Well, a lot of cichlids fishkeepers in this days say the new way is only mechanical and biological media inside the canister filters. I used to go just the way you are demonstrating in your video, a combination of mech and bio and it used to give me great results: sparkling, cristal clear clean water in my tanks. Now, I have the planning of using two canisters, one for biological and the other for the chemical, each with a combination of mechanical and adding a hob for a 175 or a 225 gallons with african cichlids
I was interested how you started this video regarding the amount of pads you have and waste money on.. you stipulated you have Central/South American Cichlids that thrive in acidic water and you use crushed coral/shell for biological media, I’m fully confused as why this is an ultimate guide... I could save your wallet and time with some tips.(please do not take offence as this is not my intention I just want to help) this new upgrade will need to take place over a month split into a fortnight so one filter at the start of the month and the second filter midway through the month as this will prevent a crash of sorts. The tray setups as follows bottom tray: the thin black sponge that used to be carbon keep NEVER bin, next the big tube of Phosguard by seachem in a bag sit you C3 on top this is all the chemical filtration you need.. Middle tray: Fluval BioMax you will need 4 boxes of the 1500 size it’s the largest they do, place the rings on their end and fill the tray you should be able to stack it twice on itself, then fill the red tray the same way and place this on top, you will only get one layer in the red tray. Top tray: fill the tray the same way as the other tray two layer stacked on top of them selves, then the red tray with the black sponge and that’s it you have made this optimally for biological and chemical filtration it’s how I run mine I have crystal clear water and no excess grown algae and I have a predator tank with a MBU puffer easily more waste than your tank. Next inside your tank and the strainer of the FX6, remove this from the sleeve it slides up and down on, you notice the strainer comes apart and you can place a piece of large porous sponge 1inch thick2.5 inch wide and around 5 inches long, I buy the largest porous square sponge from Juwel and place this inside the strainer and clean this twice a week you will get ZERO sand enter the FX6 and also not need polishing pads that clog fast and reduce flow inside your FX6... At the moment your filter has very poor biological capability as the crushed coral/shell is nothing more than substrate and will create sand that will damage the impeller and seals. BioMax is sintered glass which is extremely porous and bacteria will thrive to the point that you will NEVER have readings of ammonia or nitrite as they will remain zero. However as you will be semi starting from scratch when you start the upgrade add a 100ml bottle of Tetra Safe Start as this will kickstart your biological capability, do this treatment for each time you upgrade the filters. After this point stagger the maintenance of each FX6 when you do your water changes. If you decide to upgrade to this way you will never need buy chemical pads or purigen again and if you buy a phosphate test kit the phosguard should read zero on the test and when you finally get a reading after 6-8 months you’ll have saved a decent amount of money... this upgrade will work so I hope you try it and have the same great success that I have. Take care..
Biomax is over priced and over rated plus it makes false claims. Like it will grow anaerobic bacteria in the middle of it. Is it possible? Yes in the perfect conditions. In a canister filter where oxygenated water is flowing all around it at a high rate it will never happen. He has more than enough bio media in the filter. You have to count all the sponge in there too. In fact if argue the sponge grow more bacteria than the bio media plus it's in his substrate. A tank will only grow enough bacteria to consume/convert nitrates so having a crazy amount of bio media isn't necessary. Going back to the anaerobic bacteria. For me it's the last thing I want in my tank. What people don't tell you is anaerobic bacteria convert nitrate back to nitrite then they convert the nitrite back to ammonia. The layer of your biomedia or substrate that gets oxygen to is now working double duty to handle the ammonia coming from above and below. The only one of those pads I would use and I'm talking about the chemical pads is the phosphate pad. Why? Phosphates are what cause alge. Not your lights or sun light. Light makes the problem worse but phosphates are the root cause. Do an 80% water change once a week and all this will be solved or build a bcb basket or an under gravel/substrate plenum and it will grow anoxic bacteria which borrow oxygen from nitrate which converts the nitrate into nitrogen which is completely harmless and it gasses off the top of it tank like co2. If you want to learn about bcb baskets and how to setup a plenum watch a channel call "Dr. Kevin Novak " he's a PhD and has studied the biology of aquariums for years. He's the only person on CZcams that gives you facts not opinions. One last thing. The bcb basket of plenum also reduce phosphates.
I just bought an FX 6 for a new 125 gallon. I also have a never used Pen Plax 1000. I have an idea to use the pen plax as bio/chemical only and the FX 6 as mechanical only. What do you think?
The fx6 is a fantastic mechanical filter, but feel still has room for biological filtration, the beauty of this hobby is that there are no real wrong answers just people with different opinions, experiment and find what works for you best 👍🏼
Thanks for the comment, in all honesty I wish I had however I just stuck to what I knew at the time, our house will be getting extended in a few years so maybe we will do a sump in the next tank 16ft x 3ft tall x 2ft, if it comes in at under 10k I will be happy 😊
Will certainly be adding more Biohome ultimate soon, don't forget we have over 100kg of bogwood and the substrate acts like a biomedia, thanks for you comments and support 👍🏼😎
Allright good job Indeed thats for sure and you know what u do it was not to teach u lesson i really like your scape and all your fish 👍 keep posting its always fun to see such a beautiful tank as yours🤩
Do you need the nitrite and ammonia sponges once the filter has matured. I've set my fx up similar to you . I've just ordered the phosphate sponges though.
Well, a lot of cichlids fishkeepers in this days say the new way is only mechanical and biological media inside the canister filters. I used to go just the way you are demonstrating in your video, a combination of mech and bio and it used to give me great results: sparkling, cristal clear clean water in my tanks. Now, I have the planning of using two canisters, one for biological and the other for the chemical, each with a combination of mechanical and adding a hob for a 175 or a 225 gallons with african cichlids
I have a 125 with African peacocks and i have an fx4 with just mechanical and biological. I followed pod gurus fx4 ultimate set up to set mine up.
I was interested how you started this video regarding the amount of pads you have and waste money on.. you stipulated you have Central/South American Cichlids that thrive in acidic water and you use crushed coral/shell for biological media, I’m fully confused as why this is an ultimate guide... I could save your wallet and time with some tips.(please do not take offence as this is not my intention I just want to help) this new upgrade will need to take place over a month split into a fortnight so one filter at the start of the month and the second filter midway through the month as this will prevent a crash of sorts. The tray setups as follows bottom tray: the thin black sponge that used to be carbon keep NEVER bin, next the big tube of Phosguard by seachem in a bag sit you C3 on top this is all the chemical filtration you need.. Middle tray: Fluval BioMax you will need 4 boxes of the 1500 size it’s the largest they do, place the rings on their end and fill the tray you should be able to stack it twice on itself, then fill the red tray the same way and place this on top, you will only get one layer in the red tray. Top tray: fill the tray the same way as the other tray two layer stacked on top of them selves, then the red tray with the black sponge and that’s it you have made this optimally for biological and chemical filtration it’s how I run mine I have crystal clear water and no excess grown algae and I have a predator tank with a MBU puffer easily more waste than your tank. Next inside your tank and the strainer of the FX6, remove this from the sleeve it slides up and down on, you notice the strainer comes apart and you can place a piece of large porous sponge 1inch thick2.5 inch wide and around 5 inches long, I buy the largest porous square sponge from Juwel and place this inside the strainer and clean this twice a week you will get ZERO sand enter the FX6 and also not need polishing pads that clog fast and reduce flow inside your FX6... At the moment your filter has very poor biological capability as the crushed coral/shell is nothing more than substrate and will create sand that will damage the impeller and seals. BioMax is sintered glass which is extremely porous and bacteria will thrive to the point that you will NEVER have readings of ammonia or nitrite as they will remain zero. However as you will be semi starting from scratch when you start the upgrade add a 100ml bottle of Tetra Safe Start as this will kickstart your biological capability, do this treatment for each time you upgrade the filters. After this point stagger the maintenance of each FX6 when you do your water changes. If you decide to upgrade to this way you will never need buy chemical pads or purigen again and if you buy a phosphate test kit the phosguard should read zero on the test and when you finally get a reading after 6-8 months you’ll have saved a decent amount of money... this upgrade will work so I hope you try it and have the same great success that I have. Take care..
I have made a video on my channel that helps explain more by showing step by step. I hope it helps anyone who sees it.... take care everyone
Biomax is over priced and over rated plus it makes false claims. Like it will grow anaerobic bacteria in the middle of it. Is it possible? Yes in the perfect conditions. In a canister filter where oxygenated water is flowing all around it at a high rate it will never happen. He has more than enough bio media in the filter. You have to count all the sponge in there too. In fact if argue the sponge grow more bacteria than the bio media plus it's in his substrate. A tank will only grow enough bacteria to consume/convert nitrates so having a crazy amount of bio media isn't necessary. Going back to the anaerobic bacteria. For me it's the last thing I want in my tank. What people don't tell you is anaerobic bacteria convert nitrate back to nitrite then they convert the nitrite back to ammonia. The layer of your biomedia or substrate that gets oxygen to is now working double duty to handle the ammonia coming from above and below. The only one of those pads I would use and I'm talking about the chemical pads is the phosphate pad. Why? Phosphates are what cause alge. Not your lights or sun light. Light makes the problem worse but phosphates are the root cause. Do an 80% water change once a week and all this will be solved or build a bcb basket or an under gravel/substrate plenum and it will grow anoxic bacteria which borrow oxygen from nitrate which converts the nitrate into nitrogen which is completely harmless and it gasses off the top of it tank like co2. If you want to learn about bcb baskets and how to setup a plenum watch a channel call "Dr. Kevin Novak " he's a PhD and has studied the biology of aquariums for years. He's the only person on CZcams that gives you facts not opinions. One last thing. The bcb basket of plenum also reduce phosphates.
Awesome video bro got ya self a new sub….
Thanks I appreciate it 👍🏼😎
I just bought an FX 6 for a new 125 gallon. I also have a never used Pen Plax 1000. I have an idea to use the pen plax as bio/chemical only and the FX 6 as mechanical only. What do you think?
The fx6 is a fantastic mechanical filter, but feel still has room for biological filtration, the beauty of this hobby is that there are no real wrong answers just people with different opinions, experiment and find what works for you best 👍🏼
My set up exactly,FX6 mechanical, Aquael Ultramax 2000 bio only
Great video
Great video, I wonder why not use a sump for your big tank ?
Thanks for the comment, in all honesty I wish I had however I just stuck to what I knew at the time, our house will be getting extended in a few years so maybe we will do a sump in the next tank 16ft x 3ft tall x 2ft, if it comes in at under 10k I will be happy 😊
I like ur videos bro but you defily need more bio media thats for sure no offence👍 not al the pads ur using are good
Will certainly be adding more Biohome ultimate soon, don't forget we have over 100kg of bogwood and the substrate acts like a biomedia, thanks for you comments and support 👍🏼😎
Allright good job Indeed thats for sure and you know what u do it was not to teach u lesson i really like your scape and all your fish 👍 keep posting its always fun to see such a beautiful tank as yours🤩
I can't believe you would spend money on that biohome crap.
@@johnfadds6089 I can't believe I'm still on this planet.lol
@@johnfadds6089i use nothing but biohome. I have used many types of bio med and biohome is the only one to keep my water in check.
Do you need the nitrite and ammonia sponges once the filter has matured. I've set my fx up similar to you . I've just ordered the phosphate sponges though.
We found them to work well, currently using them in just one of the fx6s, phosphate should keep that pesky algae at bay 🤞🏼
At 7:52 do you know the ppi of that sponge??
My basket the middle bit broke fell out. Anyone help were I can find a new basket. No one selling.
Are you talking about the rex basket in the white basket or the white basket itself? I don’t use the red ones in my fx4 they are a waste of space.