Hello to all MF members... I need your help!
I have been a member for a while but this is my first post in a long time... Nice to be back and read all of the great comments from people who really know fish! (Sorry for the length of this post...!)
Currently, I have 2 tanks. In my office a 125G (with a 55G sump to simplify WC and to add some volume) and a 110G I set up for my mom at her house. Both are stocked with Africans/Malawi very healthy and lots of fry. Rock is mostly Tufa in mine and 100% TX Holey Rock in hers... I will get some pics up soon.
I am running 4 Fluval 405 on each tank and have a slightly different setup. In each group of 4 - 1 is just carbon, 405C. 3 are just "bio" or as I call it a 405B, with the stock fluval ceramics and I added eheim's equivilent to fill up the baskets. Every month, on each tank (I keep a record), I breakdown one bio unit, completely clean it, (as I have 3 others with good bio), and every third month I also breakdown the carbon unit, clean it change out carbon using 8 AC 70 bags.
****This method came about because I had to treat for Ick one time and had to remove all of the carbon from all 4 filters.... So when it came time to put the carbon back I decided to try only putting it into one filter. Which after 2 years seems like a sensable way to run it... Let me know what you think about it...
SO AFTER ALL OF THAT....
Here is my question... Has anyone had problems with the clips, (the wider one), on the 305/405 Impeller well covers cracking....????????
In the past 3 months I have had done the maintence as described above and have found a broken clip on each filter... that's a total of 7...! I think it may be a design flaw as I learned a long time ago to treat these parts with care. I had one break on a 404 on a Sunday night and I know it was my fault. I told my LFS and got 4 replacements because I have a great relationship with him, also gave him a diatom that had a crack in the lid to use for parts for his 2 that were broken... hmmmm.... maybe that had something to do with his help too.
As for the 405s... I have had good luck with them and for the money they do a good job. Although, I hate that the hoses collect and then distrubute a lot of junk when restarting... If anyone has changed out the hose I would like a recommendation for new hose... Also, I am running a "pre-filter" test with a sponge from a magdrive 5 on the intake of a 405C, (carbon unit), I just brokedown last saturday. It is on the one I can see from my desk and I watching how much debris is collecting on it. My plan is to change the sponge once a week and at the end of 3 months see what the inside of the "carbon only" unit looks... My thought is if it stays cleaner then it will probably filter more water over that same period of time... any comments on that would also be appreciated....
Thanks for the help...!
Best to all,
John
PS/ After this post I am contacting Fluval to voice my concerns... I'll keep you posted... thanks again... j
I have been a member for a while but this is my first post in a long time... Nice to be back and read all of the great comments from people who really know fish! (Sorry for the length of this post...!)
Currently, I have 2 tanks. In my office a 125G (with a 55G sump to simplify WC and to add some volume) and a 110G I set up for my mom at her house. Both are stocked with Africans/Malawi very healthy and lots of fry. Rock is mostly Tufa in mine and 100% TX Holey Rock in hers... I will get some pics up soon.
I am running 4 Fluval 405 on each tank and have a slightly different setup. In each group of 4 - 1 is just carbon, 405C. 3 are just "bio" or as I call it a 405B, with the stock fluval ceramics and I added eheim's equivilent to fill up the baskets. Every month, on each tank (I keep a record), I breakdown one bio unit, completely clean it, (as I have 3 others with good bio), and every third month I also breakdown the carbon unit, clean it change out carbon using 8 AC 70 bags.
****This method came about because I had to treat for Ick one time and had to remove all of the carbon from all 4 filters.... So when it came time to put the carbon back I decided to try only putting it into one filter. Which after 2 years seems like a sensable way to run it... Let me know what you think about it...
SO AFTER ALL OF THAT....
Here is my question... Has anyone had problems with the clips, (the wider one), on the 305/405 Impeller well covers cracking....????????
In the past 3 months I have had done the maintence as described above and have found a broken clip on each filter... that's a total of 7...! I think it may be a design flaw as I learned a long time ago to treat these parts with care. I had one break on a 404 on a Sunday night and I know it was my fault. I told my LFS and got 4 replacements because I have a great relationship with him, also gave him a diatom that had a crack in the lid to use for parts for his 2 that were broken... hmmmm.... maybe that had something to do with his help too.
As for the 405s... I have had good luck with them and for the money they do a good job. Although, I hate that the hoses collect and then distrubute a lot of junk when restarting... If anyone has changed out the hose I would like a recommendation for new hose... Also, I am running a "pre-filter" test with a sponge from a magdrive 5 on the intake of a 405C, (carbon unit), I just brokedown last saturday. It is on the one I can see from my desk and I watching how much debris is collecting on it. My plan is to change the sponge once a week and at the end of 3 months see what the inside of the "carbon only" unit looks... My thought is if it stays cleaner then it will probably filter more water over that same period of time... any comments on that would also be appreciated....
Thanks for the help...!
Best to all,
John
PS/ After this post I am contacting Fluval to voice my concerns... I'll keep you posted... thanks again... j
