Fluval Fx5

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How often should I clean/rinse the contents of my fluval fx5 filter?

 

[shelaghfishface]

i'll trade you the info for a pic of your baby oscar

lol

 

[dbanner]

i'll trade you the info for a pic of your baby oscar

lol

Haha give me a min... Il try and take 1, he/she doesn't stay still and using my iPhone to take a pic isn't the best lol...

There you go like i said, not the easiest job taking a pick of a little Oscar with an iPhone lol

 

[shelaghfishface]

OMG hes beautiful.. sooo weeny too

( my all time fave fish, ive had a fair few)

oh and in repy to the original Q i dunno lol.. i prob wouldnt touch it for between 6-8 months even longer ( unless you notice a drop in FR), they have massive capabilities and unfortunately ive never owned one due to lack of funds
dont spose it would hurt you do rinse it with every water change but why bother.. if it aint broke and all that

 

[dbanner]

OMG hes beautiful.. sooo weeny too

( my all time fave fish, ive had a fair few)

oh and in repy to the original Q i dunno lol.. i prob wouldnt touch it for between 6-8 months even longe ( unless you notice a drop in FR)r, they have massive capabilities and unfortunately ive never owned one due to lack of funds
dont spose it would hurt you do rinse it with every water change but why bother.. if it aint broke and all that

Thank you he is very small and is with a pair of jewels, a pair of jack dempseys and a green severum.. The jacks and jewels are a little bigger than the Oscar. There is nothing noticeably wrong with the filter, I was for some reason under the impression that they had to be cleaned in tank water every month?? Could be wrong lol

 

[shelaghfishface]

we should start a vote thread to see how many owners clean theres out once a month.. the answer would be 0
FX5 owners only buy them as you get a free packet of lazy-itus with them ( sorry boys, had to be said )

i have never cleaned any filter once a month so dam sure i wouldn't be pulling one of those apart

each to his own tho, you might want to make it more reg when they reach full size but not now
shelagh x

 

[mattlee]

no need to do maintenance on the FX5 for a long time unless you use the floss pads etc. the pads tend to block up very fast especially with big cichlids so most people run them with just the white foam and ceramic media in the baskets.

there is no need to clean any filter really unless you notice a reduction in flow as shelagh stated unless you need to keep your nitrates down for sensitive species. i clean my 2 every few months for the nitrate reason on my ray tank but leave it much longer for the 2 on my angelfish tank as they arent as messy or sensitive as the rays.

when cleaning them its a good idea to remove the motor casing and clean out the impellor and the housing because if its gunked up it wont restart and you have to strip the whole thing apart again which is a pain as it will be full of water on the restart they dont gunk up fast but ive had this happen to me a few times and its very annoying so i just do it as general maintenance everytime the filter needs a rinse. it also gives you a great chance to clean inside the parts of the filter you normally wouldnt get to without removing the motor/impellor.

its also worth buying a cleaner kit from lfs that contains bendy brushes of different sizes to get in all the difficult places. a small brush cleans out the small tube on the inside of the lid very well

it may be worth getting a length of hose and using the spare tap when refilling and starting. point it in a large bucket and let it prime itself and you will get all the crap in the bucket and not back in your tank. put the original hose back on and restart and minimal crap will enter your water instead of a cloud of dirty poo n stuff.....

another tip is to carry the FX5 to a sink and use the purge valve to empty a bit of water otherwise when opening the lid you will spill water as it will be full to the brim. better still if poss drain some water out using the purge valve before moving it to make it lighter and easier to move about. just make sure you have both taps closed ontop of the filter when using the purge valve otherwise the flow will be from the tank not the filetr so the filter wont empty.....

you probably know all of this anyway but its things ive found that make this filter easier to clean etc

 

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Thank for that I also have a fluval 406 on my vision 260 home to my rainbow snakeheads... I have been rinsing the contents of that filter every month as I thought I had to... Oops. Would I be ok to leave that for a few months before cleaning too? As you said most filters don't need cleaning often... I normally do my external 305 and internal interpet PF4 monthly too...

 

[shelaghfishface]

snakeheads are very happy in tanks that arent overly maintained so yep.. they be more than happy

 

[dbanner]

snakeheads are very happy in tanks that arent overly maintained so yep.. they be more than happy

Ah right ok thanks for that

 

[shelaghfishface]

talking of snakeheads wheres nelly these days? he still about?

 

[mattlee]

Thank for that I also have a fluval 406 on my vision 260 home to my rainbow snakeheads... I have been rinsing the contents of that filter every month as I thought I had to... Oops. Would I be ok to leave that for a few months before cleaning too? As you said most filters don't need cleaning often... I normally do my external 305 and internal interpet PF4 monthly too...

unless you have fish sensitive to nitrates then leave any filter alone until either the nitrates get too high or the flow reduces.

there will be plenty of crap in a filter after a few months left alone and this will effect the bioload and the nitrate level in time. nothing to worry about but after time a 20% water change or whatever you do on the tank wont bring the nitrates down by much due to the gunk in the filter.

most fish are fine with nitrates up to quite a high level but for a few minutes a week testing the levels in the water and 20 minutes to clean a filter every few months i think its worth giving the fish their best chance. cleaning a filter too often can also effect the bacteria levels quite a bit as they wont get chance to get fully established and in good colonies.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I typically give my FX5 a good clean out every 2-3 months (tends to happen on bank holiday weekends, debating doing it tomorrow!), giving the basket surrounding sponges a good squeeze/rinse in removed tank water and dunking individual baskets in/out of removed tank water a few times. Empty the cannister of water and any gunk collected at the bottom, replace any wandering Eheim Substrat Pro back into the the baskets, remove the power unit from the cannister to give the impeller plus its cavity a clean.

Reassemble, opening the output valve and then the input valve to let it self-prime, turn it back on and be amazed at the extra energy from the water shooting out of my 22mm elbow mod (simply replaces the flow weakening adjustable double output) after the clean out!

 

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Thanks everyone as for nelly I did sent him a message asking for some advice a couple of weeks back. He replied to my message and I think he said something about not having regular Internet access which is why it took a couple of days for him to reply... May have read it wrong but got a feeling it was somewhere along those lines

 

[shelaghfishface]

Thanks everyone as for nelly I did sent him a message asking for some advice a couple of weeks back. He replied to my message and I think he said something about not having regular Internet access which is why it took a couple of days for him to reply... May have read it wrong but got a feeling it was somewhere along those lines

ah right, ive got him on facebook but rarely see him there either.. maybe hes in Columbia again x