I really don't NEED another FX5. I never thought I would have to explain why I want more filtration with the types of fish us Monsterfishkeepers keep. I'm not keeping a half grown wel, but I am keeping a very well stocked tank full of monsters. I don't have more room to hang more mess on the end of the tank. I understand the best setup would be a filter at either end-this is not an option. I do have room for another filter under my stand-not more plumbing hanging off the side. I don't want to run a sump-I am a fan of near silent filter operation and a clean look in the tank. Just not understanding exactly how this could "be completely useless". Just wanted helpful opinions/ideas. Thanks
FX5s plumbed together inline?
- Thread starter joe00
- Start date
I guess we're an interactive bunch who wants to help.
But it sounds like you have no real reason to upgrade filtration. Just know that 2700 gph would be a lot of flow for a 180 gal, and you may actually do your fish a disservice unless poor water quality (ammonia, nitrite) dictate the upgrade.
HarleyK
But it sounds like you have no real reason to upgrade filtration. Just know that 2700 gph would be a lot of flow for a 180 gal, and you may actually do your fish a disservice unless poor water quality (ammonia, nitrite) dictate the upgrade.
HarleyK
Its not going to be completly usless, only to a point. You will be adding an aditional 50 watts of power consumption without any additional flow. On the plus side, you will have an additional 5 liters of bio media.
Fx5s have a tested flow rate of about 600 GPH. So you have 1200 GPH in your tank right now which give you 6.6 CPH. If you have filled all the three baskets with bio media in each filter, you have roughly 10 liters of bio media.
If you wan't more media, you can try to "perfect" this mod that I have not finished HERE . As long as you can get the cover modded correctly, doesn't matter how you do it, it will purge 100% and you will have a Fx5 with 10+Liters of media each.
Fx5s only have a tested filter flow rate of 600 GPH and not 900 GPH. 900 GPH is the pump output which is different. How Hagen tested for the pump output is beyond me.
reviving an old thread i know . but saves me asking the same questions . im considering doing something similar . the idea of this guy adding another filter is for more filtration . overkill rather than underkill i have allways considered a good idea . doesnt seem like the guy is so concerned about the flow rate or the extra flow as hes putting them inline . so its just the added media and filtration value i dont see why that should be a problem .
i can see that running two fx5 inline having two pumps working and one inlet / outlet could cause aditional wear on the filters / pump . but how about if one is switched off ? i beleive that if you put extra load on the inlet of the pump / filters it will make little difference as long as its not stupid . the inlet and outlets will be large enough for just the one pump as thats what they were designed for . the water will be still and able to flow more or less as it would through just one filter and the filter would be full of water so the pump is really only there to return water to the tank. . . so what if it went through an extra chamber ( the additional switched off fx5 ) first
isnt that the basic idea of a sump anyhow . hat it goes through one chamber . then another and then the final one before having a pump return to the main tank . in this case you would just have two or there canisters acting as chambers ( switched off ) before the pump at the end returned water to the tank. ?
comments appreciated.
i can see that running two fx5 inline having two pumps working and one inlet / outlet could cause aditional wear on the filters / pump . but how about if one is switched off ? i beleive that if you put extra load on the inlet of the pump / filters it will make little difference as long as its not stupid . the inlet and outlets will be large enough for just the one pump as thats what they were designed for . the water will be still and able to flow more or less as it would through just one filter and the filter would be full of water so the pump is really only there to return water to the tank. . . so what if it went through an extra chamber ( the additional switched off fx5 ) first
isnt that the basic idea of a sump anyhow . hat it goes through one chamber . then another and then the final one before having a pump return to the main tank . in this case you would just have two or there canisters acting as chambers ( switched off ) before the pump at the end returned water to the tank. ?
comments appreciated.
They are closed loop filters, with centrifugal pumps.
The head pressure that is gained from the water flowing down hill is basically the same head pressure the pump has to overcome to return the water.
That and the friction loss of moving through the media.
Run in parallel they will flow like they were designed to, in Series with one motor off it would run like a plugged up system needing cleaning...
Water flow can stop with the pump still running without any problems, that is the beauty of a centrifical pump.
What can damage the pumps is abrasive substrate that can get lodged in the housing that contains the bushings for the pumps' impeller
And or running the pump without having any water in the impeller housing and overheating the water bathed bushings... (not primed)
The head pressure that is gained from the water flowing down hill is basically the same head pressure the pump has to overcome to return the water.
That and the friction loss of moving through the media.
Run in parallel they will flow like they were designed to, in Series with one motor off it would run like a plugged up system needing cleaning...
Water flow can stop with the pump still running without any problems, that is the beauty of a centrifical pump.
What can damage the pumps is abrasive substrate that can get lodged in the housing that contains the bushings for the pumps' impeller
And or running the pump without having any water in the impeller housing and overheating the water bathed bushings... (not primed)
quote - They are closed loop filters, with centrifugal pumps.
The head pressure that is gained from the water flowing down hill is basically the same head pressure the pump has to overcome to return the water.
That and the friction loss of moving through the media.
^ - so with that in mind the water flow down hill and up hill is the same . so the only thing contributing to the flow or the work the pump has to do
is the media the water travels through before it gets to the pump . ok i understand that if its cloged it will be more of a problem for the pump but with more media it will be harder to clog . and at the end of the day were just talking about the frequency of cleaning the filters out
quote - Run in parallel they will flow like they were designed to, in Series with one motor off it would run like a plugged up system needing cleaning...
^ is running them inline going to reduce the output water if flows freely through the media any how ?
quote - Water flow can stop with the pump still running without any problems, that is the beauty of a centrifical pump.
What can damage the pumps is abrasive substrate that can get lodged in the housing that contains the bushings for the pumps' impeller
And or running the pump without having any water in the impeller housing and overheating the water bathed bushings... (not primed)[/QUOTE]
^^ so that said were still only talking about a potentially reduced output ? and worst case is that the pump still works but doesnt get damage.
this could also happen on a single filter with half as much media filtering before getting to the pump and we would clean the filter in eaither case before it reached this point .
could you explain how to link them up in parrallel as i cant get my head round how to do it .
wich ever way i look at it . i just get a "sealed" sump system with several chambers leading to a pump at the end to return the water. filters get cloged just as im sure sumps do . i supose the difference wwith the sump would be more a lack of water for the sump pump to return due to being cloged rather than restricted flow though .
The head pressure that is gained from the water flowing down hill is basically the same head pressure the pump has to overcome to return the water.
That and the friction loss of moving through the media.
^ - so with that in mind the water flow down hill and up hill is the same . so the only thing contributing to the flow or the work the pump has to do
is the media the water travels through before it gets to the pump . ok i understand that if its cloged it will be more of a problem for the pump but with more media it will be harder to clog . and at the end of the day were just talking about the frequency of cleaning the filters out
quote - Run in parallel they will flow like they were designed to, in Series with one motor off it would run like a plugged up system needing cleaning...
^ is running them inline going to reduce the output water if flows freely through the media any how ?
quote - Water flow can stop with the pump still running without any problems, that is the beauty of a centrifical pump.
What can damage the pumps is abrasive substrate that can get lodged in the housing that contains the bushings for the pumps' impeller
And or running the pump without having any water in the impeller housing and overheating the water bathed bushings... (not primed)
[/QUOTE]^^ so that said were still only talking about a potentially reduced output ? and worst case is that the pump still works but doesnt get damage.
this could also happen on a single filter with half as much media filtering before getting to the pump and we would clean the filter in eaither case before it reached this point .
could you explain how to link them up in parrallel as i cant get my head round how to do it .
wich ever way i look at it . i just get a "sealed" sump system with several chambers leading to a pump at the end to return the water. filters get cloged just as im sure sumps do . i supose the difference wwith the sump would be more a lack of water for the sump pump to return due to being cloged rather than restricted flow though .
Canisters use various stages of media,
usually foam
then a prefilter matrix
then a Bio media of sorts...
this way the larger stuff doesn't get trapped in the fine filter media, it get's trapped mechanically.
as the prefiltered water approaches the Biological/Chemical stage of the canister, it can flow relatively easy through it...
when the filtered water leaves the first one and then goes into the 2nd one the passing into the prefilter would be moot, as well as cutting the flow down extremely.
By running them in parallel or redundant you have the designed filtering order and flow characteristics in place as well as the saftey margin if one should fail.
here is a ghetto diagram of running in series and parallel...
See where the head pressure gained and lost in the series setup would be 1/2 of the parallel setup?
As well as having the media path out of the designed order?
Also with the parallel setup, cleanings could be alternated so as lessen the chance of nuking all the BB...
usually foam
then a prefilter matrix
then a Bio media of sorts...
this way the larger stuff doesn't get trapped in the fine filter media, it get's trapped mechanically.
as the prefiltered water approaches the Biological/Chemical stage of the canister, it can flow relatively easy through it...
when the filtered water leaves the first one and then goes into the 2nd one the passing into the prefilter would be moot, as well as cutting the flow down extremely.
By running them in parallel or redundant you have the designed filtering order and flow characteristics in place as well as the saftey margin if one should fail.
here is a ghetto diagram of running in series and parallel...
See where the head pressure gained and lost in the series setup would be 1/2 of the parallel setup?
As well as having the media path out of the designed order?
Also with the parallel setup, cleanings could be alternated so as lessen the chance of nuking all the BB...
ok thanks for the diagram. thats what i thougth you meant i just couldnt imagine how to set it up . i gues some sort of t peice or something would be needed . . but at least im clear on what you mean now . obvious benefirts for cleaning as you say . but i really want to look into the series option and rule it out completley if thats what it means will happen .
if the media staging would be an issue then could we rearange it . put the mechanical filtration in the first inline filter the one thats potentialy switched off if thats going to be better than switched on . basically just extend the filter by adding more room.
1 filter - 3 baskets -- 1 mechanical 1 chemical 1 biological ( or how ever you want it )
2 filter - 6 baskets -- 2 mechanical 2 chemical 2 biological
tbh i would skip most of it . use the given foam as mechanical and just put another mechancial on the first one basket of the filter and then fill the remaining two with biomedia and fill teh otherone with biomedia . possibly taking out the mechanical filtration on the second filter ( that would be running ) to ease flow and potentially fill that space up with biomedia too .
am i still on to a looser here ?
presumably when the flow deteriorates the mechanical filtration should be all that needs cleaning *regularly * with cleaning of the biomedia not so often
if the media staging would be an issue then could we rearange it . put the mechanical filtration in the first inline filter the one thats potentialy switched off if thats going to be better than switched on . basically just extend the filter by adding more room.
1 filter - 3 baskets -- 1 mechanical 1 chemical 1 biological ( or how ever you want it )
2 filter - 6 baskets -- 2 mechanical 2 chemical 2 biological
tbh i would skip most of it . use the given foam as mechanical and just put another mechancial on the first one basket of the filter and then fill the remaining two with biomedia and fill teh otherone with biomedia . possibly taking out the mechanical filtration on the second filter ( that would be running ) to ease flow and potentially fill that space up with biomedia too .
am i still on to a looser here ?
presumably when the flow deteriorates the mechanical filtration should be all that needs cleaning *regularly * with cleaning of the biomedia not so often
