Bad Oase Support Experience

[craftycamper]

I decided to write this, despite the fact that I generally don't leave reviews/vents, due to my atrocious experience with Oase support. I was surprised that I had the experience that I did because everywhere it seems like they are generally responsive. I unfortunately did not experience this and was ghosted by them despite following up multiple times, trying to open a new ticket on their website and even requesting an escalation in my frustration.

Onto the story:
I purchased a Biomaster 2 Therm 850 in August 2025 as it seemed a lot of people had good experiences with them and I liked the built in heater. I set it up and had no issues with it for about 3 months. Over time however it started to randomly purge air, which isn't a huge deal but it just kept getting worse. Eventually it was purging for a minute at a time at least every 30 minutes. I tried to burp the canister and it had so much air in it that it sounded like it was running dry. I did get all the air out eventually and literally 2 hours later it was back to the original amount of randomly purging and sounding like it was running dry. I did what any person would do and disassembled the filter, reseated everything and cleaned/lubricated every o ring I could find with silicone grease. Well, that did nothing to my issue. I checked my other tubing connections as well and as far as I could tell nothing was leaking. I reached out to support and they had me check a bunch of things and send videos over. Long story short they decided that I was experiencing this amount of purging because I was injecting co2. I have a griggs style reactor on my output and there are very few microbubbles in my tank so I was sure that it wasnt the case. I shut co2 off for a couple days and the purging kept happening so that clearly wasnt the issue. I reached out 3 weeks ago with that as my update and that's when they stopped responding. At this point I was either going to throw this filter out or find the issue and fix it myself. I ended up figuring out that the intake side of the inlet/outlet block on the filter was letting in air somehow. Unfortunately I dont think it is possible to disassemble to fix it internally it so I ended up ordering a new one and bam, all my issues went away.

I don't expect any resolution from this, just wanted to rant about how frustrated I am with their support and the unprofessionalism of ghosting me. All I needed was a $11 part and all my problems went away.

 

[JayP]

Sorry you had this experience from their support. I've had nothing but good fast responses from them. You may now have seen my posts regarding this issue with that part as it's a very well known issue which is why I'm surprised Oase didn't address that early with you. It looks like they may have actually addressed this with newer o-rings, but I can tell you, it is possible to take that assembly apart and get to the other 3 internal o-rings to lubricate them. It's just a bit of a hassle and you, of course, shouldn't need to do that on a filter of this price, or at least no more than once a year as worst case.

 

[SkaleyAquatics]

This is not what I wanted to hear when I was planning to purchase one of these filters. I was planning to buy these when i reset up 180 because of the built in heaters as I want less equipment in the tank.

 

[JayP]

This is not what I wanted to hear when I was planning to purchase one of these filters. I was planning to buy these when i reset up 180 because of the built in heaters as I want less equipment in the tank.

Yeah, I'm torn on them. I purchased a bunch used and fixed them up with the new model 2 parts because after buying my first 600 new and experiencing the prefilter and built in heater, I didn't want anything else. Now I'm rethinking things. I'm setting up the next tank using an 850 just for the filter/heater function but using a separate DC return pump to do the pumping duties. I'm also looking at moving to something like @Naturescapes_Rocco 's setup for other future builds and using an inline heater. But maybe the new o-rings on the in/out assembly will help things.

 

[JayP]

This is not what I wanted to hear when I was planning to purchase one of these filters. I was planning to buy these when i reset up 180 because of the built in heaters as I want less equipment in the tank.

@BranchScape has good things to say about the Aquael Ultramax and Hypermax, but you'd also have to get an inline heater for that.

 

[SkaleyAquatics]

Yeah, I'm torn on them. I purchased a bunch used and fixed them up with the new model 2 parts because after buying my first 600 new and experiencing the prefilter and built in heater, I didn't want anything else. Now I'm rethinking things. I'm setting up the next tank using an 850 just for the filter/heater function but using a separate DC return pump to do the pumping duties. I'm also looking at moving to something like @Naturescapes_Rocco 's setup for other future builds and using an inline heater. But maybe the new o-rings on the in/out assembly will help things.

Its just wild to me how expensive they are but yet there are these issues. Like yeah its great that they are trying to work through them but ive have 3 fx filters and have zero issues with them besides the gripes with the ribbed tubing.

 

[JayP]

I've read a lot about canister filters the last couple years and it seems they all have their pros and cons. Surprising that after all these years no one has designed the perfect canister filter. Maybe I'll work on that when I retire.

 

[craftycamper]

Its just wild to me how expensive they are but yet there are these issues. Like yeah its great that they are trying to work through them but ive have 3 fx filters and have zero issues with them besides the gripes with the ribbed tubing.

Yea, honestly when I end up getting a new filter im probably going to go back to the FX series. Other than the tubing I had no issues out of my FX4 years ago. Even my cheapo SunSun worked fairly well and with less issues than this filter. The Aquael stuff looks interesting too but I hear mixed things about their support as well.

 

[Capraquaria]

This is not what I wanted to hear when I was planning to purchase one of these filters. I was planning to buy these when i reset up 180 because of the built in heaters as I want less equipment in the tank.

That's why I originally purchased 2 Biomaster thermos late last year. Hidden heaters, and easy-to-clean prefilters. However, even in my limited trial run on this 150, I don't think I'd buy Biomasters again. The heater visibility issue can be solved with something like the Chihiros Pro inline heater. I hate heaters in tanks, so I loved that the Biomaster thermo's had them internal to the filter. My first Oase HeatUp 400W in the 850 died in less than two weeks, and was not replaced by Oase as they presumed an 'operational error', despite the fact the Inkbird graphs were showing very erratic heating profiles from the start. As I type this, I am waiting for the Chihiros Pro heater to arrive later today.

Honestly, the best feature of the Biomaster, IME, is the prefilter, at least on the Biomaster 2's with the larger drilled intake tubes. I still have one Biomaster on this tank just for that, if for no other reason that it is more space efficient than running a separate prefilter, but the noise of the Biomaster 850 is driving me up the wall, and I am not sure the noise is worth it for the ease of cleaning the pre-filter. I replaced my other Biomaster with a Netlea SS DC filter. While I can't speak to durability or longevity yet, once the Netlea canister filter is primed (it auto primes, no pushing large blue buttons), that filter is absolutely dead silent, and it's been great to run on the Yugang as I can control flow through the reactor. It's about the same price as the 850, just minus a prefilter.

 

[SmartAlec13]

Yeah unfortunately it seems like a common problem with the Oase Biomaster filters, I had similar problems and replacing the inlet/outlet was the solution. I am kinda surprised they didn't suggest that as a possible cause & solution. Seems like it should be a recommended purchase for anyone buying one, which is lame.

 

[Koan]

but the noise of the Biomaster 850 is driving me up the wall,

@Naturescapes_Rocco did a write up on solving this, to save your sanity in the interim

Post in thread 'Horizontal CO2 Reactor - Yugang 鱼缸 Reactor'

Apr 28, 2025

1) I run an Oase Biomaster Thermo 850 on my tank - many people will know these filters have a reputation for building up and then releasing quite a bit of trapped air from time to time.

I'm a biomaster "master" and have used the filters for years now. This is an issue with cavitation, where the pump is pushing more water than can move through the filter. The 'new' Biomaster v2 series has fixed this issue. They only changed two parts on the filters, and you can do it yourself:
1) Either buy the new prefilter pipe or just drill the holes in your old one much much larger. Almost...

• Naturescapes_Rocco

• 

 

[BranchScape]

The Oase heaters are very very cheap, I wrote them off as an actual advantage, they feel like the cheapest of cheap aqueon glass heaters and I saw lots of temp drift.

A high quality inline heater is better hands down. I will say heaters will always be a love hate product. But there are a few brands that stand apart.

On fixing the Oase flow, the actual layout of the whole Oase prefilter, heater, head and basket are so convoluted that you will never not have massive flow loss. Look at the prefilter inlet and outlet and see how big the choke points are. Not just the tube but what feeds the tube and how water leaves the prefilter.

 

[Capraquaria]

The Oase heaters are very very cheap, I wrote them off as an actual advantage, they feel like the cheapest of cheap aqueon glass heaters and I saw lots of temp drift.

A high quality inline heater is better hands down. I will say heaters will always be a love hate product. But there are a few brands that stand apart.

On fixing the Oase flow, the actual layout of the whole Oase prefilter, heater, head and basket are so convoluted that you will never not have massive flow loss. Look at the prefilter inlet and outlet and see how big the choke points are. Not just the tube but what feeds the tube and how water leaves the prefilter.

I agree, the heaters feel very cheaply made these days. My ancient Jaeger years ago was rock solid for seven years, and had no trouble maintaining a much higher temperature differential. Not that heaters haven't always been a potential failure point, but these days the majority of these glass rod heaters seem to be absolute . I certainly wouldn't trust a discus tank to them. As for Oase flow, I was actually planning to measure the outflow of both my Biomaster 2 thermo 850 and the Netlea, as currently configured. On paper, they should have about the same outflow potential, but even at half power, the Netlea seems to be pushing more water than the Oase. I had to turn the Netlea flow down a bit through the reactor. I am curious to see the actual measured difference between them.