FX6 + FX4 on same DC pump?

[Le duke]

Hello all,

Introduced myself a while back here. Tank is going really well right now; swords and vals are getting absolutely huge. Hydrocotyle is coming out the water left and right. What better time to mess with it then, right?

One thing I'm always mindful of is power consumption. Yes, even on my 144 gallon open top tank. I regularly monitor usage rates and I'm not afraid to let the tank go down to 72F/22C if we have a stretch of 0F/-18C days if that means the 500w heater is coming on far less often. I'm also in the process of making some insulating foam panels for the inside of the cabinet, the gap between the back glass and the wall, and for the top of the tank to keep heat in at night. My tank is on an exterior, north facing wall and even great insulation is only so effective when the wind comes howling off the mountains above town, down to our house at 7,000ft.

So, the FX6 and the FX4 use 41w + 30w of power, respectively. From the tank, 2x 25mm jet pipes, each draining water into the FX6 and FX4, respectively. My tentative plan is to have the output lines from each flow into a 1 1/4 * 3/4 * 3/4 wye, which will be glued to a 1 1/4 collar, mounted on a Red Dragon Mini Speedy 3 or similar pump. Output would be a single 3/4" pipe, going to a 25mm jet pipe.

I'd like to have a) variable power/flow rate b) decrease overall power consumption c) have backup capability in the form of the native pumps on the filters.

Anyone ever done anything like this?

 

[Zeus.]

Cant think of any reason why it wouldn't work in principle, having the filters pre or post DC should work. If having the filters in parallel getting balanced flow may be tricky dependant on media. Plus if the internal pumps impellers are left in filters they would increase the resistance which may negate any savings in power consumption.
Why not just run one filter say the FX6 which IMO should provide enough biofiltration in an established planted tank. Then make up any loss in take turnover/flow with an in tank DC powerhead. I used an FX6 and twin Maxspec gyres on my 100 gallon tank, one beauty of the is you can have the speed settings on a schedule which I found worked great, having low flow at night and higher flow during CO2/photoperiod, plus no pipework to clean, then having one off at a time at night for an hour or so the cleanup crew cleaned them for me and any leaves which powerheads tend to pick up just fall off.

 

[Zeus.]

If going with DC pump and filter/s I would put the pump post filters as that would reduce the build up of detritus in pump. I have had lots of piping and pipe cleaning was a PITA as it took about 4-6 hrs, needless to say 9t didn't happen often. In tank gyres much reduced the time/pipes cleaning time.

 

[Le duke]

If going with DC pump and filter/s I would put the pump post filters as that would reduce the build up of detritus in pump. I have had lots of piping and pipe cleaning was a PITA as it took about 4-6 hrs, needless to say 9t didn't happen often. In tank gyres much reduced the time/pipes cleaning time.

Yep, that was my plan.

Inlet pipe - FX6 - Wye

DC Pump - Heater - UV - CO2

Inlet Pipe - FX4 - Wye

Re: Only using one filter. I'm currently using them both, and I like the redundancy that they provide. If I break that acrylic pipe attached to the lid of one filter while cleaning it, I still have the other filter in working, completely cycled condition. I'm not lacking for space in my cabinet, so I'd rather keep this capability intact.