Equipment Review and Discussion :: FX5 Day Three, Incredible

[steve]

I don't have the FX5, but I don't think you have to empty out the filter. I'll see if I can find a manual to look over.

Purigen and carbon remove a lot of water impurities. They overlap in terms of what they offer but carbon also removes chloramine (so you don't need to use a water conditioner). If you use both, use a little less carbon. If you only use one, choose carbon.

[DonnaG]

Thanks for checking, I read the manual but wasn't sure. FishGallery in Houston was supposed to have my tank and stand ready for pick up today but someone forgot to order it.

[VeipaCray]

You don't need to empty the water out of the FX5 to change the carbon as it's in the top basket and easily accessible. However, if you take the filter apart for cleaning you might want to drain it. The purging hose won't completely drain the filter unless you can get a bucket or something to catch the water below the level of the FX5.

Purigen is synthetic resin beads from Seachem that can be cleaned and reused each month for about a year. They remove much of the same stuff carbon does with the attraction being the cleanable part. $8 buys you a bag of purigen good for the year. Carbon is still needed to remove chloramines from the water as purigen cannot do that. However, if you choose to add purigen you can use much less carbon and save some $$. IMO, nothing beats the purigen for crystal clear water. I believe it does a better job than carbon .

[DonnaG]

So, just for clarification: I change the carbon and purigen once per month, both located in top basket (along w blue pad). I bought fluval carbon packs but not purigen (I will order that today). One carbon pack okay even if no purigen?
Biomax goes into bottom two baskets and those get rinsed out every 3-6 months? I only ordered two 500mg boxes of Biomax so I prob need more of that, too.
Then every 3-6 months do I need to purge the filter to clean all the baskets or I never have to purge filter unless I need to really clean the whole system every (?) months?
Sorry, I get bogged down in the maintenance scheduling because I am dealing with a lot of family issues and sometimes have to plan my own life around theirs. (my mother has Alzheimer's which has gotten a lot worse in past few months)

Again, thanks for all the info! I really appreciate it.

On a more positive note: FishGallery came through and corrected their mistake so I get Turt's new tank and stand today! At least I know how I will be spending my weekend. I'm going to paint the bottom of the tank like someone on here did and add a nice adhesive background on the back. I'm still looking at Build Threads for the basking area, looking for something that I think I'm capable of building. (never fall and bust your knees when you're 50 because by the time you're 60 they really suffer - LOL)

[DonnaG]

Oops, I forgot:
I DID look at your filter recommendation page but it says carbon OR purigen. But you are saying here to use both? Both in top basket? Sorry, I just don't want to set it up wrong. Thanks.

[VeipaCray]

If you're using fluval biomax, you'll need a total of 5 of the 500g boxes. Two boxes in each of the bottom two trays and one box for the top tray. This leaves the top tray half empty - room for carbon/purigen and a blue pad.

If you pre-filter your water through carbon (drinking water filter, whole house water filter, etc) that will remove chloramine and you can just use purigen in the filter instead. Most people just use straight cold tap water, so adding carbon to the filter is necessary to remove the chloramine. Because carbon needs to be thrown away and replaced monthly, having some purigen in the filter can help reduce the amount of disposable carbon you need. You can run a filter with carbon only, purigen only (if you prefilter your water), or both. I think many on this forum are using both purigen and a bit of carbon.

You can use the fluval bagged carbon or any generic bulk carbon will work. It's all the same in terms of performance. You can ignore whatever bogus info they write on the packaging and shop for the best price. Me personally, I buy my carbon from bulkreefsupply.com. Loose carbon does need to go into a media bag to prevent it from getting sucked into the filter's pump. You can buy a 99cent reusable media bag or just use an old nylon stocking - fill it with carbon and tie the end in a knot.

As far as maintenance.... here's what I recommend -
Carbon: replace monthly
Purigen: regenerate (clean) monthly. If you do purigen, buy two of the bags. When it gets dirty, swap it for the clean one, and clean the dirty one for next month's maintenance. Directions for cleaning purigen are on seachem's site.
Foam: rinse monthly - i use hot tap water for this.
blue pad: rinse monthly (this pad will last a very long time -keep reusing until it starts to fall apart - many years)
bio media - SHOULD stay clean. Just needs a rinse under tepid tap water every other month or so. The key is to never let the bio media dry out. It needs to stay wet during any maintenance.

I purge my filter of water monhtly by picking the heavy sucker up and dumping it into the laundry tub. Yes I know this isn't practical for many people. You should be able to open the top of the filter and just lift the baskets out to do your maintenance, leaving any water in the filter. The baskets are connected together with these three long plastic strap things with a T shape handle on the top.

The first time you clean your filter it will probably take you an hour or so. Once you've done it a few times the total maintenance routine is 10-15 minutes. The FX5 is a really great filter and very easy to work on compared to other models/brands.

[DonnaG]

Wow, thanks! I think I can use my current aquarium vacuum thingy and suck the water out of the cannister since I can't lift it. I do want everything to stay as clean as possible. I'm tired of cleaning his current tank every 3 days.

You've done a great job of consolidating info onto pages. Build thread, filters, etc. Thanks for doing all that, it's so very helpful.

[VeipaCray]

That's a good idea - using the aquarium vacuum to empty the FX5. Yeah it's a heavy one and awkward to lift with no handles.

I'm very glad you find the info helpful. If there's anything you or anyone else sees as missing or needs further detail, please let me know.