Your current Fish tank Setups!

Blatantly stealing an idea from someone else, I've recently added a little Ikea clip on LED light for evening viewing. Much better for the fish, and makes the tank look wonderfully mysterious.

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As usual, the plants are completely out of control. I'm letting them fight it out
 
I have just moved from a Juwel Rio 125L Tropical aquarium to a Fluval Osaka 320L Tropical aquarium. When I have saved up about £500 I will convert it to a fish only marine tank and then after a few months begin choice selecting it into a marine fish reef tank.
 
Nice little addition to the tank this week in the form of a flower stalk from each of the Aponogeton crispus 'red'. They looked pretty uninspiring at first but are developing into something rather lovely.

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I've had a tropical tank setup for around 10 months.
Its a jewel 3ft.

I have 5x clownloach
2x bristlenose plecs
2x bala sharks
1x red tail
1x cichlid
1x Siamese fighter blue
2x butterfly plecs 1 male 1 female
2x opaline gourami

Will get a pic up tomorrow.
 
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Does anyone have good experience with different brands of External Filters?

I'm in need of a new one because I was cleaning my Fluval 305 the other day, and while I was priming it with the primer plunger, I put a little bit too much sideways force and broke it. There was water leaking as the plunger seal is gone, and I don't trust running it, even though it may be possible to replace the part.

In all honesty, I've always found that it can be a bit frustrating in the five years or so I've had it. For one, the Aquastop valve assembly thing with the lever snapped not long after I bought it. The clamps for holding the hose to the top of the aquarium are easy to break and I've replaced them a few times, plus with a background on my rear glass, it doesn't make attaching them or the intake assembly very easy. The media baskets and the filter media seem to be suffering from some plastic warp, which makes putting them back in not so easy. Finally, I think the impeller may have seen better days and one of the plastic clips that holds it in place also snapped. The lid of the unit also doesn't seem to fit as smoothly as it used to. So as you can see, most of the issues are due to plastic construction.

Its the only External unit I've used, so I'm not sure whether I would get better results with another brand. I realise that Fluval have newer versions now, such as the 306, so it may be a little more robust.

If I was to get another Fluval, I'm thinking perhaps whether I should go for the FX5. It's obviously more expensive, but looks to be far better constructed. Not sure if its overkill for a 55G aquarium though?

Can anyone offer any input?
Cheers.
 
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Nexus said:
Does anyone have good experience with different brands of External Filters?
Click to expand...

That's 240 litres, so it's a fair sized tank! Are you running it as a planted tank or not? That will affect how much flow you want in there.

Personally I'm a big fan of JBL filters, they're brilliant quality and reasonably priced. There's also Eheim. Fluval (in my opinion) aren't a great option at present, since they're overpriced compared to other companies, are more awkward to maintain/change media types, and the plumbing isn't as nice.
 
Nexus said:
Does anyone have good experience with different brands of External Filters?

I'm in need of a new one because I was cleaning my Fluval 305 the other day, and while I was priming it with the primer plunger, I put a little bit too much sideways force and broke it. There was water leaking as the plunger seal is gone, and I don't trust running it, even though it may be possible to replace the part.

In all honesty, I've always found that it can be a bit frustrating in the five years or so I've had it. For one, the Aquastop valve assembly thing with the lever snapped not long after I bought it. The clamps for holding the hose to the top of the aquarium are easy to break and I've replaced them a few times, plus with a background on my rear glass, it doesn't make attaching them or the intake assembly very easy. The media baskets and the filter media seem to be suffering from some plastic warp, which makes putting them back in not so easy. Finally, I think the impeller may have seen better days and one of the plastic clips that holds it in place also snapped. The lid of the unit also doesn't seem to fit as smoothly as it used to. So as you can see, most of the issues are due to plastic construction.

Its the only External unit I've used, so I'm not sure whether I would get better results with another brand. I realise that Fluval have newer versions now, such as the 306, so it may be a little more robust.

If I was to get another Fluval, I'm thinking perhaps whether I should go for the FX5. It's obviously more expensive, but looks to be far better constructed. Not sure if its overkill for a 55G aquarium though?

Can anyone offer any input?
Cheers.
Click to expand...

I am exactly your man for the answer.

I had a Fluval 205 which I ended up getting rid of because I too snapped the aqua stop valve but before that It started leaking inside the valve. It almost cost me a huge leak upstairs. It was unfixable and I can only assume there is a problem with the aqua stop valve because looking at the models now they have changed it slightly.

Instead of spending another £100 on another one which I was never fully happy with. I bought a FX5 for £217. They are built incredibly well and as far as I can tell the valves are much much better. Its a very powerful piece of kit and its almost silent in operation. Self priming too and maintains its self daily with a 2min shut down to expel air from within the filter. Although be warned you get no filter media included in the box. You just get the sponges.
 
Thanks for the advice.

Sounds like the FX5 is a much better piece of kit. I did watch a video of it and was impressed that it does self-priming and expelling of air automatically. There was no mention of how quiet it was, so glad to see that its silent. I was also impressed by the two methods it has for emptying the unit, rather than my usual method with my 305 which involves tipping it into a bucket, which usually results in water everywhere.

I was quite interested to see what other brands offer in terms of the hosing and intakes/outtakes. As like I said, I have a sculpted background on the rear of the tank, so currently, I find the intake tends to stick out, because it can't be held in place with suckers.

Also for reference, I'm running a tank that largely consists of fake plants. I dabble with a few simple to grow plants though.
 
I've got a 180L Fluval tank with the pre-drilled pipes which came with a 205. That sprung a leak from the seal between the canister and lid after a couple of years. A new o-ring didn't fix it so replaced it with with a 305 as it uses the same fittings. No problems with it so far. Requires less maintenance - needs a clean very three months where the 205 got clogged up after a couple weeks! No problems with the priming etc as the tank does it for you via gravity.
 
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