackish). I've even worked in the trade before. When I moved into my house a year ago I decided to get a large show tank for the living room, and decided to go with an internal filter because on average they're easier to maintain than external canisters and less ugly than overhanging ones. I've used many different brands for my other tanks, mainly Fluval and Aqueon, but I went with a Marineland for this one because they used to be really good.This thing will be whisper-quiet right until you're passed the return window (convenient!), and will do a good job keeping your tank clear. Within a month or two, the filter started making a grinding noise, and per manufacturer's instructions cleaning out the impeller blade helped for a short while. It wasn't long until no amount of cleaning, weekly or daily, could fix the horrible grinding noise that this thing would make. Seriously, I'm great at tuning out sound but this was god-awful. I felt embarassed to have guests over it was so bad.I concluded after taking apart every inch of the motor that the impeller blade that I received was just faulty, but as of writing this review YOU CANNOT GET REPLACEMENTS, as looking at their website it appears they've been out of stock since pre-pandemic. They're still selling the model, but you cannot buy the impeller separately, which means the only option is to buy a new unit, which is ridiculous company practice. But don't worry! Customer service responses on their Q&A indicate that the part will be coming back "soon." This is, of course, the same response that you'll see if you keep scrolling to customer questions from 2+ years ago. They're not intermittently out of stock, because you can see multiple people have been patiently awaiting replacements for all that time.I bit the bullet because I assumed I just got a bad one, and I didn't want to completely change my set-up. But less than two months in to this new one, it's already making the grinding noise. I'm writing this review with the unit completely stripped and disassembled in the other room, and after doing extensive research it seems like this is a common problem for this model. Their company page for the impeller is littered with people complaining about this issue and canned service responses indicating "it just needs a good clean." I've taken apart MANY motors, and the issue is not that it needs a good clean. It's not even that it needs some oil (tried), some o-rings to soften the impeller rod ends (tried), or a good flush (tried). You'd have to re-cast the piece entirely and tweak the housing to get it to work as intended. My partner, handy with bigger motors and mechanical parts, took one look at it spinning and concluded the same before I even managed to get it off the motor housing.I know this is long-winded, but honestly I'm just frustrated that it seems like they're willfully ignoring a severe design flaw, and seem to be fine selling more units of this without offering the replacement parts they must know will be needed at some point. Shame, but I don't think I'm going to buy Marineland ever again. Marineland used to be my number one recommendation to new hobbyists but even though set up is simple, maintenance of this model is NOT beginner- or consumer-friendly. Blegh.If you get this model, just use it for infrequent water-polishing (note, it doesn't come with DE or a polishing medium, so you still would have to get that separately, and ensure that it's the right size for the housing unless you want dirt soup in your tank). Don't purchase it as a filter.