FX5 flow direction?

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Spiritofthesoul

Spiritofthesoul

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Dec 3, 2010
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Singapore
Hi, I am planning to buy an FX5 for my 70 gallon tank.

Just wonder how does the water flow in the canister. like in what series would water from the inlet pass though each baskets until the outlet.

I would like to fill it with
-Prefilter & carbon
-Eheim substrat pro
-Eheim substrat pro

I would like the prefilter & carbon to be the first so that the purest water would pass through the bio-media

Also how much eheim substrat pro would I need to fill up 2 baskets?
Thanks
 
FLOW IS KINDA HARD TO EXPLAIN BUT ILL TRY,FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE CAN UP THROUGH THE FOAM( THERE IS NO REASON TO USE A PREFILTER MEDIA WITH THE FX5) THEN DOWN THE CENTER OF THE BASKETS THROUGH THE MEDIA THEN BACK IN THE TANK THROUGH TH BOTTOM OF THE FILTER. MINE IS SET UP LIKE THIS, TOP:BLUE FX5 PAD ON TOP OF CARBON,MID. BASKET: POLISHING PAD ON TOP OF BIO MEDIA(I THINK BIOGLASS OR SOMTHING SIMALAR), BOTTOM BASKET; BIOMEDIA. AGAIN DONT WASTE THE SPACE OR YOUR MONEY ON A MECANICAL TYPE MEDIA AS THE FOAM TRAPS THE MAJORITY OF THE PARTICALS. WHEN I DO THE MAINTENANCE ON IT THE BIO MEDIA IS SPOTLESS.
 
So basically the flow is

Inlet -> foams -> Top basket -> Middle basket -> Bottom basket -> Outlet

Am I right?

Also how much eheim substrate pro would I need to fill all 3 baskets?
 
Yep, that's the flow path as I understand it.
Each basket can hold about 2 litres of media. Not sure if Eheim substrate pro is sold by weight or by volume but you'd want about 6 litres, maybe 3 kilograms worth, to fill the baskets to capacity.
I would personally consider an FX5 to be extremely excessive on a 70G by the way. :P
 
Burto;4710601; said:
I would personally consider an FX5 to be extremely excessive on a 70G by the way. :P
Click to expand...

I personally would like an overkill for my filtration. Sick of watching poop just flow by the intake of my current canister and the weak output which can't even keep the poop in the water column until it reaches the intake :irked:

Burto;4710601; said:
Not sure if Eheim substrate pro is sold by weight or by volume but you'd want about 6 litres, maybe 3 kilograms worth, to fill the baskets to capacity.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate, did a little research. They sell by volume, in 250ml, 1L, 2L and 5L. Would get 3 bags of 2L or 1 bag of 1L and 5L, whichever is cheaper. =D
 
I run 2 FX5's on my 240 and don't run anything except Biomax and a bag of purigen in each filter. It took me 4 boxes of 500 gram biomax to fill all 3 baskets up to about 60% of each basket. I was told not to fill them up completely as it restricts flow but so far so good. Flow is amazingly strong and after cleaning them I notice barely any gunk on the top basket of rings. The pads catch majority of the gunk.

Can't ever have enough filtration. Overkill or not you can just adjust the flow rate if your worried about that. I myself am picking up another 2 FX5's for a total of 4 running on a 240 :)
 
Hagen uses flow valves which are to be used to control how much flow you want the filter to flow and to shut off the flow completely.

I have my Fx5 on a 55 Gallon.
 
5.2 liters of substrat pro for a FX5. The baskets hold 5.9 liters but you can't fill them higher then 3/4" from the top.
 
Thanks mate! Also I heard pond matrix is cheaper and better than Eheim substrate pro, Is that true? Anybody with expierence using those?
 
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