ok so its been a month and i decided to brake down my fx5. so heres what i found
now top tray had a bonded blue and white pad with some carbon under it
the following 2 trays were filled with ceramic rings
now my tank produces a heavy waste load and filtering it are a 700gph w/d and the fx5 along with weekly 50% wc my nitrates are 20 ppm
i did not see a large reduction in flow i just decided to clean it up
the pad in the top tray was loaded with crud, the t tray foam was dark brown and saturated with waste as well but not that bad, with the exception of the filtering pad. i could see the top tray filtering fine for another extended period of time
the 2nd and 3rd trays were only mildly dirty, the media was fairly clean,
overall i feel as though i could have gone at least two months w/out cleaning, especially without the filter pad
so i added an fx5 polishing pad to the top tray, i know that the company recommends it to be placed in the 3rd but id like to keep the media clean.
so i will keep this filter running for a goal of 2.5 months without breakdown, i expect to see a reduction in performance in the 4 week range at which time i might have to remove the polishing pad
but i will keep you up to date