Poor water quality

[Jenni]

If it is particulates and food, you're feeding too much. I have one oscar and I feed him one piece of food at a time and the second he gets messy and doesn't swallow it all, he's finished and I quit feeding him. Hungry fish don't waste food.

 

[Wulfonce]

Flag stone is often limestone and can be porous leaching into the water stuff to cloud it. Unless your flag stone is old and been in aquariums for some time I would assume that is the culprit.

Tell me is the cloudiness white tinted or brown tinted?

If its brown it would be your drift wood if its white most likely your flag stone.

I wouldn't say the water is tinted but there are alot of whitish particles in the water almost the same look as if the tank was cycling. The flagstone I have is a dark (almost black) northern Ontario flag stone. I forget the name but I'm about 95% sure its not limestone.

I see alot of you have suggested ebay. I did have a look but I live in Canada and 99% of everything on Ebay seems to come from the US. I figure once the item ships across the border then hits Canadian customs I'll be down over $100 anyway so I might as well just buy it locally.

Good news! I just came back from Big Al's carrying out an XF5!!! WOOT!
I walked in there and asked if they price match, they do. I saw an XF5 at Petsmart down the street for $319.99 and Big Al's was asking $349.99. So I walked over to the XF5's and saw an open box special 30% off! I snatched up that and went to pay for it. Then the lady at the till screwed up and gave me the 30% off + another $30 off for the price match. I kept my poker face on and walked out of there with a new XF5 having paid only $215 + tax! a savings of $135! SCOOOOOORE!!!

Now I'm sitting here with a huge smile on my face, with my feet propped up on the box, looking in aw at the new XF5 over by the tank stand. Cant wait to hook it up!

Drool

 

[Wulfonce]

If it is particulates and food, you're feeding too much. I have one oscar and I feed him one piece of food at a time and the second he gets messy and doesn't swallow it all, he's finished and I quit feeding him. Hungry fish don't waste food.

This is good advice but having 3 of them I find they'll start fighting each other if I feed them to slowly. I usually dump about 20 1/4" pellets in all at once. They'll have them eaten in about 10 seconds... then it gets messy.

 

[lipadj46]

Has anyone tried the generic 4-tray canisters they sell on ebay for about $125.00? I'm just curious if anyone has any experience with them.

Yes I have the largest Sunsun HW404b and it is a decent filter (530 gph). Add that with the 4 sponges and 4 liters of matrix to your 2 penguins and you should be fine. You could even get rid of one the penguins too.

 

[Jenni]

My best advice on the FX5... I couldn't get the valves to close. I read on here somewhere to run cold water through the valve and then hot water over the outside, then try again and they will work. You're going to love the filter and I think it will do wonders for you! Congrats. I'd like to buy another one for my african 55, but have to save awhile!

 

[Wulfonce]

I opened the box and was disappointed to find that there is no media for the center of the baskets. Would packing them full of poly fiber do the trick or would this reduce the flow to much?

 

[Jenni]

Lots of people on here use those plastic pot scrubbies... 6/$1 at the Dollar Store. I just bought a few bags, but haven't put them in yet. I have ceramic rings and bio balls in mine right now.

 

[muffywrx]

I took my 125 - fairly heavily stocked, from 2 lg. whisper hobs to a Fluval FX5. I had constant problems... filters constantly overflowing, bad water quality, etc. Now my water is crystal clear and the parameters are excellent. I would highly recommend switching up to a FX5 ... well worth the money. Also had huge success with Seachem Prime getting my numbers under control. Life is good, finally!!!

X2 ... canisters are awesome .. can find the fx5 on ebay right now for 225 shipped.

 

[muffywrx]

I wouldn't say the water is tinted but there are alot of whitish particles in the water almost the same look as if the tank was cycling. The flagstone I have is a dark (almost black) northern Ontario flag stone. I forget the name but I'm about 95% sure its not limestone.

I see alot of you have suggested ebay. I did have a look but I live in Canada and 99% of everything on Ebay seems to come from the US. I figure once the item ships across the border then hits Canadian customs I'll be down over $100 anyway so I might as well just buy it locally.

Good news! I just came back from Big Al's carrying out an XF5!!! WOOT!
I walked in there and asked if they price match, they do. I saw an XF5 at Petsmart down the street for $319.99 and Big Al's was asking $349.99. So I walked over to the XF5's and saw an open box special 30% off! I snatched up that and went to pay for it. Then the lady at the till screwed up and gave me the 30% off + another $30 off for the price match. I kept my poker face on and walked out of there with a new XF5 having paid only $215 + tax! a savings of $135! SCOOOOOORE!!!

Now I'm sitting here with a huge smile on my face, with my feet propped up on the box, looking in aw at the new XF5 over by the tank stand. Cant wait to hook it up!

Drool

oh that was fast. Awesome Grats!

 

[Wulfonce]

I ended up packing the baskets full of poly fiber. I've had the thing running for 15 hours now and I gotta say the water looks a lot better. Not to the quality you might see in POTM but its getting there.

One thing I have to mention is for the size of the motor I cant believe how quiet it is. I have to put my ear within a foot or two to even hear the thing running. Well done Fluval! I'll be buying again in the future.