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Another attempt at planted tanks - canister filter advice?

B

bionicfinger

Seedling
Joined
3 Nov 2017
Messages
11
Location
Maidstone
Hi everyone,

A while back I bought a second hand tank from a friend, a Juwel Trigon 190. After a bit of money spent on upgrading the lighting and buying appropriate substrate and plants, I then discovered this forum. Boy I wish I had before getting corner tank - my aim was to go with a high tech set up but after reading the issues with flow in a corner tank I soon changed my mind.

I kept the Trigon low tech and added a few tetra and for a while I was happy enough. But no more.

Now I have a Fluval Flex 57l which is heavily planted and low tech, currently at day 3. I have no plans to upgrade anything on this, only add shrimp and maybe a betta at a later date. I'll let you know how this goes once the tank is a bit more established.

My aim is to get an EA 900, either the aquascaper or freshwater and go high tech. I prefer the aquascaper, the boss (my wife) prefers the freshwater. Either way I know this is going to be a big investment and so the buy once, buy right is at the forefront of my mind and so I've been looking at canister filters.

The two that caught my eye immediately were the Oase Biomaster 600 with integrated heater and the Fluval FX4. Having done some research, I'm aware that the Oase has some flow issues but could be rectified with a bit of DIY. The FX4 sounds great, but I really don't like the hoses and not sure if there is a way I could adapt it to have clear hoses so that they are less obvious in the aquarium. I've also looked at the Eheim pro's but keep reading that people are having issues with the priming on these.

Can anyone give me any advice on any of these filters? Does anyone have experience with either the Oase 600 or the Fluval FX4? I have a budget of £250 for the filter so perhaps I should be considering another brand. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.
 
Hello @bionicfinger

bionicfinger said:
I have a Fluval Flex 57l which is heavily planted
Click to expand...
Get a picture up ;)

I have recently swapped over from Fluval G6 filters to Oase biomaster thermo 600s. My opinion is the Fluval G6 is a great filter but I was getting annoyed with it drawing air in unless the hose was absolutely straight from the valve which connects them to the filter and with having an inline heater it made this pretty much impossible.

My opinion on the Oase filters so far is they seem a good filter.
I like the fact that air is easy to get out of the system by tipping them back and forth and having the heather built in makes it one less thing in line, I think the flow is fine but I did get the bigger 600 models and am running one on my AS600; my AS900 will have 2 on it - you can't have too much flow in most cases.
I'm still to work out the best way to set them up to my liking and like many am not a fan of what comes with the filter; the Hel-X plastic media that came with it has never been put in and instead got myself some ceramic media, the pre-filter foam I have replaced for the more course 30ppi option and then used one of the big 20ppi foams then the 30ppi foam in the base of the filter followed by some filter foam before my ceramic media. I think this is defeating the point of the pre-filter a little bit and am thinking of ways to improve on my setup but that's something for another day.

I don't have experience of the FX filters but with the hose that comes with it you would have to work out a way to run your heaters and CO2 inline if that is something you planned to do due to the size of the hose being non standard; check out @Zeus. thread.
 
The Fluval FX4/6 are a great filters for the price IMO but the issues are the hoses :mad: you can get clear hoses that fit but they are so big and bulky and dont like going round tight corners without kinking. I used solid piping in my setup which also costs which works fine but no so easy to clean. I would suggest going for a simple a plumbing setup as possible, one thats easy to take apart and clean. Troble with the FX range also is because of the large hoses your choice of inlets/outlets is Zero except STD or DIY
 
Oase pre-filter is easy to clean without taking apart the whole filter and a built in heater is a must for me...
 
I think the choice of filter will depend on the tank. I've read so many good things about the fluval that it's hard to dismiss and so I'll probably go for this if I choose the ea freshwater. If I convince the Mrs that the aquascape is the way to go, then the oase will be my choice as I will probably go with glass lilypipe and clear hose set up. Thanks for the advice people, much appreciated.
 
bionicfinger said:
My aim is to get an EA 900, either the aquascaper or freshwater and go high tech. I prefer the aquascaper, the boss (my wife) prefers the freshwater. Either way I know this is going to be a big investment and so the buy once, buy right is at the forefront of my mind and so I've been looking at canister filters
Click to expand...

In case you missed it

George Farmer ea Freshwater 900 aquascaping video

This scape uses the tank height to good effect and George’s suggestion of angel fish is perfect for this style of tank
Unfortunately there are no light details included but note the plant choices and positioning - hopefully there will be a followup video sometime

If you invest in Kessil A360 or similar you can grow pretty much anything at the substrate level in these tall tanks (60-70cm high), if using lower intensity LEDs (including the Twinstar S series) you’ll need to plan accordingly
If you went Kessil, I’d also do 2 x Oase 600 filters, especially if you add significant hardscape - price difference is not that different from the 350’s and I’m with Green Aqua in that a good,extensive biofilter is a significant factor in discouraging algae
- my Eheims are full of biomedia :D no pot scrubbers for me ;) (I can’t quite fathom why those plastic coils are even used, they aren’t particularly efficient at mechanical or biological filteration :confused: )

I’ve used Eheims for years and after trying several other brands, I’m still convinced they’re an outstanding filter - the Pro series are much better at maintaining manufacturer advertised flow rate than most of the competition
Priming is supposed to be done with basically empty canister and empty inlet/outlet lines (so there is no backpressure against inflowing water)
Hopefully Eheim will adapt their heated filters to the Oase style which is much cheaper to maintain should a heater fail, though this design is not as efficient or even at heating the water volume

Green Aqua mentions in their videos, how tank height affects aquascape perception, they also show filter set ups on their tanks

Filipe Oliveira Youtube Channel also shows some taller tanks (70cm & 90cm as I recall)
 
for me and like zeus has stated bang on the money is the flual fx seies you can adapt these filters if you do a little tinkering with the pipework, its such a pitty Fluval have not clicked onto this and either introduced their own glass lilly pipe range or an adapter to fit after market lilly pipes and not the in ya face supplied pipework. Come on Fluval it's a no brainer!!!
 
alto said:
In case you missed it

George Farmer ea Freshwater 900 aquascaping video

This scape uses the tank height to good effect and George’s suggestion of angel fish is perfect for this style of tank
Unfortunately there are no light details included but note the plant choices and positioning - hopefully there will be a followup video sometime

If you invest in Kessil A360 or similar you can grow pretty much anything at the substrate level in these tall tanks (60-70cm high), if using lower intensity LEDs (including the Twinstar S series) you’ll need to plan accordingly
Click to expand...

Yes I saw this vid which was quite helpful. I think he's using the standard tube led lighting that comes with the tank.

Would just on Kessil A360 be sufficient for the whole tank?
 
No, lighting includes 2 extra LEDs, just no details

Kessil A360 or 2 x A160 depending on scape design and plants
For complete coverage of the tank footprint, 2 x A360 would be best (likely run under 100%)
2 x A160 will provide some high light and some shaded areas (run at 100%)

If you go with the ea 900 Aquascaper, I’d choose A160s
For the taller ea 900 freshwater, I’d choose A360s

(both have been sold slightly used in the sale Forum here, avoid the older A150 & A350 unless fantastic deal as control is very different & lower output & narrow or wide beam - you want wide beam for plants)

Note Kessil Freshwater is the “sun” or “tuna sun”
(tuna = tunable Spectrum)
 
I have an oase 350t on a 140l tank some would say nit enough flow but it keeps the tank good, you can adjust it, look on pimp my filter utube to show you how to drill extra holex in prefilter, it is easy to clean with the prefilter lot less work, for your ea 900 you would need a bigger filter really
 
I have an AE 900 (really like it) with an Oase thermo 600 and didn't notice any issue with flow. However since the beginning I replaced the pre-filter stock sponges by the 30ppi ones.
Really like this filter, totally silent, water super clear and easy to maintain (pre-filter sponges clean bi-weekly, other media once per quarter)
 
Flow is an over rated misconception in my view. I have seen some of the best planted tanks with plants pearling like mad with virtually still water.

Water quality, perfect lighting, and correct fertilisation with CO2 trumps flow every time.

My first planted aquarium was a Trigon 190. With the right planning and imagination you can achieve lots in a corner tank.
 
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