Fx5 Media What Should I Have?

[simonas]

I bought an FX5 off ebay a short while back. At the time I changed it with my then existing external at about 10pm one wintry night in the garage. I didn;t take much notice of what was in it until today whn I cleaned it for the first time

First I must say how good it is to be ableto open the tap at the bottom offilter to drain water from the tank

Inside was only bits of filter wool for the centre of each tray and a couple of tights with carbon in and a sandy coloured substance

what should I use?

Simon

 

[Ross101]

I use Eheim media in mine.

It holds about 2litres in each basket.

So I went:

2L Eheim Mech pro in top basket
2L Eheim bio mech in middle basket
1L Eheim bio mech & 1L Eheim substrat in bottom basket

I use 1 filter wool between the bottom and mid basket.

I'm sure everyone does it differently though.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I've got ~2.5Kg of Substrat Pro in mine so far, spread between all baskets, but I must confess I keep thinking I should add some more media types.

 

[elisew]

There`s long, thick sponges in mine around the outsides of the baskets, I presume they`re the normal sponges as they came already in it when bought new I have added a few extra sponges from when I transferred over from my previous filters and I`ve added some bio rings to the middle of the 3 baskets.

 

[saltynay]

Your media should get gradually finer as it goes down the system e.g. Bioballs, coarse sponge, fine sponge, little bit of filter floss

 

[simonas]

cheers Saltnay

so heavier duty at the top near the incoming pipes? I always had it the other way but you make sense

 

[saltynay]

Larger holes towards the intake getting smaller to polishing wool to the outtake. Thats if your looking for a mechanical filtration priority setup.I can't get bioballs in Asia for cheap so I did inlet -> large rocks -> (carbon pellets would go here)gravel -> rough sponge -> fine sponge -> filter wool -> Outlet

If your looking for a biological setup then you want something with maximum surface area all the way that won't hinder flow so bioballs with some coarse sponge thrown in towards the end.

 

[Azrael]

The FX5 is actually the wrong way round, so you want the coarsest things at the bottom. Having said that, the sponges should be adequate for mechanical filtration, I just have bio-rings in all 3 of my baskets.