Cascade 150

The Penn-Plax Cascade 150 power filter pump is still working great! It’s reliable and keeps the water clean. Very happy with its performance!

I bought this filter as an upgrade for a 30 gallon tank I keep which also has a sponge filter for it, so I keep it stocked higher with my fish and snails! I knew my snails would breed more soon so I thought I'd upgrade my 5-7 gallon HOB secondary filter to something much better and got this one. Good lord, the Cascade filter is great. I have other tanks with a so-called "whisper" filter on it which came with it and are advertised on their quietness and efficiency... but this Cascade filter right away was the quietest filter I ever heard! Literally the next week I waited and I still could only hear the bubbling of the main sponge filter over the gentle trickle of the Cascade. It is an amazing singular filter, and works excellently also as a secondary if you can position it or adjust the outlet to where you need for your tank. Could be excellent to add if you learn you need a current for your new fish.

This is a good filter for the price. It could use a bit more flow power, but it does have a flow control know which is nice. Made my tank crystal clear. At one point the motor went out (my fault) because it ran dry for a couple minutes while I was changing water and stopped working. I contacted Penn Plax and they sent me a brand new one free, but only cost of shipping. I appreciated that service.

The story of my review may be like a few others . I ordered the first Penn Plax Cascade Aquarium and it arrived on time and by appearance not damaged. Putting it together was easy. I put it in my 20gal fish tank. I plugged it in and the motor and impeller started up and it started to work just fine. I then checked on it about an hour later and the motor was humming and the impeller had stopped. I took it out and checked the directions and all was correct. I put in back into the tank and it ran for about a minute and then the impeller stopped working. I tried to hand turn the impeller by hand but it would not work. While the unit worked initially it seemed to be doing a good job and the motor was very quiet. So I put in a return request. I received a response within a few hours. I returned the unit and within 3 days my replacement came. I put it together and plugged it in and tested it in my sink. It worked just fine. I then put it into the tank. Again it worked fine. I checked on it in an hour and it was working perfectly. I have now had it 2 weeks and I love it. No problems, motor quit and it does a good job to keep the water clean. I like the option of being able to adjust the water flow. I would highly recommend this product. My only advice is that after you put it together test it first before putting it into your fish tank. I was impressed with Amazon's return policy. I have been buying from Amazon for more then 6 years and purchased almost 80 items, this was only the 2nd time I had to return an item. I gave it 5 stars because not matter what the item is or where you purchased it you will get lemon from time to time. In the end the new returned item worked great.

This filter worked well for 2 years. It had to be cleaned more often than my bigger cascade 300's but was a simple process. Simply remove the uptake tube, clean both the impeller and the tube. Put it back in place, make sure it was seated well and it worked well again. I had to do this every couple of weeks to keep it working as well as it should.I ran this filter on a 5.5 gallon tank. I would never recommend it for a tank any bigger than a tank this size. It just wouldn't work efficiently on a tank any bigger even though it is recommended for a tank up to 35 gallons.My oldest Cascade 300 has been in service for about 20 years and is still working perfectly. Needless to say, I was disappointed when this one quit working after just 2 years.I can't in good conscious recommend any of the smaller Cascades. So far I am satisfied with the 300's. I am running 3 of them right now. As I said, the oldest one is at least 20 years old. The other 2 have been in service several years. Should they start causing problems soon they will be replaced with a different brand.Unfortunately things are just not made as well as they once were so I don't expect the newer ones to hold up as well as my original one. I do expect to get longer than 2 years service from products I purchase though.I have contacted customer service and am waiting on a reply from them. Should I not hear from them in a reasonable amount of time I will be inclined to no longer recommend even the 300's to folks and will certainly not be buying anymore in the future.