It still has that "coolness" factor, and I'm still bragging about it to anyone who will listen
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The FX5 is set up in a 90 gallon tank. For media, I have: Top basket - prefilter, Middle basket - carbon + biomax, bottom filter - biomax and polishing pad (which I took out today).
I had no trouble cycling it, because I took a handful of biomax from Ralph's filter, replaced it with fresh, and put the old biomax in the FX5. So there was never any cloudy water from new tank syndrome.
It's kept the water crystal clear, and it does an excellent job of getting all the little debries off the bottom of the tank.
It has two output nozzles, both of which are on a ball and socket joint, so you can position them in any way imaginable. I have one pointing down into the corner so debries don't collect there, and the other is pointing in the other direction and upwards to aggitate the water a bit. Because the flow is split, the current isn't overly strong. Not that anything could push Frankie around
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So far my favourite feature: Two words - SELF PRIMING. Anyone who has fought to prime a 404 knows what I'm talking about. You just pour a bucket full of water in, plug it in, and away it goes! It purges the air from the system every 24 hours. You hardly even notice it stopping then starting up again.
Today when I disconnected it, I used the 3rd aquastop valve to drain the filter. I didn't have a long enough hose to reach the bathroom, but with the spare piece of hosing and another larger piece of tubing, we were able to jerry-rig it without any spills. I'm going to get a longer piece of tubing that is the proper size. That is going to come in SUPER handy when I drain the tank. When I drained the tank for the first time, it took a couple of hours because the tank is kind of low so I couldn't get a very strong gravity feed going. But I was out and about getting things to set up the filter during that time, so it wasn't a big deal then. When I change the water next time, it'll probably only take half an hour because you can drain it with the FX5.
It's got very good handles, so it was easy to carry up and down the stairs even with a bit of water in the bottom.
Opened up and everything looked good, although I'm not looking forward to rinsing out the 6 foam inserts (which I didn't do today).
Connected it all back together, and bada-bing bada-boom, it started without a worry.
The ammonia levels in the tank are 0, and the Nitrates are low.
Here's a summary of the pros and cons:
PROS:
-self priming
-2 output nozzles
-adjustable flow
-easy to carry
-easy to take apart
-easy to set up
-draining feature
-uber cool looking
CONS: (Not many, but the things I have found are:)
-Slightly louder than the 404, which is expected, because it is a bigger filter. It could also be because my 404 is somewhat enclosed under Ralph's tank, and the FX5 isn't.
-(This one is more neutral than a con) The strainer on the intake valve is just the right size for Reptomin to get stuck in. This isn't necessarily a bad thing though, because then Frankie comes along and picks them off
-There seems to be a large gap between the intake strainer and the aquarium wall. This means that big chunks of food can get stuck back there, and Frankie can't get at them, and niether can I.
Overall, for anyone with a 90 gal+ tank looking for a new filter, I would definately recommend looking into the Fluval FX5. I found mine for about the same price as BigAls's was selling the Rena XP4, and it is definately worth the money.
When I do a full cleaning of the filter, or if anything unusual happens, I'll post a bit more. Hope this was helpful!
Something to consider if I'm in the market for a new filter.
