# what a pretty sight!



## Jared35 (Sep 15, 2009)

I am getting prepared for my 240 gallon tank and what better way then to get some of these guys! What do you guys think about these filters overall? i had to open one cause my curiosity got to me and it looks like alot of room for media. My other order comes in tommarrow with heaters, power heads, temp monitors, c02 kits and 6 fluval bio cermic rings so i can fill both of them up. Also should i use the filters for the most part of use with bio load. or should i add the polishing pads it came with to the bottem chamber then the rest bio rings. im putting 2 fx5's on my tank and a fluval 405. i figured i would make the 405 all mech filtration for the most part, when i switch houses and set up my tank im gonna keep the mature media in my 405 going so it can survive then switch it over to my 240 gallon rather quickly and put the bio rings in my fx5 to get both those filters kicking with bacteria and the goal being to shorten my cycle time by quite a bit. Meanwhile my 2 hob aquaclear 110's can keep my 75 gallons with my p's in it clean, then after i get my tank cycled i am throwing away the aquaclears and just using canister filtration. If these 3 canisters dont work good for my mech filtration i might get a marineland ive heard good things about them for mech filter.


















Thanks guys 
Jared.

Also if your not getting what i am asking please just tell me how i should set up my 3 canisters with what media. There will be 10 reds living in the 240 gallon


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## marco (Jan 2, 2003)

nice jared









the sponges and sh*t go on the bottom. the amonia remover and carbon goes on the top.


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## Ibanez247 (Nov 9, 2006)

Ive only used eheim cansitors so I cant tell you how fluvals are. I know others on here use them though. If your setting up three I would set up two as bio filtration and one just mechanical filtration. When doing bio filtration its good to have two that way when you change the filters just do one so the other maintains the bio load, then a month or two later change the other. I set up both my eheims 2217 as follow starting at the bottom:ceramic cylinders, coarse filter pad,substrat pro, fine filter pad. I dont use the carbon pads as I hear they can take out nutrients that my plants need. Nothing bad comes of it. Half of my filter contains the substrat pro which is the bio media. Hope this at least gives you an idea. Looking forward to see it set up.


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## Jared35 (Sep 15, 2009)

Okay so should I use the foam polisher it came with or fill both the fx5"s with ceramic rings and call it good?


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

I have two FX5 running my 180g pygo tank and an other FX5 for my 180g rhom tank. they are great, IMO.
I just use the foam that came with it and loaded all the trays with nylon pot scrubber as bio media, it's gonna cost you some pretty penny if you want to load up all the trays with those ceramic rings. nylon pot scrubbers work just as good and much much cheaper. 
read the manual of the filter, it'll tell you where to put the polishing pads, if remember correctly i think it was the top...since I don't use them so I didn't pay attention when I went through the manual


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## T-wag (May 21, 2009)

dont throw away the AC's! give them toooo meeee!!!!!


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## Jared35 (Sep 15, 2009)

Will you pay for shipping? and i already have purchased the rings ha







like 9 boxes


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

Jared35 said:


> Will you pay for shipping? and i already have purchased the rings ha
> 
> 
> 
> ...


can't you return them?


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## Jared35 (Sep 15, 2009)

i mean i could but since there gonna be here tommarrow i guess i will just use them its was not that expensive


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## T-wag (May 21, 2009)

ill pay shipping for a AC wats wronge with it?


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## Jared35 (Sep 15, 2009)

nothing there only 4 months old lol


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## T-wag (May 21, 2009)

well sh*t dude i have been wanting to get a 110 for soooo long! so if u really do wanna give em to me id be more than happy to pay shipping =]


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## Jared35 (Sep 15, 2009)

ya i mean ill ship both of them, lucky ass haha


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## T-wag (May 21, 2009)

omg omg omg thanksssss you man yeah just find out how much shipping is and let me know...unless ur located in michigan? but if not it shouldnt be more than 15 i think


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## Jared35 (Sep 15, 2009)

ya it shouldnt be its gonna be about a month cause i gotta use them why i switch my old 75 to my new tank but after that i will ship them to you


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## T-wag (May 21, 2009)

yeah dude thank you sooo much i needed a deal like this soooo bad lol...my filters barley work and i lost a sh*t load of hours at work...on top of that im 17 and only get paid minimum wage ahaha...but yeah just shoot me a pm when u get ur new filters all set up....once again thankkkkkk youu


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## HGI (Oct 27, 2009)

jp80911 said:


> I have two FX5 running my 180g pygo tank and an other FX5 for my 180g rhom tank. they are great, IMO.
> I just use the foam that came with it and loaded *all the trays with nylon pot scrubber as bio media, it's gonna cost you some pretty penny if you want to load up all the trays with those ceramic rings. nylon pot scrubbers work just as good and much much cheaper. *
> read the manual of the filter, it'll tell you where to put the polishing pads, if remember correctly i think it was the top...since I don't use them so I didn't pay attention when I went through the manual


Really? Can someone back this up? I'm going to be setting my tank up very soon(this month) with a fx5 and those ceramic rings ant cheap at all.


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

basically you need to have enough surface area for bacterias to grow on, that's what bio medias do. the more area the more bacterias (given there's enough food source for those bacterias)
here's a link showing surface area for different bio medias. don't know how correct the prices on the page are but I got mine much cheaper than compare to getting those ceramic rings.
http://www.wernersponds.com/biofiltermedia.htm


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## HGI (Oct 27, 2009)

wow that crazy, I'll for sure be stuffing my fx5 with them nylon pot scrubbers.


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

T-wag, do you need both AC100? if you don't then I might want one too if Jared35 doesn't mind ship me one.


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## T-wag (May 21, 2009)

i was gonna use both







its up to jared though


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

ok, I still have to get a tank first, why is it a cheap breeder tank so hard to find....


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## T-wag (May 21, 2009)

it would be awsomeeee if u let me have both tho =]...o and i know man...iv been looking for a 75 gallon for so long and i found one for 25 bucks! (called 5 mins too late) but other than that everyone wants 100+ just for a tank!


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

someone in nyc is selling 75g for $75, I might consider that one if I couldn't find a breeder tank cheap or just get a brand new set from petsmart with light and glass lid for $126 or something around that.
it's jared's call if he wants to ship to two people or just one. but if he's ready to ship and I still don't have a tank yet then yea I'm cool with you take both.


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## T-wag (May 21, 2009)

75 gal for $75 damn man do that!


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

I would but if I bring that big of a tank home my wife would notice, lol


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## T-wag (May 21, 2009)

lol im upgrading from a 55 to a 75 and hope my mom doesnt notice lmao


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

T-wag said:


> lol im upgrading from a 55 to a 75 and hope my mom doesnt notice lmao


as long as she doesn't look from the side she shouldn't notice the difference.
in my case I would go from no tank to one 75g so that's gonna be a dead give away and I would need help to carry it down the basement which means I cannot do it at night alone when she's asleep, 40g breeder is a complete different story...geez I sound like a smuggler lol


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## T-wag (May 21, 2009)

lol yeah that is true..only thing is...the only side she looks thru is the side lmao


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

in that case cover the side up with something so she can see sh!t


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## Jared35 (Sep 15, 2009)

I can ship those two to whoever lol I'll let you guys know when I settle things out


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