# Two filter  set-up



## jsiegmund (3 Jan 2015)

Hi all, 

First of all: I realize that the question I'm about to ask has been asked before and I've done some reading already. But I wanted to ask your advise on my specific situation. 

At the moment, I'm running my 240L tank on a JBL e901 greenline filter which does 900l/hr. I am adding CO2 through an Aqua Medic 1000 external reactor, which reduces flow even further. To have somewhat appropriate flow in my tank, at the moment I have a circulation pump running 24/7 in the same direction as my outflow. I'm using a plastic lily pipe end as my outlet. 

To improve this situation, I'm about to buy an Eheim 2075 which adds 1250 l/hr of circulation capacity. To even the two out, I'm planning on running the Aqua Medic on the Eheim instead of the JBL. That should give them both roughly the same output I think, maybe the output on the Eheim will be a bit better still. I'm hoping for 2000l/hr which should be about 10x the net liters of water in my tank. Could still run the circulation pump as an extra when required. 

But I'm struggling on what would be a good set-up. I read a lot about the spraybar against the back of the tank which seems a good idea. But when I would have two spraybars for each filter, only one of them would be spraying CO2 enriched water from the aqua medic. I suspect that might result in CO2 circling round in only one half of the tank.

So instead I could do a double lily pipe, or maybe some other alternative. At the moment, I have both intake and outflow in the rear left of my tank. Looks like this: 




 

Tank is 240L, 120cm wide. So what I'd like to know is what approach you guys would take and why.


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## nayr88 (3 Jan 2015)

How much is th new filter your buying? Thought about selling the jbl and putting the money plus the expense of the extra filter on a single high output filter?

Or

Buying a second atomiser for the 2nd ? Could always have both outflows pointing the same way and only one enriched with co2 that should be fine, as long as your creating and nice swirling current that you can see moving the plants leaves.

With the bulk of the planting in the centre of like the idea of one single spray bar with one high flow filter.


Just a side note really not to fond of the little rock corner on the right, looks out of place.  Also the rock closest to the front of the glass, the one right of the most right twig.....turn it to face the right  at the moment it's facing slightly left and one behind is facing slightly right.

Just my 2cents haha


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## Another Phil (3 Jan 2015)

hi jsiegmund,

 FWIW the e901 is rated at 900 l/h without hoses and filter media, with 1.5m  of hose and clean supplied media it drops to 380-450 l/h. and the e1901 drops to 1100-1200 l/h. If you've got the instruction manual it's on p23.
Eheim USED to be the only company to quote the "in-use" flow rate, so always looked poor in comparison charts; I don't know if that is still the case.
phil


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## nayr88 (3 Jan 2015)

Another Phil said:


> hi jsiegmund,
> 
> FWIW the e901 is rated at 900 l/h without hoses and filter media, with 1.5m  of hose and clean supplied media it drops to 380-450 l/h. and the e1901 drops to 1100-1200 l/h. *If you've got the instruction manual it's on p23.*
> Eheim USED to be the only company to quote the "in-use" flow rate, so always looked poor in comparison charts; I don't know if that is still the case.
> phil



Strong 5th post!!

Good information and worth taking into account.
Adding 'in-line' items such as heaters and what not, will slow you further. With the 10x rule I *wouldn't* suggest taking into account what your making after media and hose length(unless at an extreme) but would suggest one item per filter if you go the inline route for hearing aaaaaand co2

So a filter claiming 1000lph(no media) I would say is fine on a 100liter tank even though Phill is saying that realisticlty with media and hosing the filter will be giving more like 500lph 'in use' 

Just a side not I allllllllways aim for 15-20x flow so 1200lph on a 60. BUT Ive never planted over 60liters so don't mind the expense of the filter.


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## jsiegmund (3 Jan 2015)

Hi guys. Appreciate the info and indeed very worth taking into account. If Eheim is still mentioning the actual flow rates including media, that would mean that the difference between the two will be even bigger. The suggestion to buy a single filter; I thought about that but I like the idea of having two so I have a back-up in case one fails. With one big one, you also have one big point of failure should something happen. I'm buying the 2075 second hand, so it costs me only 80 euros. The head is leaking a bit but a new rubber should solve that. In time I could switch the e901 as well and replace it with a second 2075 or something similar, just have to wait for one to be sold. I don't want to spend the money on a brand new one, let alone two. The JBLs are more affordable, but reading this I would need two 1501s to get near the desired flow rate. In the best case scenario I would like to have one Eheim thermo so I can remove the heating from the tank.

Haven't bought it yet, so there's still time to consider an alternative


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## nayr88 (3 Jan 2015)

You'll pick up a fluval fx5 on eBay(or similar site) for around £100 so better flow then the eheim as the fx5 is 2300lph....then sell your other filter, and buy a few spare bits for the fx5 a seal a clip or 2 and what else you want. 

Megggggaaaaaaa filter!!!


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## jsiegmund (3 Jan 2015)

Thanks for the tip mate, found one already! Sounds like a proper plan. And then go with the spraybar along the back side I guess??


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## nayr88 (3 Jan 2015)

Yeh, that's way proper flow. Spares too and it's all neat and sweet


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## jsiegmund (4 Jan 2015)

Are there any good ready made spray bars out there, cause all I seem to find for the FX5 is DYI. Not a problem either when needed, but if there are any decent ones I'd rather buy one.


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## nayr88 (4 Jan 2015)

I haven't looked into it, best be would be to stick an add in the 'for sale/wanted' section of he forum, see if someone would be willing to make you one in exchange for ££


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## Wallace (4 Jan 2015)

jsiegmund said:


> Are there any good ready made spray bars out there, cause all I seem to find for the FX5 is DYI. Not a problem either when needed, but if there are any decent ones I'd rather buy one.



Yup!

Buy a Tetratec EX2400 spraybar from eBay. 

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=150985734733 

All you need is the 90° elbow and the spraybar itself, then just throw the rest of the kit on your spares box. That's what I am using with my FX6. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## jsiegmund (5 Jan 2015)

Great, ordered the Tetratec, not going to mess around for that money. Thanks again.


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## jsiegmund (10 Jan 2015)

Got the FX5 yesterday, it was a wee bit bigger than I had expected  Have to perform some small modifications to my cabinet to get it to fit. Also received the spray bar, so I'm all good to go. Unfortunately I'm abroad this week, so will have to wait a bit before I get it up and running. Will run it next to the JBL for a couple of weeks first. That does give me some time to think about what to put in the filter baskets. Any suggestions? I'm running my JBL with just the default sponges and some ceramic tube thingies (what are those called?) in the bottom basket. Got the Fluval including the sponges for the sides of the basket, but no media for the insides. I'm not too worried about reducing flow since I'll have plenty now I guess. My goal is: as clear as possible, without removing the stuff we need. I noticed some media removes phosphate and nitrite / nitrate for "better fish and plants", right...

What I have still lying around are more ceramic tubes and a bunch of left-over bioballs from my previous AM 1000. So I could do one basket of bioballs and two with ceramics, but is it advisable to add a polishing pad (as the manual states) in the bottom basket?


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## Wallace (10 Jan 2015)

Monster filters aren't they! In my FX6 I'm just using the media that came with it, so just the foam and ceramic noodles. That's it. I've got no pads or anything else, and to be honest I don't need it. The filter pumps so much water that I don't think it necessary, my water is clear enough for me and my tank is a room divider so is viewable from both front and I guess you could say back faces. 


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## jsiegmund (10 Jan 2015)

Okay, great. I guess I'll go with two baskets of ceramic noodles and one with bioballs as that's what I have lying around anyway. Anyone has any experience using prefilters / shrimp guards instead of the default strainer? I'm a bit afraid that I'll be doing monthly rescue missions in the canister if I don't replace it. Have got a mesh shrimp guard but that won't fit the FX5 intake and will probably clog up in no-time. Found this one, but I'm a bit worried it will reduce intake flow a bit too much eventually.


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## nayr88 (10 Jan 2015)

Get a nice big bag of 'purigen' in there if you want water clear as Gin !! Excellent stuff and never runs out, just clean it in a bleach player mix and then wash through with a proper de bleaching thing can't remember the name. 

Some reading material 

http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/couple-of-quick-purigen-questions.34158/

http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/purigen.14914/


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## jsiegmund (10 Jan 2015)

Yeah I read about that stuff, opinions seem to vary though. But I might as well give it a go. Another thing I'm thinking about is the hosing. The pump came with the default ribbed fluval hosing. I'm not sure how well that's going to connect to my AM 1000. It'll be just hard plastic on hard plastic which just doesn't feel right. So I might consider buying some regular hosing instead which will also be a bit easier to handle (I have little space behind the cabinet). I also read some people cut off a part of the nozzles so the throughput of the AM 1000 increases a bit. As I've got two spare nozzles lying around I might as well try that too.


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## nayr88 (10 Jan 2015)

Yeah good thinking, sure you can pick up tubing like that from b&q... Could get it with a ting to the tube as well, I had clear and would see some cruddy brown buildup on the tubing over time, I had glass ware intake outtake so just pushed the cleaning rod down tubing when I cleaned other bits.

Obviously fishshops stock it and a good few of out sponsors, not sure if there's any difference between them, sponsors on here means no leaving the house it'll just turn up haha.


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## nayr88 (10 Jan 2015)

Oh and I can't rate purigen enough, I will never not use it. Never had a single (that I found) deficiency in me tank, shrimps where breeding plants where out of control....all was well.


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## jsiegmund (10 Jan 2015)

What's B&Q? I'm not in the UK so I don't think we have that over here  Anyway, I already found all stuff I need on aquaristic.net where I order most of the stuff I need. The only thing I'm not entirely sure of is the diameter for the hose. The default hose is supposed to be approx 1 inch, so 25/34 (millimeters) is the option to go with I guess? That's annoyingly expensive hosing at 7 euro's per meter...

Option 2: 19/27 with some warm water to convince it to fit. Might be better for connection to the AM 1000 as well.


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## jsiegmund (17 Jan 2015)

Anyone using non-standard hoses on an FX5?


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## jsiegmund (19 Jan 2015)

I opened a seperate thread just to split the two seperate topics: http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/bypass-for-am-1000.35810/

Yesterday I did a first test with the FX5, but the rubber connectors were leaking quite a bit so I first have to order some new ones. The Tetratec isn't quite long enough to span the tank. Because of the glass stabilizers, I cannot position it in the center. To really have a nice spread, I have to add one or two more sections which would require me to buy a second one.


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