Eheim Pro 3 or Fluval FX5

[selki]

debating which to get, i seen on bigalsonline.com and the eheim goes around $341 and the fx5 is $269

the fx5 seems easy to start up and prime/clean..but the eheim doesnt seem that way? I have no experience whatsoever so i have no clue on majority of cannisters. which should I get and which will work great on my 18watt turbotwist? also it will be about 4-6 ft drop from top of tank to the cannister. thanks.

 

[Eleven Bravo]

Whats the tank Dimension/gallons ?
What are you stocking?
Then we can help you out. i would get the fx5

 

[Jgray152]

4-6 ft drop from top of tank to the cannister. thanks.

Try keeping the canister no more than 4' lower than the top of the tank. AFter this, filters start to go down hill for flow.

Ehiem is great for biological filtration
Fx5 is great for Mechanical filtration.

 

[selki]

i just want it to be lower than 380gph flowrate on the outlet, because i will be hooking up my UV Sterilizer to it. tank will be 300g stock wont be heavy buncha african cichlids and silver aros and i will also have 2 emperor 400 and 1 ac110 on the tank.

 

[I<3fish]

neither, lol do a wet/dry
but if you wanna hook a uv filter up to it and only expecting 380gph thats a no go, lol fx5's are 900 or so gph and i think eheims are a lot lower gph.

 

[selki]

but what if i use custom hose and make the fx5 sit 6-7 ft from top of tank?

wouldnt that significantly reduce the flowrate by more than half ?>

 

[selki]

also with media and whatnot in the cannister shouldnt the flowrate that the box says be reduced by a hundred or so ?? or is it saying it pushes 900gph AFTER it is setup ??

 

[Jgray152]

900 GPH is the pump flow rate, not the filter flow rate, which I think is load of BS anyways. Same with the manual saying 20L of filtration volume when that doesn't add up at all. With the filter packed with media, it seems to vary between 500-650gph. Not to bad.

Also, trying to reduce the filters flow rate will only make it work less efficient. The fx5 consumes about 55watts of power pushing around 550 GPH of water. If you reduce that flow rate to 300GPH or 200 GPH, its still going to consume around 50-60watts of power.

what im getting at is if you want only a small portion of the flow to go through the UV, than install a T fitting or a "true Y" fitting with a ball valve and this will ensure you will only get a small portion of the flow. This way the filter is not consuming 55 watts for no reason and is running efficient.

 

[Bud_Man_Jr]

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68458

 

[Toby_H]

I wouldn’t spend that kind of money on either… I would use a Pressurized Pond filter such as the BioForce 2000. I had one set up w/ an 1800 gph pump on a 300 gal for years and was very pleased. This set up was cheaper than, has a larger media chamber than and has a much higher actual flow rate than either of the options you presented.

But if you are only willing to consider these two then I like what Jgray had to offer…

Eheim is great for Biological filtration

Fx5 is great for Mechanical filtration

PS – After 5+ years of using UV lights I’ve settled on a formula of:

1W UV per 10 US gal of tank/system volume
10 gph (actual) flow per 1 W of UV

I use this to address parasites as well as algae, bacteria, etc, etc…