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I have posted before about my just in case philosophy versus just in time. I am a firm believer in having a spare of almost everything, even tanks. In this hobby, other than leaks and dead fish, there is little worse than some aquarium component failing and having no replacement on-hand.
If you use canister filters, you know that there are myriad ways to set them up with respect to mechanical, biological, and even chemical filtration. The range of options obviously depends on the size of the canister and the availability of media where you reside. Nonetheless, larger canisters (i.e., for tanks 40+ gallons) offer sufficient space for real customization.
Sicce Whale 500 Special Edition White. Photo by the author.
I did a review of this canister back in 2016. At that time, the review was linked off of another site. Just recently, I discovered that the link to the review had been taken down. I have therefore re-posted the review here. However, be aware that Sicce has made some improvements and changes to this canister since I did that review.
If you recall my post a few days ago on the excitement of cichlid spawning behavior, it included the above photo of my recently set up 33g long tank. In that tank are six ‘Lamprologus’ ocellatus and three Julidochromis dickfeldi.
As I was planning out the set-up of the new 55g tank, one of the first items I thought about was filtration. While there are numerous ways to effectively filter a 55g, I knew I was going to use a canister or two. I have used sumps, HOBs, internal and external canisters, but for this tank I wanted to use a large external canister.
Quite serendipitously, I was offered a Sicce Whale 500 canister filter by the Aquarium in exchange for a review of it. Manufactured in Italy, the Sicce Whale line of canister filters comes in four models – 120, 200, 350, and 500. The 500 has a maximum flow rating of 390 gph and a recommended tank capacity of 80-135 gallons, which is more than enough for the 55g I’m setting up. You can see my review of the Whale 500 here. NOTE: The link has been removed from the Aquarium Connection website. See the full review here.
I must say that this filter does a really nice job. In the past, the Whale canisters had problems with leaks around the pump head seal (where the pump head connects to the canister body) due to users incorrectly aligning the media trays or overpacking them. However, Sicce quickly responded to this problem and resolved it by redesigning the trays and the underside of the pump head. Ribs were added to both the trays and the bottom of the pump head assembly to prevent incorrect alignment. See the video showing the improvements. The filter does supply a significant output flow. Also, it is really quiet.