I have a 125 gallon tank with an African walking catfish about 15 inches long and two Pacu that are 12 inches and about 7.5 inches tall. My amiracle wet dry that came with the tank cannot keep up. So I purchase on line a FX 5 (new). Heard great reviews thought that would solve my problems. To some extent it does, but cleaning the sponges take forever they get a really slimmy brown crude on them after a week of running I have nothing in the middle of the FX 5 yet. Is this normal to get this crude after a week am I suppose to clean more often? If this is the case I am not so fond of the FX 5. Then again maybe I am using it wrong, any advice would be great. Should I build a bigger sump? I see all these really clear tanks and mine is always a tinge of brown. The snails are thriving in this filter LOL figure they might help. I have no drift wood in the tank thought that might be the issue. I feed daily Xtreme Monster that I get from Kens.Thank you in advance.
FX 5
- Thread starter 5280critters
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try better food, i ordered 4 diff types of kens, and neither me nor my fish were too impressed, now i use it to cycle tanks lol
id say diet and stock. pacu are super messy try diff foods and see what holds together best, try some hikari they seem to cloud water the least IMO
I agree with the above, up your water changes to 50%+ per week, maybe change food too.. I know I have 2 FX5's and only clean mine every other month' and it still isn't that dirty.
I would increase water changes, and get some finer mechanical media into the center of the FX5. But with the big messy fish you got don't expect miracles. As those fish grow it will only get worse. I have heard others commenting on the Xtreme brand coloring the water though I have been feeding it for a few years and have not experienced this. You may want to try running purigen or carbon to remove the coloration of the water if the increased water changes don't help.
He stated that he is feeding "Xtreme Monster" which is very good food. You can buy NLS from Ken's too. Maybe research what you are ordering, generally cheap price equals low quality. Pay attention to the ingredients that the food is made of.
brich999;5090036; said:
He stated that he is feeding "Xtreme Monster" which is very good food. You can buy NLS from Ken's too. Maybe research what you are ordering, generally cheap price equals low quality. Pay attention to the ingredients that the food is made of.