Equipment Review and Discussion :: Best canister filter?

[Ashley]

We just put one pad in there, but in the bottom basket because that's what the instruction guide said.

[Ashley]

Finally, here are some pics!

The beast (my nickname for it):


All hooked up to the end of the tank:


Full tank shot:


It is so fun to watch Bowser chase pellets in the current. LOL
The new filter is so quiet, that during the night I wondered if it was even on.
I'm so used to the roar of the waterfall from our old Aqueon 55, which we gave to my bf's nephew.
He always gets "hand me downs" for his RES that is half the size of Bowser.

[VeipaCray]

Looking good. It definitely is a beast of a filter.

The fx5 takes water from the tank, through the intake tube to the bottom of the canister. It flows upwards through the outer sponges and when it gets to the top, it's forced downwards through the middle media baskets to the bottom. From the bottom it's pumped back into your tank.

So the water flow is in the downwards direction through the media baskets.

In the directions, biomax is to be used in the bottom basket. Also in the directions, the blue filter pad is to go on the top of the bottom basket just before the biomax in the water path. The blue filter pad would catch any last large particles to help keep the small pourous openings of the biomax media from getting clogged. The vast majority of your canister is filled with biomax. You want that blue pad in the water path before the biomax. Putting it at the top of the top media basket would do that (and help your carbon last a little longer as well). Not to mention the blue pad will be the thing that clogs the easiest and requires the most cleaning. Having it at the top will make the cleaning job a bit easier as you don't have to disassemble all of the media baskets every time.

Nice background... we have the same one.

[Linus]

I have a Fluval 404 and It works great and quiet. It just keeps going and going!

Con: It's quite hard to open up to clean.

[hill]

Ash - When you get your FX5 just remember the gph when getting it set it up. You will have to throttle it down a great deal. I hope you are not setting up a blender using it on a 55 gallon. Good luck!

[Ashley]

Day 4 of the new filter and the water looks just as clear as it did when we added it to the tank!

hill - Oh my, I didn't realize! There is quite a current in there, but Bowser is doing well with it.
In fact, she likes to swim against the output and then just let it push her back. Good exercise! LOL
How would I turn the power down?

[hill]

Ash - I do not have one but have kept up with the different gph outputs as I am going to get a 125 gallon soon. You can divide up the output in two different areas. There are several keepers on this forum that have FX5s and can be of more help. Good Luck!

[VeipaCray]

You can let it run full out. direct one of the outputs up (surface agitation) and one of them into the glass (IF you need to diffuse the strength of the flow). Putting extra head pressure on the pump ie slowing it down is not smart for the longevity of the pump. My turtle does fine with the output of the FX5 current and Moe appears to be smaller than Bowser. Id be a bit concerned with the output flow on a 55 if these were small petite fish. Your turtle will be fine and the extra flow will keep Bowser's tank nice and clean.

If you do decide to turn the power down... do it by partially closing the output aquastop valve. DO NOT close down the input side.

[Ashley]

We used the valve to slow it down a bit.
She was doing fine with it all the way up, so we may put it back if the water quality diminishes.

[VeipaCray]

If she was doing fine... turn it back up. Restricting the flow puts a lot of extra stress on the pump. The motor will run hotter and the pump will fail sooner.

[Ashley]

So now we're having a major issue with ammonia...
I understand about the cycle and whatnot, but the ammonia has NEVER been this high.
Even in the tiny 20 gallon tank, or in this tank with the old filter. We have one of those dropper kits and where the color of the water in the vial should be yellow or at most a light green, it's a dark green, almost blue.
Now we didn't think to check the water since it had been just a week since we changed it, the water was super clear still, and we have so much filter media in a top of the line filter.
We bought a bottle of Nutrafin Cycle to try and help the process, but we also did a partial change before adding it since the levels were so high (and since I now have a 50ft python siphon, which is awesome BTW!).
Could it be that the filter is turned up so high that the water is filtering through too fast?
I dunno.

[VeipaCray]

It's not a water flow issue. It's that you have all new biological media. It's going to take a month or so to build up a nitrifying bacteria colony that can keep up with bowser's ammonia production. I'm not a huge fan of cycle or any of the other additives...who knows how long those bacteria have been sitting on a shelf or in a warehouse. The cycle will complete in due time. Partial water changes will help your high levels but can lengthen the cycle completion time. In hindsight, moving your old filter media...sponges into the fx5 would have been a good idea. The old sponges would have seeded the bacteria colony in your new setup.

Your tank is bare bottom too which in this case doesn't help. If you had substrate, bacteria would have colonized on the substrate and acted like an established bio filter.

Make sure you test your tap water source for ammonia. Ammonia is sometimes present in your tap water in which case your partial water changes are null.

The fx5 is designed to be run wide open and house biomax media. Of course you and I have more than the normal amount of biological media in the canister, but that wouldn't prevent the bacteria colony from seeding even at full water flow.

[Joao]

V. Cray, I did not know that the Rena XP4 could hook up to the smart heater, that's awesome! I love the smart heater, it works wonderfully.

I use a 405... I can see why someone would not like it. It is not very easy to clean in my opinion, and it can clog easily. But mine has survived the wrath of Sadie, so, it get's a lot of brownie points from me.

I have my smartheater hooked up to my eheim 2217. Fits like a glove as well. I love it.

[VeipaCray]

Good to know. What size hose is the 2217? Is that the standard 16/22 (5/8") hose?

[Joao]

Good to know. What size hose is the 2217? Is that the standard 16/22 (5/8") hose?

On the intake side, yes. The outlet is 12/16.