The Hydor Professional 250 External - Review

I like to think of aquarium filters as the heart of any setup. If your filter is healthy, your water, fish and plants will thank you. Picking the right filter is important too and with so many different options out there, your spoilt for choice. I always prefer an external whenever possible and I recently got my hands on the Hydor Professional External 250 filter for my 50g corner tank. This was my first filter from Hydor. I have used their wave makers when I kept marine and always found them to be great quality so I was looking forward to getting it set up.

The 250 model is advised to be used on aquariums between 40-75 gal so its ideal for my tank and what I'm looking to use it for (freshwater tropical). The description states that at full power this filter can deliver up to 750l/h circulation too which is ideal. Im not looking for super high flow due to having lots of live plants.

On opening the box I found it well packaged and nice and easy to unpack with not too much waste packaging to dispose of. Inside the box was everything required to run the filter straight away.

• Instruction Manual
• Canister Filter
• Suction Cups
• Media Trays
• Quartz hoops
• Black Foam Pad
• Filter Floss
• Spray Bar
• Intake/Outflow hose
• Valves

With the many different ways of stacking filter media, its important to know the flow direction of your filter and while I was not aware of the actual flow direction myself, I was pleased to see the filter media pre installed into the correct tray. All that was required of me was to remove the quartz noodles from the plastic bag, rinse and return them to the tray. The instructions state you can add additional bags of activated carbon to polish the water. I feel that this could have been included.

Once I assembled everything together, I measured the tubing distance and trimmed to size. I have to say, I really like how the tubing connects to the intake and outflow pipes. This was very easy to install and sits perfectly in the corner of my tank. There was no messing about with clumsy tubing, just simply screw it in one end, and at the other end click the piping into place. The extendable spray bar give the option to run quite some distance. The telescopic intake piping is also very handy for the deeper tanks. My tank sits 60cm deep and i was able to get the intake right down to almost the substrate.

Suction cups hold the piping very securely 

Once everything was inplace, I used the large primer button on the top of the canister to fill the filter and it did take a few minutes to fill up. Once full (no bubbles) I switched it on and away it went. Instantly the flow was great. Once the filter settled down, I was impressed at the low noise level. Even with the cabinet door open, there was very little running noise to be heard.

I have been using this Filter now for almost 3 weeks and so far the water is crystal clear and the filter is still making very little noise. I love it. 

Things I like

• simple to build
• low noise
• good flow
• design

Things I don't like

• no activated carbon included

Overall, a great filter and can be bought from amazon for under £75.

I hope you found this review helpful and if you have any feedback, please comment below.

Bye for now