fx5 & vinyl tubing

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
bbortko

bbortko

Polypterus
MFK Member
Mar 3, 2010
3,166
222
96
Northwest, Indiana
I have roughly 3' of braided vinyl tubing running from my fx5 to my PVC intake and about 2' of it is collapsed resulting in restricted flow and microbubbles. This leaves me with 2 options.
1. Hope one of you guys recommend where to order stronger tubing from.
2. Run PVC except for the last 6" between the intake and the canister.
Can anybody recommend a source for tubing? Will a 6" piece of tubing be less likely to collapse? Does anyone have a better idea? I know there is a lot of info on this but since I'm searching with a purpose instead of casual curiosity i can't seem to find anything.

Thanks
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2aaBKh20JQ

I hard plumbed my fx-5 threw my canopy using 3/4 inch pvc. Painted the pvc with black fusuion paint, used 1 1/4 od clear plastic tubing from home depot to connect to canister. looks and works fine, I believe these filters produce micro bubbles no matter what setuo you have, probably the reason the filter purges it self automactically ever 24 hours.
 
My intake is 3/4" PVC with 16 - 1/4" holes equally the area of the opening of the pipe. The PVC 90s over the rim and the 90s down with 1' reinforced braided tubing to the filter. I had clear tubing but it collapsed after 15 minutes. I love the simplicity of your tank, a few appropriate sized pieces always looks tasteful
 
Bbortko, I have the same problem! I didn't think someone else's vinyl tubing was collapsing. I've been searching for a stronger tubing to stop the restricted flow. To prevent motor damage, I have used hard plumbing as suggested by silvergragon500 as a temporary solution. I am going to try the flexible pvc tubing on petsolutions.com. I hope that might work.

Silverdragon500, in regards to your observation with microbubbles, I think that these filters only produce micro bubbles when they the flow is restricted on the intake. My FX5 used to be plumbed to my 110G setup, which had a built in overflow. Therefore, the filter was plumbed to the bulkheads underneath the tank which means completely unrestricted access to the water column. I never had a problem with micro bubbles. Now that the filter is on another tank that is not plumbed, I have to use a DIY intake; as soon as the vinyl tubing begins to collapse, the water flow to the FX5 is cut causing water flow issues and microbubbles.

Sorry for the long post but I had a lot of information to share.
 
I was thinking that ponds have higher volumes thus requiring higher flow and aquaticponds.com has a nonkink spiral tubing that affixes with hose clamps and is supposedly buriable. I'm gonna call them and try to determine if it can handle the suction. Its $25 for 10'.
 
Now that I think about it, the tubing I used to connect to the filter is some stuff I have had around for many years. Really hard and not very felexible but definitely will not collapse. I almost bought some blue felexible stuff from a pool company but the tubing od was to big for the connections of the fx-5 valves. Home Depot sells something called heat tape, basically looks like electrial tape but when you strength it and wrap around forms a rubber type bond and is bonded for good. Thought about using this on the valves to increase their size so I could use a different more flexing tubing. But then found the old tubing and left it at that, problem is I really cannot move the filter without shuttiing down and disconnecting.

send me a pm if you guys find another solution

thanks
 
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