Great video, man and I'm glad it worked for you as the whole goal is to increase times between maintenance and still effectively remove particles (and ensure that water is as healthy as possible) In a couple of weeks your fish produce a mighty amount of poop, lol I designed an upgrade for the FX filter itself a couple of days ago so I'm going to have a go altering the actual structure of the filter to make a prototype when I get a spare hour or two. I'm hoping it can increase the potential load of media from 5kg to nearer 8kg within the same sized filter and still maintain good mechanical filtration.
Finally a video on how to properly setup a filter. Pondguru has it down to a science. Too many people think clear water is healthy water. Buy a test kit and be assured the water is healthy for the fish.
HI Simply Shrimps. I´d like to offer u a tip. When taking of the hoses (in/out). Before u turn off the pump, close the intake, let it run 1-2 sec, shut off the out valve at the same time turning off the pump itself. This way u push out a bit of Water, leaving less Water to "overflow" taking off the valves.
I LOVE Pondguru and practice what he preaches -- onemore pimp I did on my FX 6 wast to take out the floss trays in the middle and use a course, medium, then fine floss in that center section on top..... I am changing every 4 months on my 125 with heavy bioload. Go Pondguru!
Have you considered a prefilter? The one by Eheim is excellent and doesn't reduce flow and doesn't take up much more room. The prefilter will catch most of all the muck and stop it going to the FX6. Then it's just a simple case of pulling off the prefilter, and running the foams under a tap.
I have an FX6 and have not changed or done any maintenance/filter cleaning in 6 months. Had the water professionally tested this morning.Ph was 7.6, Ammonia at 0, Nitrite at 0 and the Nitrate at 5.0. So these filters work, work, work. :-) going to get her cleaned tomorrow though. Then on the next change, I'm going with this setup for an even better results.
I took another advice from Pondguru. I installed a smaller Sunsun HW603 B as prefilter with all the sponges. During maintainance I have to just clean the smaller one and not open up the entire filter.
@@SimplyShrimps True not possible to do everything. His supplies don't ship to my country but he still was gracious enough to help even when I was using a competitive product. But his setting up method really brought down the Nitrate. Although I had to introduce Denitrifying bacteria.
Simply Shrimps i have a tip for you when refilling the filter theres not need to use the siphoning tube you only need to put the incoming filter hose on but not the out going one open the incoming and turn it off before it overflows (you'll hear it) then put the out going tube on and turn the filter on hope this helps
This is slightly flawed - The way in which the water flows up through the outer sponges is due to water volume rising and it naturally pushes itself through them until it hits the top of the canister. Once it's hitting the top of the canister it has nowhere else to go except to be sucked down through the center back into the tank which makes sense on your center setup. The most efficient way to do the outside sponges/filter would be to do it vertically, no? Because if the water is traveling up the canister and rising through the sides, it's going to encounter half course and half medium/fine and your getting a 50% pass through on the course because there's no fine above it, only on the side of it. Now if you layer each one Course on the bottom, and fine on the top, stacking them rather than combining them sideways that would make for a much better catch of particles. Does that make sense or am I crazy?
Thinking out loud here, maybe if you reversed each of the 3 layers to course/medium on the bottom and then medium/course middle, then course/medium on the top layer - It would technically do the same thing as stacking them in each one
Thanks for your suggestions. I can see where you’re coming from. Though the water does travel from the bottom to the top it also passes through the outside sponges into a middle gap and then up and down the middle middle section. It’s hard to explain in text 🙈 maybe I should do a video on the flow of the filter.
Billiamz this is exactly what I was thinking. Maybe do the black on the bottom, a mid grade in the middle and blue on the top. Then keep the center setup exactly the same.
@@ItsFlipppp it does pass through the outer sponges vertically though, the water flows in a circular flow around the outside, then pushes through the sponges horizontally where it continues up vertically through the flutes made from the plastic spacers. It then enters the centre column and travels vertically down through the floss and bio media, at the bottom there is a gradient in the base that causes the water to "spin".
I know we all love the beneficial bacteria..in the filter..however use that drain hose that came with the Fx6 save your water..but go back and clean out the bottom of the canister...remove sludge ..or sand and check your propeller motor housing for sludge or sand...clean it out ..trust me the motor is priority #1 for healthy fish and crystal water..avoid damaging a $335.00 filter.
@@SimplyShrimps Hi nice video , My tank is Juwel 450 with the internal filter having an aqua flow 1500 pump and an external 306, it is heavily stocked with medium sized south american cichlids , both filters I do twice a year tops. I do do weekly gravel vacs and water changes 15% tops. I have an african tank with sump which I clean once a year if that.
A great review thank you, it’s good to see a comparison of before and after, most of the reviews you see on TH-cam only show what changes they make and hope that you believe that it works, but I do know that this one works as I done it to my fx4. Again thank you.
I hope you dont take this the wrong way but I think you might be wasting your time. The whole point of having the high capacity filter is the buildup of a large amount of beneficial bacteria to break down waste. By tearing down your filter every couple weeks, you're actually limiting the size of the beneficial bacteria colony in the filter. It may seem like you're cleaning but you're actually interfering. You're probably better off leaving the filter going for 2-3 months at a time. The larger bio colony will take care of the extra waste in there. Also the dirtier the filter gets, typically the finer the particles it will actually trap until you get to a point of reduced flow in which case its time to tear it down for cleaning. I have a ton more fish in my tank and tons of plants which also cause plant debris to get sucked up and everything is solid. I used two large Eheim classic canisters. Anyway food for thought.
Nice! ... and this way less wear and tear on the canister seal and stuff :) Other thing I do wit my canister is after every few cleanings, I lubricate the o-rings with food grade o-ring silicone lubricant. I use Dow Corning 111. Stuff is not cheap but its totally safe and will keep o-rings good for longer. My older Eheim 2260 is 18 years old now.
I clean my Fx6 on a very heavily stocked tank every 5-6 months. When I notice the outtake flow has slowed down a bit. That’s your Indicator to say it’s time to clean your sponges.
Gary Hill I’ve done this on numerous tanks with both FX5 and FX6 for over 12 years with no problems. Making sure to do my weekly water changes on all tanks.
While I think in theory this should work better I was personally a little underwhelmed by the results lol! My sponges are still plugging along, but I’ll probably replace them with this method. Thanks for sharing!
Very helpful to put a prefilter sponge on your intake tube. The Eheim 6664 prefilter works very well for that in catching large particles that will otherwise get inside your canister, which is not so quick/easy to interact with.
My filter looks like that in about a year and a few months, If you add a pre filter sponge on or in the intake compartment on the fluval fx6 you’ll need to just take the sponge out a couple times a month to rinse and not have to maintenance the filter for a year if not a little longer, of course your situation might be different depending on what kind of fish and stocking... it doesn’t allow food or waste to be sucked into the filter, just micro size stuff gets through...
Nicely done just got an fx6 last week so in the process of pimping mine also.. went with pondgurus suggestion of sponges but im going the cheap route with alfagrog and pumice 5 kilos of biohome ultimate is errrr kinda pricey !!
Friday Fish Facts look into the sun sun canister filters. I have an fx6 and a sun sun 404b on my 125 gal Cichlid tank. They are both very good filters. But sun sun is very inexpensive. I think I paid $106 usd for my sun sun that filters the same amount of water as my fx6
Iv always been told filter floss is the last piece of media the water passes through before returning to the tank.the way your filter is set up your outer sponges are catching all the big stuff then your filter floss is catching the rest and polishing your water before going through your bio media maybe I'm wrong but to me the bio media isn't getting used to its potential and the filter floss is being over worked my filter floss never gets that bad.
Great vid and lovely stand and nice tank. However, what about leaving one of the original foams at the bottom, put the medium foams in the middle, put the fine foams at the top and pinky filter on top of some sera siporax on the inside part.
bad filter set up! water does not travel from the outside inwards so stacking the course and fine filter like that wont do a thing but let most of the water pass through having only gone through the course filter as it always chooses the path of least resistance. the water in these filters travels first through the outer ring from the bottom to the top and then flows through the center from top to bottom. so if you would want to have several stages of mechanical fitlering you would have to place only course filter material in the bottom outer ring, then a medium material in the outer ring of the middle tray and finally a fine material in the outer ring of the top tray.
It’s hard to explain via typing but the flow doesn’t just go from the bottom up. Although most of the dirty water will go through the bottom sponge first there is actually an outer gap that allows flow through all of the sponges from the outside in. Then there is an inner gap that allows that water to continue to travel upwards. Maybe I should do a video on it to explain better but either way this is still a good set up.
I concur. Flow goes down the media baskets then up through the outlet so water does not go through the media baskets upwards. That's why when you do a water change using the utility valve the new water does not touch the media as it goes straight up the exit tube. I'd defo recommend using floss and fine foam in the bottom basket. Confirmed with hagen operatives also
Great video, I just want to add that you should never change all filter foams out at once because there’s good bacteria in them and your risking disrupting the cycling of your tank. Sadly, these fx series filters are just huge sponge filters so most bacteria are in the foam sponges. You always change half of the sponges at a time, so if it’s an fx6 (change 3 in intervals)
@@SimplyShrimps so i was going to do it but was told by someone at Maidenhead that the reason Fluval only put limited sponge and media inis because of the back pressure on the impeller so not sure lol
So I have the fx 4 and the polishing pad and nitrate resin pad and the colored foam upgrade but they didn't arrive prior to set up. Tanks been cycling 12 days. Do you think it's OK to add the pads and give the filter a light clean in tank water to remove detritus at this point?
What reducement of flow do you get by replacing the foam and biological media with 3rd party foam and ultimate media? Are you using more biological media than the standard ceramic media? What is the water turnover of the filter with the new upgrade of media. An easy way to find out is to quickly stick the outflow into a bucket. eg. 10 litre or 18 litre bucket and note the time it takes to fill it in seconds. Divide this timed amount by the litre size of the bucket to get the amount per litre, then divide that amount by 3600 to get the litres per hour, then divide that amount by the litre size of the aquarium to get the turnover.
You mentioned that your water quality values were stable. I expect 0 ppm for Ammonia & Nitrite. So my question is about the Nitrate. Has the Biohome affected the Nitrate levels? I've been following PondGuru for a while, and based on his Nitrate claims for Biohome, I've just added a Pimped out Cobalt EXT canister filterwith Biohome Ultimate.
It’s been a couple of weeks since I did a water test but I’ll do one soon and get back to you. I know it’s always been low. It comes out my tap at about 20ppm
Awesome video dude! I’m thinking of getting FX6 filter, I got an adult yellow bellied slider in a 250litre atm and I really need to upgrade the filter cuz he’s very messy and poops a lot! I just have an internal fluval filter I got with the tank, but your video helped me a little to decide weather or not to get it. Keep up the good content :)
I just have a 55 gallon tank with two turtles (don't need a lecture about two turtles living together, I am a zoologist and worked in a zoo with turtles kept together. There are biting incidents, but I am thinking like pit bulls and things there is more to the story). People are telling me a FX4 is to much for 55 gallons. I disagree. Now I just need to find the best topper. One of my turtles is a mud and the other a yellow eared so they exist in different places in the tank. That said many told me my dual Decorative Repto filters would never work for a shallow 55 gallon tank, but once I pimped them out (higher flow pumps, BIOMAX + Fluval sponge and the stock charcoal bags; I have clean water for a month+ with simple changes and they sound awesome in a living area. However; time for the turtles to both swim of find a burrow so have to expand. I will be going to at least a 125 gallon by the end of this year and probably end up with 180 gallons in the next 2-3.
You crack your FX6 open every 2 weeks? I don't open mine until I notice reduced water flow (usually every 2 months or so). I would never put that fine blue foam in mine, or I would be opening mine every 2 weeks also ( I have a large messy Oscar and a large messy Pleco).
Yeah I’ve cut it down to every month now, so it’s a little bit more dirty but the tank still remains clean. I suppose that’s one of the cons of keeping big messy fish ha!
the fact is that the muck is traped on the blue foam thus is still present in the curculation , by sxtending the clean up sessions u just put5ting mor no3 into the system
Well the FX 4 would be fine for 75 gallons. I however would go with the FX 6 for the extra filtering and media mass. Look at it this way with the FX 6 youll have more than enough and it could even be used on a larger tank if you went that route. You can't over filter so if you get a good deal on the FX6 go for it. The FX4 however is right up there and does a great job. Depends on what you're keeping in the tank too!
Also I was going to pimp my FX6 do you think it is worth the pimp as far as the biohome media id concerned. It cost $100 US just for the media. Not a lot of videos of long term use of it. It does get great reviews But my other idea was to pimp a little harder and have a spong only canister prefilter and the FX full of lava rock that will cost me less than $20 US. I would like to know what you think since I just watched the pondguru video today and he sells it you don't and are trying it.
It is good stuff and my water is very stable. Plus I’ve not had any fish death in about a year. Though if lava rock is easier for you go for that. Having said that biohome media is supposed to produce anaerobic bacteria which helps finish the nitrogen cycle.
Lava rock works just as well as Biohome and is far cheaper. Biohome is basically fired clay and is way over priced with little scientific proof it's any better than other media types. As long as you have sufficient amounts of media it will do the trick. Sadly no amount of Biohome will make a so now FX6 a total anaerobic bacteria factory with total nitrifacation taking place. To do this the water must have very little movement which the FX6 is not known for.
I have an fx6 and i can go longer than two or more months and my filter doesnt get that bad. I have african cichlids which are big waste producers and its a 135 gallon tank. how does your filter get so dirty?
Hiya - just got the fx4 (first canister) and ordered biohome ultimate. Did you put that stuff in bags? Loose? Or mix it loose with the biomax? Thanks! Couldn't see the media in this vid~
Where did you get the sponge filters for the improvement of the FX6?! I need to upgrade mine,too? Mine gets clogged too frequently! Thank you in advance!
Simply Shrimps I was in there yesterday last thing. Bought some Neon Green Rasbora. I thought it was you but didn’t want to look a div incase it wasn’t. But then during the video you use a video from the shop and have an orange Maidenhead net, also an Ocean free filter which is mostly only sold by Maidenhead. The Penny dropped then.
Great video, man and I'm glad it worked for you as the whole goal is to increase times between maintenance and still effectively remove particles (and ensure that water is as healthy as possible)
In a couple of weeks your fish produce a mighty amount of poop, lol
I designed an upgrade for the FX filter itself a couple of days ago so I'm going to have a go altering the actual structure of the filter to make a prototype when I get a spare hour or two. I'm hoping it can increase the potential load of media from 5kg to nearer 8kg within the same sized filter and still maintain good mechanical filtration.
Thanks for the inspiration and supplies 😁 Tell me about it! They are very messy fish! I’ll have to keep an eye out for that future upgrade.
I'll need some very specific materials to make it happen but hopefully I can get it done without completely destroying it, lol
Ooh wow! Now I’m really intrigued. Hopefully you keep in water tight when your done 😂
wow 8kg of media.. I pimped my FX6 using 3 mechanical filters. I will send you a photo if you want.
@@salreus sure I'd like to see that sales@filterpro.co.uk
Finally a video on how to properly setup a filter. Pondguru has it down to a science. Too many people think clear water is healthy water. Buy a test kit and be assured the water is healthy for the fish.
HI Simply Shrimps. I´d like to offer u a tip. When taking of the hoses (in/out). Before u turn off the pump, close the intake, let it run 1-2 sec, shut off the out valve at the same time turning off the pump itself. This way u push out a bit of Water, leaving less Water to "overflow" taking off the valves.
That’s a very good tip! I shall try it next time I’m cleaning the filter 😁
I LOVE Pondguru and practice what he preaches -- onemore pimp I did on my FX 6 wast to take out the floss trays in the middle and use a course, medium, then fine floss in that center section on top..... I am changing every 4 months on my 125 with heavy bioload. Go Pondguru!
Mary Anne thanks for the comment :D looks like I’ll have to make another modification!
Nice pimp job - it is very good that you can in fact extend the maintenance on your filter with this method. 👍
Thanks! Yeah it helps a lot :)
Have you considered a prefilter? The one by Eheim is excellent and doesn't reduce flow and doesn't take up much more room. The prefilter will catch most of all the muck and stop it going to the FX6. Then it's just a simple case of pulling off the prefilter, and running the foams under a tap.
Good idea
I have an FX6 and have not changed or done any maintenance/filter cleaning in 6 months. Had the water professionally tested this morning.Ph was 7.6, Ammonia at 0, Nitrite at 0 and the Nitrate at 5.0. So these filters work, work, work. :-) going to get her cleaned tomorrow though. Then on the next change, I'm going with this setup for an even better results.
Not bad. Have fun modding your filter 😁
I setup my latest filter in the same way pond guru does I bought the 3 kg bio ult upgrade kit and it works great!
That’s great news 😁
I did as well and all is working as stated.
Great video. I find that putting an intake sponge on the filter intake is an amazing help.
Thanks :) Ooo that is also a great idea!
I took another advice from Pondguru. I installed a smaller Sunsun HW603 B as prefilter with all the sponges. During maintainance I have to just clean the smaller one and not open up the entire filter.
This is something that I have looked into. I just don’t have the space underneath sadly :( It sounds like it works great though!
@@SimplyShrimps True not possible to do everything. His supplies don't ship to my country but he still was gracious enough to help even when I was using a competitive product. But his setting up method really brought down the Nitrate. Although I had to introduce Denitrifying bacteria.
He’s a great guy 😁
Simply Shrimps i have a tip for you when refilling the filter theres not need to use the siphoning tube you only need to put the incoming filter hose on but not the out going one open the incoming and turn it off before it overflows (you'll hear it) then put the out going tube on and turn the filter on hope this helps
Stick a eheim prefilter on intake and you won’t have to open the main filter for months. For a tenner you can make it so much easier
Yeah they seem pretty good :D
This is slightly flawed - The way in which the water flows up through the outer sponges is due to water volume rising and it naturally pushes itself through them until it hits the top of the canister.
Once it's hitting the top of the canister it has nowhere else to go except to be sucked down through the center back into the tank which makes sense on your center setup.
The most efficient way to do the outside sponges/filter would be to do it vertically, no? Because if the water is traveling up the canister and rising through the sides, it's going to encounter half course and half medium/fine and your getting a 50% pass through on the course because there's no fine above it, only on the side of it.
Now if you layer each one Course on the bottom, and fine on the top, stacking them rather than combining them sideways that would make for a much better catch of particles.
Does that make sense or am I crazy?
Thinking out loud here, maybe if you reversed each of the 3 layers to course/medium on the bottom and then medium/course middle, then course/medium on the top layer - It would technically do the same thing as stacking them in each one
Thanks for your suggestions. I can see where you’re coming from. Though the water does travel from the bottom to the top it also passes through the outside sponges into a middle gap and then up and down the middle middle section. It’s hard to explain in text 🙈 maybe I should do a video on the flow of the filter.
Billiamz this is exactly what I was thinking. Maybe do the black on the bottom, a mid grade in the middle and blue on the top. Then keep the center setup exactly the same.
@@ItsFlipppp it does pass through the outer sponges vertically though, the water flows in a circular flow around the outside, then pushes through the sponges horizontally where it continues up vertically through the flutes made from the plastic spacers. It then enters the centre column and travels vertically down through the floss and bio media, at the bottom there is a gradient in the base that causes the water to "spin".
Good idea bit mor work cutting them
I know we all love the beneficial bacteria..in the filter..however use that drain hose that came with the Fx6 save your water..but go back and clean out the bottom of the canister...remove sludge ..or sand and check your propeller motor housing for sludge or sand...clean it out ..trust me the motor is priority #1 for healthy fish and crystal water..avoid damaging a $335.00 filter.
you go into your filter every two weeks ? wow !!! I do my 306 twice a year :-)
I have reduced it to once a month now ha! You’re lucky. Mine just gets too dirty :(
@@SimplyShrimps Hi nice video , My tank is Juwel 450 with the internal filter having an aqua flow 1500 pump and an external 306, it is heavily stocked with medium sized south american cichlids , both filters I do twice a year tops. I do do weekly gravel vacs and water changes 15% tops. I have an african tank with sump which I clean once a year if that.
Am doing twice a year
ever two weeks is to much for me but
on my 240 gallone i have 2 fx6 fluvsl canisters
A great review thank you, it’s good to see a comparison of before and after, most of the reviews you see on TH-cam only show what changes they make and hope that you believe that it works, but I do know that this one works as I done it to my fx4. Again thank you.
No worries :) Thanks for watching!
I did this to my FX6. I still use the Fluval Max Clean blue pads on top of the filter floss though as it saves the floss from clogging so quickly.
I just followed the recommendations with a full grown red eared slider in a 55 gallon tank. It’s never looked better, so I consider that pimped.
That’s awesome! Thanks for the feedback 😁
Simply Shrimps great channel! Subscribed
I hope you dont take this the wrong way but I think you might be wasting your time. The whole point of having the high capacity filter is the buildup of a large amount of beneficial bacteria to break down waste. By tearing down your filter every couple weeks, you're actually limiting the size of the beneficial bacteria colony in the filter. It may seem like you're cleaning but you're actually interfering. You're probably better off leaving the filter going for 2-3 months at a time. The larger bio colony will take care of the extra waste in there. Also the dirtier the filter gets, typically the finer the particles it will actually trap until you get to a point of reduced flow in which case its time to tear it down for cleaning.
I have a ton more fish in my tank and tons of plants which also cause plant debris to get sucked up and everything is solid. I used two large Eheim classic canisters. Anyway food for thought.
Some great tip there thanks! I have actually cut down maintenance to once a month now. The tanks is still very clean and healthy :)
Nice! ... and this way less wear and tear on the canister seal and stuff :) Other thing I do wit my canister is after every few cleanings, I lubricate the o-rings with food grade o-ring silicone lubricant. I use Dow Corning 111. Stuff is not cheap but its totally safe and will keep o-rings good for longer. My older Eheim 2260 is 18 years old now.
Wow! Yes it’s definitely a good idea to give your filter some TLC every now and then :)
ive pimped both my FX6's on my big tank and both fluval 406's on my growing on tanks, all pimped sponges and all with biohome ultimate
I clean my Fx6 on a very heavily stocked tank every 5-6 months. When I notice the outtake flow has slowed down a bit. That’s your Indicator to say it’s time to clean your sponges.
Go on the correct forums. 5 to 6 months is far to long. They need regular cleaning on the sponges. U have muck rotting on ur sponges for 6 months??
Gary Hill I’ve done this on numerous tanks with both FX5 and FX6 for over 12 years with no problems. Making sure to do my weekly water changes on all tanks.
While I think in theory this should work better I was personally a little underwhelmed by the results lol! My sponges are still plugging along, but I’ll probably replace them with this method. Thanks for sharing!
Just got the fx4 im planning on doing this add sera siporax and mech pro on the bottom of filter bucket
Very helpful to put a prefilter sponge on your intake tube. The Eheim 6664 prefilter works very well for that in catching large particles that will otherwise get inside your canister, which is not so quick/easy to interact with.
Good point, thanks!
My filter looks like that in about a year and a few months, If you add a pre filter sponge on or in the intake compartment on the fluval fx6 you’ll need to just take the sponge out a couple times a month to rinse and not have to maintenance the filter for a year if not a little longer, of course your situation might be different depending on what kind of fish and stocking... it doesn’t allow food or waste to be sucked into the filter, just micro size stuff gets through...
Nicely done just got an fx6 last week so in the process of pimping mine also.. went with pondgurus suggestion of sponges but im going the cheap route with alfagrog and pumice 5 kilos of biohome ultimate is errrr kinda pricey !!
Anything is better than the stuff you get with it 😂 Have fun pimping it up!
Also, i think you should put bio home ult on the top crate then top it off with filter floss
I have a second canister filter with more media in it, plus the gloss would get really dirty then.
Simply Shrimps just following the vid
If/when I ever get a large tank I want the FX6. Might just have to try your upgrade
I think I will be even more efficient with smaller fish. Mine produce so much poop 😂
Friday Fish Facts look into the sun sun canister filters. I have an fx6 and a sun sun 404b on my 125 gal Cichlid tank. They are both very good filters. But sun sun is very inexpensive. I think I paid $106 usd for my sun sun that filters the same amount of water as my fx6
next time just turn of inlet wait ten seconds then turn of outlet then unplug pump. it will pump a little out so you dont get water over pump
I know this now. Thanks :D
Iv always been told filter floss is the last piece of media the water passes through before returning to the tank.the way your filter is set up your outer sponges are catching all the big stuff then your filter floss is catching the rest and polishing your water before going through your bio media maybe I'm wrong but to me the bio media isn't getting used to its potential and the filter floss is being over worked my filter floss never gets that bad.
Just a tip.. you don’t have to refill the fx6 just hook up the valves & turn them back on it will fill itself.
Ooh my gosh! Of course it will ha! Silly me 😂 Thanks 🙏
You can also have it pump out most of the water back into the tank my closing off the intake valve for a minute or two. Makes it slot easier o carry.
I bought the very same upgrade kit and I’m very happy with it 👍🏻
It certainly helps with maintenance 🤙
Simply Shrimps I got way too much biohome in my kit ( no complaint ) I've enough for my juwel internal
Winner 😂
where did you get the 2 foam pads, the blue and black
I love a pimped filter!
I don’t know why the company’s don’t do some of the improvements themselves 😂
Great vid and lovely stand and nice tank. However, what about leaving one of the original foams at the bottom, put the medium foams in the middle, put the fine foams at the top and pinky filter on top of some sera siporax on the inside part.
awesome video, whats the red insert/grate? i have a fx5, but it doesnt have anything like that.
Hello there, where were you able to find the sponges.
Most fish shop have them in the pond section. Or look for filter sponge online :)
bad filter set up! water does not travel from the outside inwards so stacking the course and fine filter like that wont do a thing but let most of the water pass through having only gone through the course filter as it always chooses the path of least resistance.
the water in these filters travels first through the outer ring from the bottom to the top and then flows through the center from top to bottom. so if you would want to have several stages of mechanical fitlering you would have to place only course filter material in the bottom outer ring, then a medium material in the outer ring of the middle tray and finally a fine material in the outer ring of the top tray.
It’s hard to explain via typing but the flow doesn’t just go from the bottom up. Although most of the dirty water will go through the bottom sponge first there is actually an outer gap that allows flow through all of the sponges from the outside in. Then there is an inner gap that allows that water to continue to travel upwards. Maybe I should do a video on it to explain better but either way this is still a good set up.
@@mkultra8323 good luck with your leaky SunSun
I concur. Flow goes down the media baskets then up through the outlet so water does not go through the media baskets upwards. That's why when you do a water change using the utility valve the new water does not touch the media as it goes straight up the exit tube. I'd defo recommend using floss and fine foam in the bottom basket. Confirmed with hagen operatives also
Great video, I just want to add that you should never change all filter foams out at once because there’s good bacteria in them and your risking disrupting the cycling of your tank. Sadly, these fx series filters are just huge sponge filters so most bacteria are in the foam sponges. You always change half of the sponges at a time, so if it’s an fx6 (change 3 in intervals)
Any link to the Foam you used from amazon? Id like to order some!
Did you hmm paint your stand?? Glossy red ? Or did you buy it like, that?? Also ... where did u get it??
I painted it. And also I made it :) there are a couple of videos I did on how to make it.
@@SimplyShrimps very nice.
If you close the hose valves before you shit the filter off you won’t have water leaking out when you disconnect the hoses.
Hi great video my question is what impact does this have on the impeller with the extra pressure
Thanks :) Not that I’ve noticed. There hasn’t been any reduced flow.
@@SimplyShrimps so i was going to do it but was told by someone at Maidenhead that the reason Fluval only put limited sponge and media inis because of the back pressure on the impeller so not sure lol
First I’ve heard of it. It’s still important to do regular maintenance on the filter including cleaning the impeller every now and then.
You didn't add Bio media to the top basket, leaving enough for a fine pad just on top.
So I have the fx 4 and the polishing pad and nitrate resin pad and the colored foam upgrade but they didn't arrive prior to set up. Tanks been cycling 12 days. Do you think it's OK to add the pads and give the filter a light clean in tank water to remove detritus at this point?
What reducement of flow do you get by replacing the foam and biological media with 3rd party foam and ultimate media? Are you using more biological media than the standard ceramic media?
What is the water turnover of the filter with the new upgrade of media. An easy way to find out is to quickly stick the outflow into a bucket. eg. 10 litre or 18 litre bucket and note the time it takes to fill it in seconds. Divide this timed amount by the litre size of the bucket to get the amount per litre, then divide that amount by 3600 to get the litres per hour, then divide that amount by the litre size of the aquarium to get the turnover.
Anything that can reduce maintenance by 30% if worth wild looking into. Thanks.
Absolutely 😁
I use these foams in my eheim pro 4+ and honestly I clean my filter every 6 months!
WOW! I have very messy fish haha!
Aye haha. I only have a 4 angels and a tetra mix so they are not overly poop happy
Maybe I need to rehome a few fish 🙈
I hear they make great midnight snacks 🙊
Fish are friends not food 😂
You mentioned that your water quality values were stable. I expect 0 ppm for Ammonia & Nitrite. So my question is about the Nitrate. Has the Biohome affected the Nitrate levels? I've been following PondGuru for a while, and based on his Nitrate claims for Biohome, I've just added a Pimped out Cobalt EXT canister filterwith Biohome Ultimate.
It’s been a couple of weeks since I did a water test but I’ll do one soon and get back to you. I know it’s always been low. It comes out my tap at about 20ppm
Thanks!
Awesome video dude! I’m thinking of getting FX6 filter, I got an adult yellow bellied slider in a 250litre atm and I really need to upgrade the filter cuz he’s very messy and poops a lot! I just have an internal fluval filter I got with the tank, but your video helped me a little to decide weather or not to get it. Keep up the good content :)
Thanks for watching and hopefully it’s helped you make your mind up 😁
I just have a 55 gallon tank with two turtles (don't need a lecture about two turtles living together, I am a zoologist and worked in a zoo with turtles kept together. There are biting incidents, but I am thinking like pit bulls and things there is more to the story).
People are telling me a FX4 is to much for 55 gallons. I disagree. Now I just need to find the best topper. One of my turtles is a mud and the other a yellow eared so they exist in different places in the tank.
That said many told me my dual Decorative Repto filters would never work for a shallow 55 gallon tank, but once I pimped them out (higher flow pumps, BIOMAX + Fluval sponge and the stock charcoal bags; I have clean water for a month+ with simple changes and they sound awesome in a living area. However; time for the turtles to both swim of find a burrow so have to expand. I will be going to at least a 125 gallon by the end of this year and probably end up with 180 gallons in the next 2-3.
do the course and medium sponges keep their shape after cleaning
Surprisingly yes 😁
Cool i ll. be moding mine the same, love ur channel bring more content
Good luck :) I’ll try
I've been to Home Depot And Lowes and they don't sell those damn foam pads , were can i get those?
A good fish store should have them in. They tend to be around the pond section 😁
What type of filter foam did u use I know one was black and one was blue I can’t seem to find them?
Do you know if the lid off a fx6 would fit a fx5?
I’m not sure sorry
You crack your FX6 open every 2 weeks? I don't open mine until I notice reduced water flow (usually every 2 months or so). I would never put that fine blue foam in mine, or I would be opening mine every 2 weeks also ( I have a large messy Oscar and a large messy Pleco).
Yeah I’ve cut it down to every month now, so it’s a little bit more dirty but the tank still remains clean. I suppose that’s one of the cons of keeping big messy fish ha!
@@SimplyShrimps Yep they are both poop machines.
the fact is that the muck is traped on the blue foam thus is still present in the curculation , by sxtending the clean up sessions u just put5ting mor no3 into the system
I’ve not noticed elevated levels of nitrate and as long as you keep up with water changes it should be ok :)
What’s better to use fx4 or fx6 for a 75 gallon with mbuna fish.
Well the FX 4 would be fine for 75 gallons. I however would go with the FX 6 for the extra filtering and media mass. Look at it this way with the FX 6 youll have more than enough and it could even be used on a larger tank if you went that route. You can't over filter so if you get a good deal on the FX6 go for it. The FX4 however is right up there and does a great job. Depends on what you're keeping in the tank too!
Some good points :)
is the fx6 quite a loud filter?
iI put four fx 5,s on a 120 g tank also has two aqueon 55/75 hobs aswell.tank stays mint ,I DO ONE FX EVERY 3 MONTHS ANS
D ONCE A WEEK ON THE HANGERS.
Sometimes I think I need more haha
I just got this cannister filter and man it's noisy!!! Like seriously noisy. Any ideas on what to do?
Oops! I've not noticed mine being too noisy. Yes it does 'hum' a bit but it's in a closed cabinet and doesn't bother me too much. Sorry :(
Can I use the regular fluval media instead of Biohome?
You can do yes. The more biological media the better :)
Thanks
Do you find the fx6 to be too loud or noisy?
Not overly. It has a little hum, but if you’re listening to music or watching tv it’s ok.
why can't you keep the original coarse filter on the outside and just add a finer filter inside it?
Simply because there is not enough room as the original foam fills the space anyway :)
@@SimplyShrimps I call BS on that one, I did it today and is already working a treat. I will let you know how long it takes before micro bubbling
Awesome! Yes please let me know :)
I did the same thing and I love itOh my nitrates and everything stays where they’re supposed to be
where did you got the foam???
What is the name of the black blue foam??
Where do you buy that kind of filter
Great video,thks sir
No problem 😁
Where did you buy the foams from please?
Also I was going to pimp my FX6 do you think it is worth the pimp as far as the biohome media id concerned. It cost $100 US just for the media. Not a lot of videos of long term use of it. It does get great reviews But my other idea was to pimp a little harder and have a spong only canister prefilter and the FX full of lava rock that will cost me less than $20 US. I would like to know what you think since I just watched the pondguru video today and he sells it you don't and are trying it.
It is good stuff and my water is very stable. Plus I’ve not had any fish death in about a year. Though if lava rock is easier for you go for that. Having said that biohome media is supposed to produce anaerobic bacteria which helps finish the nitrogen cycle.
I was thinking the same thing. $100 to fill each FX6 with Biohome Media. Yikes. Was wondering if Lava Rock would work just as well.
Lava rock works just as well as Biohome and is far cheaper. Biohome is basically fired clay and is way over priced with little scientific proof it's any better than other media types. As long as you have sufficient amounts of media it will do the trick. Sadly no amount of Biohome will make a so now FX6 a total anaerobic bacteria factory with total nitrifacation taking place. To do this the water must have very little movement which the FX6 is not known for.
Awesome video bro got ya self a new sub
Where do you got the foam? I am ready to trick out my FX6 please help.
I got it from pondguru but most fish shops should sell it
I have an fx6 and i can go longer than two or more months and my filter doesnt get that bad. I have african cichlids which are big waste producers and its a 135 gallon tank. how does your filter get so dirty?
I know no idea! It makes me sad sometimes 😂
Great video, man! Thanks for sharing. Where did you buy those 2 sponges (black and blue)?
I got them from Pondguru, but most fish shops will have some sponges near the pond section :)
Do you work at gates garden centre ?
What makes you say that? :)
@@SimplyShrimps I spoke with you Sunday about the custom tank ? :)
Alas! That was me ha.
Hiya - just got the fx4 (first canister) and ordered biohome ultimate. Did you put that stuff in bags? Loose? Or mix it loose with the biomax? Thanks! Couldn't see the media in this vid~
Hey, I literally just put it loose in the filter :)
How much bio home do you add
I believe it’s 1kg for 100 litres, so about 5kg :)
Does it actuly work though
i allways wrap a towel as well
I followed PondGuru’s & others instruction on improved filtration and though the filtration is clearly better, the flow rate was far too reduced.
Interesting you should say that. I’ve not personally notice too much reduction in flow rate on mine.
where do you buy these sponges from AMAZON ? please share a link asap. From USA
Most local fish store will have them in the pond section :)
Where did you get the sponge filters for the improvement of the FX6?! I need to upgrade mine,too? Mine gets clogged too frequently!
Thank you in advance!
tiensu1 u can get them off amazon,
Thank you! I did not see your reply until today! It went to a mailbox I have not checked for a long time!
i love that trap trap trap trap bit hahah
where did you get those black/blue foams?
Most aquatic shops should have some
Very nice. :) I will also do a video on it and pimp it slightly differently.
Thanks! I look forward to it :)
i go about 8 weeks or more before cleaning
The only problem with that is you lose flow rate by doing this and could burn up pump .
True, however i've not had any issues with this and still do regular maintenance on the filter :)
Do you replace the outside sponges each time you clean?
No I just clean them. I only replace the filter floss :)
where did you buy the sponges? I also want to do it on my FX: D
You get these at pond suppliers. They're used in pond filters mostly.
@@LaurenceFletcher thx ;)
How can it get that dirty in 2 weeks ??? Yo have almost no fish in that tank!!!
I know! It’s crazy 😩😂
Thats what i was thinking...
Where can you buy the filter foam from
Most fish stores should have some near their pond section :)
Great video.
Cheers 😁
Stick eheim pre filter on the intake instead of the stock strainer.makes filter even more functional
Sounds good. I’ll have to look into this product 😁 Thanks!
Where can I find those sponges
Most fish shops should sell sponges you can cut to size.
I have to check them out I’m in Los Angeles California so the stores here I’m going to check them out
Good luck :)
What are they called again ??? So I can search on line
Filter sponge? Filter foams?
Were can I purchase those spunges
If you're not in the UK then I don't know. Most good fish shops will have then in stock or will be able to order some in :)
Where do you buy the sponge material at?
You should be able to buy some at a good fish store. It tends to be near the pond things :)
Do you work in Maidenhead Aquatics Rutland?
I might work in a Maidenhead Aquatics. Have you been to the Rutland store?
Simply Shrimps I was in there yesterday last thing. Bought some Neon Green Rasbora. I thought it was you but didn’t want to look a div incase it wasn’t. But then during the video you use a video from the shop and have an orange Maidenhead net, also an Ocean free filter which is mostly only sold by Maidenhead. The Penny dropped then.
Haha Sherlock Holmes watch out 😉 You’ll have to say hi next time!
Simply Shrimps ha ha will do.
Once you change all the bio media you need to do fish in cycle
Could you list the source for the new interlocking sponge filters? thanks!
You can get it from most fish shops :)
@@SimplyShrimps you cant honestly
Might be worth having a word with the owners. They should be able to get it in.