FX5 mysterious reduced flow!

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Deaths Sting

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jan 23, 2009
3,034
3
36
Vancouver, Canada
today i woke up and looked at my tank like usual, i noticed right away major reduced flow in my FX5 in comparison to the day before. so i took everything apart and found all the media to be relatively clean, as well as the canister itself. i then decided to take off the motor housing and check out the impeller. to my discovery i found 2 small Eheim substrat pro stuck on top of the impeller assemble. with tweezers i removed the media(whole) and put back together the filter and it ran beautifully.

i would recommend that Eheim substrat pro be used in filter bags in the FX5.

Note: i was very surprised how clean the FX5 was, considering it had not be serviced in almost 6 months!
 
I run filter bags for that reason. Never heard of it happening before but I had that fear in the back of my mind. Nice catch!
 
When I first set up mine I chocked a tray full of the old Eheim bio media (substrat) and when I plugged it in, it started shooting out pieces into the tank out of the outlet. After that I starting using media bags as well.
 
JL;3798501; said:
I run filter bags for that reason. Never heard of it happening before but I had that fear in the back of my mind. Nice catch!
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im living proof of the worse case scenario with the product..lol.


JK47;3798536; said:
When I first set up mine I chocked a tray full of the old Eheim bio media (substrat) and when I plugged it in, it started shooting out pieces into the tank out of the outlet. After that I starting using media bags as well.
Click to expand...

wow, if there were fish in the tank, im sure they had a ''Field Day''.
 
Deaths Sting;3797434; said:
today i woke up and looked at my tank like usual, i noticed right away major reduced flow in my FX5 in comparison to the day before. so i took everything apart and found all the media to be relatively clean, as well as the canister itself. i then decided to take off the motor housing and check out the impeller. to my discovery i found 2 small Eheim substrat pro stuck on top of the impeller assemble. with tweezers i removed the media(whole) and put back together the filter and it ran beautifully.

i would recommend that Eheim substrat pro be used in filter bags in the FX5.

Note: i was very surprised how clean the FX5 was, considering it had not be serviced in almost 6 months!
Click to expand...

This is one of those incidents (which could have caused considerable damage) that probably could have been avoided by simply inspecting the relationship of the Substrat Pro particle diameters to the grid on the bottom of each media basket chamber. There is some size variation among these particles and some are small enough to slip through the grid (and end up in the impeller chamber) Another problem is that the particles will become nested within the grid openings and block most of the flow. So, you need to install another gridded material over the basket grid to support the Substrat Pro bed over and on top of the basket grid (does that make sense?). I have used both fiberglass screen and 1/8" plastic grid (sold for needlepoint). In fact, just yesterday I set up an FX5 with a circular piece of needlepoint grid in the bottom of each media basket. So far, so good.
 
brianp;3800500; said:
This is one of those incidents (which could have caused considerable damage) that probably could have been avoided by simply inspecting the relationship of the Substrat Pro particle diameters to the grid on the bottom of each media basket chamber. There is some size variation among these particles and some are small enough to slip through the grid (and end up in the impeller chamber) Another problem is that the particles will become nested within the grid openings and block most of the flow. So, you need to install another gridded material over the basket grid to support the Substrat Pro bed over and on top of the basket grid (does that make sense?). I have used both fiberglass screen and 1/8" plastic grid (sold for needlepoint). In fact, just yesterday I set up an FX5 with a circular piece of needlepoint grid in the bottom of each media basket. So far, so good.
Click to expand...

yes, that makes seance. thank u for the suggestions and insight.
 
I have a sand substrata. I always pull out a quarter cup of sand every cleaning, which slows flow. Also, my motor unit came loose and stopped turning. That I'm glad I caught because it could have led to a drained tank. Check those screws and alignment twice a year.
 
This happened to me some time ago but instead of a reduced flow I had a noisy pump-some pieces will definitely pass through the baskets.
When I took the impeller apart there was substratpro ball
 
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