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150 gallon


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The current filtration that I have on this tank includes:

FX5

Eheim 2217

Cascade 1500

The FX5 turns over a lot of water and I like the baskets that can be lifted out of the canister. The eheim, other than being a pain to setup compared to other filters, shocked me with how much media I could stuff in it. The cascade was really inexpensive and it can fit a lot in it. I am planning on taking out the baskets to stop potential bypass.

Water changes are about 50% once a week. I am planning on doing a big 80-90% change once a month now.

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Hey Greg, why don't you take a few pics of where you have your filters set up, where they input back into the tank, and add a tank shot, too? Gives you an excuse to play w. the new camera a bit more. :thumbs:

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Well, I took some pics of the eheim 2217 setup. The other filters will be coming later.

Here is the view of the tank. The intake is the middle. It's the really well-hidden green piece, lol. This was as far over as I could put it because the canister had to go under the left hand side of the tank.

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The intake is hard plastic. I appreciated that once I started setting up the spray bar. I am thinking of putting a pre-filter sponge onto my intakes.

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I found the eheim spray-bar unnecessarily difficult to setup. I would have just preferred a solid plastic connect going over the tank lid, but instead it was a bit more complicated:

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I had to fool around with the spray bar for a bit to make sure it was at the height I wanted. I have never had to cut a shot piece of tubing like that before.

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I actually get more flow out of the filter than I would have expected. I placed the return going across the tank. My other two filters are shooting across the tank, but from the other side. The eheim is on the left and the other two are on the right. I wanted to make sure the entire tank was getting water circulation. I pointed it at the water surface to get agitation for more oxygen in the water, but this way it is silent too. I push my water flow left to right (or vice-versa) in the tank rather than front to back (or vice-versa) because I would rather have the waste accumulating in areas that I can more easily get to. In my tanks where I have the flow starting at the back and pushing towards the front, I find that the waste is pushed towards the back of the tank, where it is harder for me to get at.

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I wasn't sure based on the instructions where to put the quick-releases so I went a bit off of the canister.

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Now the aspects of this filter that I love:

1. Huge volume

2. No bypass

3. Intake water from the tank goes into the bottom of the canister and flows back to the tank through the top. Genius.

Look at how much stuff you can jam in there!

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Eheim. In my opinion more of a pain to setup but worth the effort and the extra money.

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You're right! That is a TONNE of media! The only other filter I've seen to get close, or maybe a bit more, is a modified FX5; but, it'll take a bit of work to get the Fluval to that level.

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Here are some pics of the FX5 setup. I tried to reduce the size of the pictures to make viewing easier.

The input is on the far left end of the tank. I tried to get it as far away as the output so that it just wasn't recirculating the same water.

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The water goes up and the hose is hooked onto the edge of the tank, which I really like. It is very secure.

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The water then goes into the canister which is in the middle of the stand. It's the only one where it could fit! That would be a minor drawback of the FX5--it's huge!

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The water then goes back into the tank on the opposite side of the tank and, like all of my filters on this tank, it flows towards the side as opposed to the front.

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The FX5 sure turns over a lot of water. I may modify it for increased capacity, but I might let jvision try it out on his first so I can learn a thing or two first.

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Okay, e-lair fans (lol), I am going to post these pics of my Cascade 1500. I'll add some commentary later, but for now I am just testing to see if I can add smaller size pictures. The last pictures were just more compressed with less detail.

Edit: D'oh! I'm still working on the size reduction...

This is the spray bar return for the filtered water. It is on the opposite side of the tank as the eheim and pushes water in the same direction as the FX5. The Cascades get ripped for a lot of things, but one thing I like is the spray bar and nozzles options. Once you buy two, you can really mix and match the parts and figure out what works for you. On all three tanks I own I have different cascade output set ups.

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This is what the actual canister unit looks like. The button on the front is for priming the pump, which works well the first time you set it up or when the canister is empty, but is not as effective when you are priming it after a water change. I don't know if anyone noticed, but I have NLS jars and pails sitting all over, lol.

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This is an area where the Cascades get a bad rep: the attachments for the hoses to the canister. They are screw on and as such attaching and detaching is not as simple as a filter like the Rena XP. It's a five step process. For me, I don't go into my canisters that often. And if I need something small like media for a hospital or quarantine tank, I take out of the Rena instead.

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Just another shot.

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I think for price, the Cascade works quite well. I take out the media baskets to stop any potential bypass, which helps a lot. Like any filter, you have to make it work for you. Also, you can buy these at Nature's, so if there are any problems you get the best service in the business. :thumbs:

Edited by GregL
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Well, it may take a bit for me to tackle the FX5 mod. Being a planted tank, I don't need the extra biomedia. However, I am still contemplating switching my tanks around. The fact that my 90 is running a sump is really what's keeping me from doing the switch today.

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