OASE Indoor Aquatics Filtosmart Thermo 100, Black

This is an interesting little canister style filter. It's easy to put together, it has an integrated heater and I swapped out the smaller, triagular sponge for two bags of Boyd Enterprises's original Chemipure (Boyd Enterprises ABE16705 Chemipure Filter Media for Aquarium, 10-Ounce). It has served my zebra plecos and cupid cichlids well and it is much quieter than the prior hang on box filter. Don't get me wrong, box filters can be awesome...I still use several, but this is so much quieter and if you use a pre-filter to prevent most of bigger "gunk", then I have found a filter change every 60 days is more than sufficient. A great little filter than has helped cut down on the gurgling "symphony" from my fish room.

Buyer Beware! Ran for a month or so with no issues then randomly started leaking at the seal. Never opened the canister or anything. Ruined my cabinet. Customer service is sending a replacement, but my tank will be down for 5 days or more and I’m concerned about my livestock. I never had this issue with Eheim.

Seems like this filter has gotten some bad rep in the past, so I’d like to say that I’ve had it running now for 6 weeks and am honestly stoked that the heater is inside the filter housing instead of my tank. There’s a few features I wish that it had but obviously those features such as, independent flow control, a top side handle, the ability to remove the inlet outlet ports with the hosing so I can leave my hoses connected without leaving the pump it self just hang.All of these mentioned features are available on the more advanced and larger capacity models so I’m not really complaining because ultimately I actually like the overall quality of the filter, my tank cycled quickly flow seems great throughout the whole tank, was able to connect a larger set of stainless steel Lilly pipes with out really having to do anything extra, and again favorite part is the heaters out of my tank and in the filter! In the future I’ll probably upgrade to a larger model but for a 20 gallon rimless this works great!

The best aspects of this filter are its noise level - pretty darn quiet, and its relatively small form factor. The best thing about it is the heater in the filter canister removing the sight-polluting heating element from the aquarium - a HUGE plus in my book. Filter is not silent. My house is very quiet, but I can hear it now as I type this review out. It is a very, very low, slight mechanical drone - not at all offensive. The not-so-great: Priming this filter is inconvenient - have to take the heater off, pour water into the little hole until it's somewhere *near* the top, but you can't fill it too much, because then when you put the heater back in, water will spill everywhere. The spraybar and intake are not pretty to look at, which brings the overall package down a notch in my view. Why build a filter to get an ugly piece of equipment out of the tank, then include a butt-ugly intake and spray bar? Something more elegant would be much more ideal. Not sure how I like the bio-media tray surrounding the heater. The space there is limited, and if you have previously colonized, larger bio media, not much of it will fit in the space there. You really have to use Oase's small bio media due to the limited size of that chamber if you want to use the middle chamber for other media types (like floss, Chemipure packets, etc). These niggles aside, this product is very well made and inspires confidence in this brand. So much so, in fact, that I just bought their little nano surface skimmer.

im very displeased that I paid so much money for the product to arrive in bad condition it was absolutely covered in ceramic powder because the bag split open. creating blockages in the fittings and roughing up the dial on the heater. I assemled and connected everything just for it to NOT WORK resulting in me having to disassemble it which poured gallons of water on my floor. I had to pull out and clean the impeller and fiddle with it to get it to work. So now I get everything properly connected and running and its taken the heater a week to heat the water to 77 degrees. thst just doesnt seem right to me. the provided ceramic rings are a pathetic excuse for a ring. think ceramic dribking straw cut up like green onions. I threw that trash away and replaced them with my old ceramic bio media. overall its a good canister I just wish it had been packed neater

I primarily bought this filter for the size and for the built-in heater. I had a specific space I could fit my filter into, and this was the right size for my 22g long. It keeps the water clear and is very very quiet. Setup was simple, and I think the priming method is very easy. I actually like it better than my "self-priming" filter on another tank. The heater... works? As in, it generates some heat and actually does an okay job during the day. But I think I'm asking too much of a 100w heater. I have no lid, and my house is usually 66-69F at night, so the heater can't keep up. During the day, if my house is 72, it can raise it to 78 or so if it's turned all the way up. But it just gets too low, and I don't like having the thing cranked to 90. So I did end up having to purchase a second heater to go in the tank to actually keep it the 79° I wanted. But I do like having the backup in the filter in case something happens to the primary in-tank heater. So it's a good peace of mind. I also don't like the method of attachment with the suction cups. I would have preferred clamps. Overall, the water is clear and it's very quiet, but the heater isn't amazing because I suspect flow around it isn't perfect. The flow is good given the size.

Multiple parts missing even though the parts bag was sealed so i opened it to look but they were not there. I did let it run for a few hours since the missing parts didn't affect a test and the main "O" Ring was leaking. I tried this a few times with the same result. I have 50 years experience dealing with "O" Rings in underwater cameras so I know a thing or two about them. Every thing in the box had fine grit all over so I cleaned it including the "O" Ring which when wiped had a black residue coming off it like it was a very old "O" Ring and deteriorating. The heater needed to be set at least 4 degrees higher for it to even turn on, I used a kill a watt meter to see when it came on. Too bad because it fits nicely behind my tank. It's going back. I took off an extra star for wasting my time.

The Oase Thermo 100 has been a fantastic upgrade for my nano tank. Even though it’s rated for up to 30 gallons, I’m using it on a UNS 5N (4 gallons) with no issues. It delivers strong, effective filtration maybe a bit too strong at first but I paired it with a glass lily pipe spin outflow to soften the current. Now, I get gentle flow perfect for my plants and fish, without sacrificing water clarity or circulation. One of my favorite features is that it houses the heater inside the filter. This keeps everything neat and hidden, with less clutter inside the tank, which I really appreciate for maintaining a clean, minimalist look. The unit is also very quiet you can hear it sometimes not that it bothers me but some people might get annoyed to hear it, it’s not totally silence and I found it to be very compact, I thought it was going o be bigger but I’m glad it’s quite small. The filter media is easy to access and swap, and the overall build quality feels solid. If you’re running a planted nano tank and want powerful filtration, I think this is 100% worth it.

I knew OASE was a good company for filters but i did not know they were this good! They give you everything you need in the box including hoses that are plenty long. I love the fact that this filter also has a heater built right into it! (you can save so much space in your tank). It is also VERY QUITE! I use to have a hang on the back filter and i thought that thing was quite, BUT MAN, this one is ultra quite. Priming it took a bit longer than i thought but that was only the first time and it was fine ever since. They also give you ample media and HIGH QUAILTY sponges. Last thing about this filter is that you can tell that the company uses high precision machines and materials to make their products. Stuff that normally breaks on other filters simply wouldn't on this. Great filter!

Power not compatible with GCC

La instalación no fue tan complicada como esperaba, la opción de tener el calentador dentro del filtro es fantástica. Es demasiado silencioso y no sólo en las noches en pleno silencio se alcanza a percibir. Fue algo tardado echarlo a andar, pero después de ello todo funciona a la perfección. No dudes en adquirirlo, vale la pena cada peso.

Lo compacto qué es en relación a la cantidad de agua qué puede filtrar y que llego en excelentes condiciones

Built in heater was my key feature for me. Less equipment in my ADA style rimless tank. Filter is so quiet I have to check it to make sure its running. These are much better than fluval etc and so well though out, even has built in invisible shutoffs for filter cleaning. Ingenious. no mess filter cleaning.