SeaChem – Large Aquarium Fish Tank Filter, Tidal 75 Gallon (300 Liters) by Sicce

Love this filter. For the most part it is super quiet. As you can see in the videos. But you must have the water at a specific level with the filter. If water evaporates a little bit it will make a little bit more noise. And I’ve noticed you do have to play with the water flow a little to get that quietness. I personally don’t care what it sounds like as it’s in my living room and this filter is the best bang for its buck. I got the 75g filter for my 40 gallon as I want to stock it pretty good and need as much filter capacity. Which you can see the compartment in the filter is huge. I managed to fit my old filter media in there to start up my cycle a little faster. What’s also nice is that the motor is on the inside of the tank. So you don’t have to prime it after every water change. And if the power goes out. That’s one of the main reasons I picked this over aquaclear or the likes. And I do love that it’s a surface skimmer(when the water is at the right level) especially for the fish I plan to keep in there, they don’t like a lot of water movement. I think the quality is fantastic. Comes with media. You will want to get filter floss and just cut it to the cartridge size just to trap any particles. For reference it’s the green stuff in the picture. And you will probably want an intake sponge if you want to keep shrimp. Because this does not come with one and the holes are pretty big on it.

I had another brand HOB filter that uses filter cartridges. I tried to reuse them, but they're too fragile and would practically fall apart cleaning and the filter would stop up quickly. I then started looking and found this Seachem Tidal 75 HOB filter, there we're high praises for this being one of the best of the HOB style filters. This filter is easy to service. The filter has a filter basket. To do media changeovers, you unlock the filter basket by pulling the blue lock button towards the front and lift basket out. The lid has a detail on the bottom side to snap the bottom of the basket to the lid to keep from dribbling water on the floor as you carry it to a sink to setvice the sponge and bio-media. The sponge and Seachem Matrix comes included. I added some sintered ceramic rings into the zippered mesh bag (included) to fill the bag and have bio-media bag on top of the sponge inside the basket. Your options are endless in regards to filter media. I plan on using Purigen or something similar later to crystalize the water and make appear like there's no water. The water is pumped by a pump on the intake submersed below the waterline, so it never needs priming, power outage, no worries because it will start back up immediately when the power comes back. The Tidal 75 has 2 intakes, the intake tube on the bottom and the skimmer. Then it has a intake control valve that controls the flow between the 2. I have the most of my intake coming from the intake tube on the bottom and the least amount of flow possible on the skimmer intake. It has a flow control on the outake to control how fast water is pumping through. All the way down will slow the flow to a trickle, all the way up gives you 350 g/h. I have mine on a 40 gallon and it is working extremely well. It is very quiet. I highly recommend the Seachem Tidal HOB filter. I have absolutely no regrets, excellent filter for the price point.

Overall, it has been working well with no issues. I bought it because of the space for bio material and the ease of maintenance.

This is a great filter overall, and probably the best HOB on the market with Aquaclear being a close tie. First off, its only as good as the aquarist makes it, as its meant to be filled by your choice of media. The supplied media is bare bones, basic mechanical sponge and bag of porous material for biological bacteria. You really need to fill the basket with additional media to make the most of this product. The filter is almost completely silent at its lowest flow setting but makes a whirring noise as you increase the flow. Its not super loud, but is audible. This filter is only truly noisy when you allow the water level to drop too low or the skimmer gets clogged with debris. If noise is a concern, the Tidal 55 is considerably quieter. The Tidal 75 and 110 are noisy compared to their smaller counterparts. I use the provided material along with an extra Seachem Tidal replacement sponge (2 pack) on bottom and one floating on top to completely eliminate the "bypass" the negative reviews mention. The bypass is actually intentionally designed water flow. This seems to work really well for me. The replacement sponges are a little more dense than the coarse sponge that comes with the Tidal filter. The skimmer is great if you have a planted tank as it picks up debris and holds it in place so you can remove it easily. Plant debris that passes the skimmer is trapped under the basket until the water flow breaks it down. The flow control dial adjusts from about 20% to 100% for the skimmer. *The skimmer is not safe for fry and shrimp, and since you can't turn off the skimmer completely, this filter is not a good option for them. Lastly, the flow control knob is great. It reduces water flow to almost nothing or anywhere in between max flow easily. I have noticed that the more you fill this filter with media, the sooner it needs maintenance. You'll have to figure out what media works best for you and the best water flow setting that works for you. .

I had to return my purchase of this filter that I bought here, and ended up buying somewhere else for other reasons. I ultimately bought same Tidal 75 filter for my 55 gal hexagon acrylic aquarium. Keeping discus, I need a filter that can clean the water and keeping it clean. Due to its unique shape, the backwall of the aquarium was not wide enough to accommodate canister spray bar. Otherwise, that would've been my choice since they are much better than HOB type. Tidal has their pump in the front instead of in the back of the HOB like some others. This in turn makes it a bit quieter because the pump is fully submerged in the aquarium. For regular aquarium with open top, having the pump in the front is not a problem. It is however for acrylic aquarium where the opening for regular HOB filter is about 1" too small for Tidal because of the motor in the front. To get the Tidal to fit, I had to enlarge the opening of the aquarium. What I like about Tidal 75? I like that the intake has an extended tube as well as intake on top to pull in floating proteins and uneaten food into it. You can also adjust intake level by opening and closing it, as well as adjusting water flow rate. If I want to increase or decrease surface water movement, I can easily do that. It comes with one foam pad, bio media bag and a bag of biomedia. Inside the Tidal is a container where the foam pad and biomedia bag goes. If you don't need to clean the filter unit, just remove the container, clean the foam and the media, and put it back. Easy peasy. I definitely recommend that you also get polishing pads. I bought polishing pads separately. I however since then bought a huge roll of it as well as a huge roll of first stage filter pad and cut the shape to fit inside the Tidal. It is much more cost effective than buying the seachem polishing pads. In my Tidal, I have the blue sponge that came with it, a layer of first stage filter to trap larger debris that the sponge didn't trap, two layers of the polishing pads, and the biomedia bag. I do water change every 3 or 4 days, and I rinsed bio media bag in bucket that has some of the water from the aquarium. I rinsed the polishing pads and reuse. Once it gets too dirty, I replace it. Overall it is an excellent HOB filter. I would love to get another one for my other 40 gal hex acrylic aquarium, but I don't want to deal with cutting the top of the aquarium again.

This is easily the best HOB filter on the market. Only complaint is the skimmer. But Aquarium co-op makes a 3D printed intake that is easy to install and bypasses the skimmer. Highly recommend you look into that for it. Back to filter. I love that it self primes and how quiet and powerful it is. Also being able to customize your filter and the basket is big. Stop reading this and buy it. Also at least look into that aquarium co-op piece for it. They make it for the 35,55,75 and 110.

Update After 3 days of non stop gurgling and trouble shooting I set up a return for replacement. Well sadly the replacement came today and we are dealing with the same awful obnoxious gurgling and grinding sounds. I'm so mad because now I have to figure out how to return both of them for a refund. This has been a nightmare. I don't suggest you buy this filter. It's horrible. Also no difference in the tank. If the water level isn't really really high this thing starts making the loudest most annoying grinding and gurgling sounds. I've had it a day. I'm going to give it a 1 week trial. And if I can't figure out how to make it function without gurgling I'm packing it back up for a refund. It'd WAY overpriced and seems to be fairly low quality. But we shall see how the tank looks after a few days. I'll re do my review and eat my own words if it gets my tank looking nice. I wanted an upgrade from the included China cheap filter with my 55 gallon tank. It is an improvement don't get me wrong. The water is moving nicely...but that sound is awful. It stops making the sound if I have it kn the lowest flow. Which isn't what I wanted it for. I wanted full flow. Full flow is only silent when the water level is almost to the rim of the tank. So we shall see. Update filled up the tank to the brim. Last night it silenced the machine from making awful grinding sounds. Woke up this morning and the grinding sound is back. I'm packing it up for a return Ashame because it works well but that grinding sound won't fly with me. The water level is higher than the instructions claim it needs and this sound won't stop. Makes me think the filter will eventually break.

I have had this filter for a year (next month) so 11 months. I feel like I’m qualified to write a review on the quality of it at this point. For starters I had a Marineland penguin 200. Constant issues. The impeller kept going out making a loud LOUD grinding noise. $20 a pop for an impeller. I bought 2 within a few months, When the filter itself is only around $30. Both impellers went bad quickly. I ordered this filter and threw my other one away. It’s been 11 months and I haven’t had a single issue! It’s super easy to clean, I don’t have to pour water back into it after water changes, it’s silent, it cleans my 36g bowfront like a charm. No filter cartridges. Worth every penny!