Is Fluval 105 adequate for my 60 litre tank?

[Sarpijk]

I have had this fluval 105 for two years now. The tank is 60 litres- about 50 litres of water.
I use a spraybar as per Clive's posts and I have good results in terms of flow. Recently I have realised that I need to clean the filter every week or I start to see BBA.

Inside the filter I have kept the vertical foam pads. In the bottom tray I have ceramic rings with some pumice. On the top tray I have about an inch of pumice and then I use a thin layer of filterwool.

Unless I change the filterwool weekly I start to see signs of BBA. I know that most people would tell me to lose the filterwool but I am not sure what will happen with all the mulm that is normally trapped in it.

In the fitler inlet I use a small hole net to keep it from sucking any shrimplets. I tried using a prefilteer foadm but shrimples would get sucked.

 

[Andy Thurston]

Unless I change the filterwool weekly I start to see signs of BBA. I know that most people would tell me to lose the filterwool but I am not sure what will happen with all the mulm that is normally trapped in it.

lose the wool you can syphon the mulm and other debris out of the tank when you change water, if there is any. I use an eheim 2217 on my 60l tank and it only has 2 coarse sponges in it, it only gets cleaned every 6 months. and even then its not really that dirty.

 

[Sarpijk]

I should mention here that the tank in question works as a medium light high-tech one. I inject co2 and fertilize daily. On my second 80 litre low tech I don't have the same problem. If I am not mistaken a high tech tank produces more organic waste because of faster growth rates.

I try to avoid siphoning since it is carpeted and I end up sucking little shrimplets that are hiding in the grasses.

 

[Andy Thurston]

I should mention here that the tank in question works as a medium light high-tech one. I inject co2 and fertilize daily.

my cube is a high light, ei and co2 enriched. you should still loose the floss because it is clogging weekly and causing flow issues towards the end of the week.
RE hovering the substrate, you can waft the dirt with your hand then syphon the dirt(with 8\12mm hose) from the water without getting baby shrimp by accident

 

[Sarpijk]

I just removed the filter floss Andy!

Let's see how it goes.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[greenmac75]

I put an old net doubled up over my siphon to stop shrimp being hoovered up from my eleocharis

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I try to avoid siphoning since it is carpeted and I end up sucking little shrimplets that are hiding in the grasses.

Put a coarse sponge (PPI10 or PPI20) on the filter intake, and take the floss out of the filter. That way you only have to clean the intake sponge, which is really quick, because you don't have to open the filter etc. and you don't suck up your shrimplets.

Have a look at <"RC Hagen A1387 Fluval Edge Pre-Filter Sponge">.

cheers Darrel