# Fluval Fx5



## Inflade (Mar 24, 2006)

Got an FX5 going on my 75 gallon, to the eventual home of a solo serra.

do i remove the foam on the outer rings and replace with more bio media? do i just remove a few? which baskets do leave with foam in them? the top ones? bottom ones?


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## Guest (Nov 11, 2010)

I left all the foam on the outer rings and filled the baskets full of ceramic rings.


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

What she said^^^^^^^^^^^^


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## HGI (Oct 27, 2009)

I'm one of the few that pulled all the foam out and replaced with ceramic rings, so there is nothing but ceramic rings in my fx5.... If you want to keep the foam in there that's fine, if you want to do what I did that's fine also just make sure you put a coursed sponge inside of the intake guard to stop large debris from entering the canister. If you only want to remove some of it (say the foam from 2 baskets) I would leave the foam on the bottom basket since the water will travel threw there 1st.

I have a really coursed sponge in my intake guard to stop any uneaten food/dead plants/poop from getting into my actual canister, I take the foam out and clean it every week when I do my water change. It's been 8 month since I've last opened my canister and I just opened it yesterday to take a peak and rinse off the ceramic rings (with tank water) to see if anything made it in there and what not. To my surprise it was actually really clean in there and I now don't plan on opening it for at least another 12 month since I feel that this system works just fine with out the foams. I've found that my flow rate increased a little bit but a noticeable amount after I took out the foam, I also do not use the output nozzle that came with the fx5. I use a pvc elbow joint like found on the fx5 mod site.
http://innovationlandscaping.com/fx5/


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

If its gonna be the only filter on the tank then you should def keep the sponges in for mech filtration


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## the_w8 (Jul 28, 2003)

I'd leave them in if i were you...Plus I cleaned my fx5 recently after 6 months of leaving it and when i went to clean it, it wasn't really dirty to my surprise...Those puppies push sooooo much water. If I were you I'd fill the baskets with all the bio-media you can.


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## Inflade (Mar 24, 2006)

At the moment I have all the baskets filled with nylon pot scrubbers.


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## HGI (Oct 27, 2009)

I did the nylon pot scrubbers when I 1st had my fx5, the pot scrubbers ended up slowing down the flow rate till it was almost not even moving water and I found that they didn't even work for me.


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## bigbipo (Feb 12, 2005)

HGI said:


> I'm one of the few that pulled all the foam out and replaced with ceramic rings, so there is nothing but ceramic rings in my fx5.... If you want to keep the foam in there that's fine, if you want to do what I did that's fine also just make sure you put a coursed sponge inside of the intake guard to stop large debris from entering the canister. If you only want to remove some of it (say the foam from 2 baskets) I would leave the foam on the bottom basket since the water will travel threw there 1st.


FYI, the water flows though the top baskets first.....
I place all my chemical media their, u always want ur biomax getting the cleanest water they can...
I also bought XXL sponge filter for the intake, the sponge filter housing fits nicely...


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## flex fish (Aug 20, 2010)

The water passes from bottom to top on all fluval filters just FYI. I bought two of them and ran both on my 125g before I upgraded, they both are still Runnin strong 5 years now non stop, really good powerful filter


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## HGI (Oct 27, 2009)

Actually FYI


HGI said:


> The water enters the Fx5 threw the hole labeled "In" on the lid, if you take the lid off you'll see there the tube that brings the water right down to the bottom of the canister. Next the water flows back to the top threw the outer rims witch hold the white prefilter foam around the baskets, a lot of people just discard this foam and fill it with more bio media since the foam dose reduce the Fx5's GPH Rate. Once at the top the water then flows back down threw the center of the baskets back to the bottom where finally it meets the impeller and is sent up the final tube and out of the canister.


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## 2PiRaNhA~2FuRrY (Nov 1, 2005)

I take the foarms out and replace it with bio balls. in the basket i put media.


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