I have a (I think) 65-70 gallon tank, and I've been using the ZooMed 501 filter for about 10 months now. I've slowly been increasing the amount of water in the tank of this time. The filter just doesn't seem to be cutting it any more now that I am probably around 50 gallons of water in the tank. Yesterday I got one of those floating docks and replaced a tall stack of flat rock with it (which means that there is now even more water in the tank).
Now I can't say enough about how fantastic the 501 worked when when I had 20-40 gallons of water, but now I need a better filter, this one just doesn't circulate the water fast enough to keep the temperature even, and isn't keeping up with the filth as well.
My primary issue is price. I need to get the best filter for the LOWEST price I can. If I really have to of course I'll end up spending tons of money on it in the end, but I really don't want to. Where can I get the best pricing on a decent filter? - Also I cannot place the filter below the level of the tank, it has to sit next to it so if that is an issue I can't use a filter that requires it.
