Pimp My Filter #61 - Eheim Pro 5e 600T Canister Filter

Biohome filter media: http://www.filterpro.co.uk
What on Earth has happened to Eheim?
The Pro 5 series of canister filters was Eheim's chance to restore their reputation after Oase (another German company) pounded the Eheim Pro 4 filters into obscurity with their fantastic Biomaster range of filters with an easy clean pre-filter system, great build quality and a respectable media capacity.
Even the '07 series of filters from Fluval (Eheim's historical main competitor) had sensible upgrades to the '06 series....and they come with foams and media (in the correct place).
How did Eheim respond? By making a quality filter with a great capacity for media? NO...
They responded by producing an crazily over-priced, poorly constructed filter which comes with no filter media and a host of useless features which do not help with the filtration at all.
This is truly a filter designed by a committee and not by fish keepers or anyone working toward delivering a quality product.
What makes it worse is that Eheim DO make great quality filter media and have proved in the past that they can make great filters - their Substrat Pro filter media is tried and tested and is genuinely a good media.....but this £500 filter comes with none of it.
I'm throwing a prediction out now that this is the last canister filter Eheim will make (unless the company is taken over) as the Oase Biomaster filters or the '07 series from Fluval are 100% the filters of choice for anyone wanting top quality without having to remortgage their house to buy one.
I can only assume that when Oase got into the Aquarium market after decades of manufacturing pond equipment that some of the Eheim designers and main thinkers jumped ship to Oase to work on the Oase filters?
Choosing between the Eheim Pro 5e 600T and the Oase Biomaster 850 is not even a choice and that could be why there are so few reviews for the Eheim filter online - they've done themselves in with the Pro 4 series and the Pro 5 is the last nail in the coffin....and it brings me no pleasure to have to state that fact as I have always championed Eheim as being a solid company producing great filters up to and including the Pro 3 filter range.
Another prediction - Oase buys out Eheim in the near future.....?
TIME STAMPS:
00:00 Intro
00:33 Filtering facts and figures from Eheim
03:09 Technology facts and figures from Eheim
06:33 Looking at the filter construction and function
11:01 Where's the media??
11:55 Rant mode ON
15:15 Suggested set up
16:59 Recommended tank sizes for filter
18:54 How much more media could fit in the filter?
21:26 Who designed this? List of problems
23:45 Apology to the Eheim fanboys
24:40 A filter designed by a committee?
25:57 It would have cost pennies....