Thinking of getting a Fluval G6 (media questions...)

[Antipofish]

Thats fair play Ady ... each to their own. I still maintain that whether its aesthetic or not, the screen should be perfect at that price, but it seems that opinion is in the minority. Then again, I am fussy and if I pay top dollar I like to get something that reflects that. The screen and computer side was one of the big draws for me, so therefore it does matter to me.

 

[sanj]

I cant comment too much on the G6, other than I wouldnt by one because of its price and what it offers verses the upper end of the Eheims.

 

[Ady34]

Yeah, admittedly its really all about what your looking for in a filter. For me it ticks all the boxes.

 

[Antipofish]

Yeah, admittedly its really all about what your looking for in a filter. For me it ticks all the boxes.

And it does work especially well with your tank too. I do accept that as a valid reason..

Without wanting to sound inflammatory, , are you including the "RRP for what you get, compared to other filters box" ? I am genuinely interested to know if people believe the G6 is actually worth £350 when you can get alternatives for £100 less. I am talking about the comparison I have made of course, with my purchase of an Eheim 2078 Pro3E. I realise this can be considered a "risky" topic, and I will stipulate for the record, that if things went entirely on looks, the G6 would win.

I know some people say they love the maintenance of a G6. But I did a tank clean two days ago. Apart from cleaning the prefilter on my Eheim (takes about 90 seconds to remove the prefilter and put a clean one in and then of course you go and rinse out the dirty one in the same way you have to with the G6 cartridge) and replacing the filter wool every month, I have not had to clean any of the rest of it. And that includes the pipes and external heater. So I am not sure that maintenance is really any easier on a G6.

I will also agree that the hydrotech computer is neat. I found the temp alarm (well its more of a flashing screen that you have to see since it doesnt beep at you) useful when I forget to turn on the heater once. But I never really found the TDS meter much help as I kept a regular water change regime anyway. And I didn't need a graph to show me that the flow was reduced, I could see that for myself. What I like about the Eheim is that if flow reduces it compensates by ramping it up to maintain it at what you set it as long as possible.

I have slated the G6 recently. That stemmed from poor customer relations with Hagens, as well as seeing more and more stories of people having problems with theirs since I sold mine; not just on here but on several other forums. That probably wasn't entirely fair, although I did state in my posts that it still did the job of filtering. I just am glad I didn't pay £350 for mine.

 

[Ady34]

Yeah, admittedly its really all about what your looking for in a filter. For me it ticks all the boxes.

Ady, without wanting to sound inflammatory, , are you including the "RRP for what you get, compared to other filters box" ? I am genuinely interested to know if people believe the G6 is actually worth £350 when you can get alternatives for £100 less. I am talking about the comparison I have made of course, with my purchase of an Eheim 2078 Pro3E. I realise this can be considered a "risky" topic, and I will stipulate for the record, that if things went entirely on looks, the G6 would win.

I know some people say they love the maintenance of a G6. But I did a tank clean two days ago. Apart from cleaning the prefilter on my Eheim (takes about 90 seconds to remove the prefilter and put a clean one in and then of course you go and rinse out the dirty one in the same way you have to with the G6 cartridge) and replacing the filter wool every month, I have not had to clean any of the rest of it. And that includes the pipes and external heater. So I am not sure that maintenance is really any easier.

I will also agree that the hydrotech computer is neat. I found the temp alarm (well its more of a flashing screen that you have to see since it doesnt beep at you) useful when I forget to turn on the heater once. But I never really found the TDS meter useful as I kept a regular water change regime anyway. And I didn't need a graph to show me that the flow was reduced, I could see that for myself. What I like about the Eheim is that if flow reduces it compensates by ramping it up to maintain it at what you set it as long as possible.

I have slated the G6 recently. That stemmed from my disappointment with the distributors over a few things, as well as seeing more and more stories of people having problems with theirs, not just on here but on several other forums. That probably wasn't entirely fair, although I did state in my posts that it still did the job of filtering. I just am glad I didn't pay £350 for it.

In all honesty Chris before i got the filter i was like...id never pay that much for a filter, and it is a huge amount of cash whichever way you look at it. I was lured by the good reviews, the good looks and glossy finish which went with my studio 900. My previous experience of externals was one of 'ill leave cleaning that this week' , so the ease of maintenence for the g6 was a huge plus for me. Ive said before i have no experience of eheims but when i was looking for filters for my 1st proper planted set up, i looked at a few eheims and nearly opted for one as they had excellent reviews, but i did a bit of a deal with the supplied fluval 305 filter with the studio 900 and effectively got some money off the g6. In for a penny, in for a pound an all that. I just really liked the neatness and compact stance and obviously the stated ease of use and filtering capabilities. The computer was really not here nor there to me but i do now find it very useful as a guide to make sure everything is within perameters ie nothings going wrong. Maybe its because i have nothing to really compare it to but as ive said its lived up to all my expectations and i dont put off maintenance on it as its a doddle .
As with everything you can pay a premium or go budget and all those inbetween, but its whatever your happy with that counts. I dont really think of it in terms of value for money, more if im happy with what ive got...which i am. I have no doubt that i could get the same filtration for less, but this is the one i chose and id choose it again if i had to
Ady.

 

[Antipofish]

Good good I guess every tank is different and probably different tanks require different amounts of maintenance. And as you say, you didn't pay full whack for yours either essentially.

 

[Ady34]

Typically on the day i introduce some livestock i seem to have just been struck by the 50% flow drop off issue that Gary suffered!
Filter cleaned, impellor checked etc etc, but no joy.....if it comes with a 1 year warranty itll be just out too, visit to the LFS tomorrow to see what can be done

 

[Nathaniel Whiteside]

Yikes is that a common fault like Ady? Did you get it from Paddock?

 

[Ady34]

Yikes is that a common fault like Ady? Did you get it from Paddock?

Its seeming a bit more common now!
No not from Paddock Farm.
Hopefully itll get sorted somehow, if not the wife wont be getting a christmas present!

 

[Nathaniel Whiteside]

Ha good luck with that! She'll put a hammer through your glass!

 

[cjlhessing]

Hmm. Am I too late to join the g6 (and G3?) party???

 

[Andrew Butler]

The bio media will last a lifetime

I know this is an old thread which I haven't read all the way through yet but the bio media (G-Nodes supplied) even if you rinse them don't they become clogged?
I'm looking at the best value bio media to replace mine with if anyone has suggestions?

 

[Edvet]

bio media to replace mine

What do you want? Anything is a bio medium, sand, gravel, filtersponge, lavastone, sintered glass. Only the price varies. In a planted tank there is little need for bio active media, because there is so much already in the tank. Quite different from a bare tank without plants and large fish.
My large tank, build with discus on my mind, has a huge sump, fed by two trickle filters and filled with filterfoam and lava. The sump is empty now because i have a lot of plants.

 

[Andrew Butler]

What do you want?

I guess something ceramic would be the most appropriate for the trays of the G6?

 

[ceg4048]

Boy, talk about necromancy.

Save some money and get better flow performance. Review https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/bio-media-for-fluval-305.29612/

Cheers,

 

[Andrew Butler]

I only clean the bio media every 6 months

I assume you just give them a rinse in tank water?

The bio media will last a lifetime.

The G-nodes as supplied with the Fluval G series are a ceramic bio media and I'm told by Fluval will clog over time even if you do rinse them.
I guess it's like the ceramic in a CO2 diffuser and will clog with limescale if nothing else?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

The G-nodes as supplied with the Fluval G series are a ceramic bio media and I'm told by Fluval will clog over time even if you do rinse them.

You can <"microwave ceramic media">, or put them in a pressure cooker, if you want to get the finer pore spaces clean.

Even though it is a planted tank, I probably wouldn't "deep clean" them all at once.

As you may gather from the linked threads, and other posters in this thread, we aren't really interested in <"anaerobic denitrication">.

I just watched a video by the pondguru about filter media, he basically said all filter media is kak other than Biohome which he sells. However I'm fairly sure people have been using other media for years with no adverse effects. And I'm sure the Biohome media is good, but it's too expensive. Alfagrog is a fraction of the price and if its good enough for a pond it must be good enough for an aquarium.

I'd admit I find the, fairly heated, discussions on other forums about which media has the most pore space, and is by definition best, a bit like arguing about which deck-chair on the Titanic is the best one, but in this case oxygen is our iceberg.

cheers Darrel

 

[Andrew Butler]

Even though it is a planted tank, I probably wouldn't "deep clean" them all at once

If I'm told the bio media isn't important in a planted tank why do we use it?

The thing is with the G6 as you may know is you replace the carbon about once a month which is in a separate cartridge and the carbon gets rinsed in tap water to get the dust off, the pre-filter cartridge I change weekly, rinse it in tap water and normally put the spare one in which has no bio value.

This then means that the filter contains no bio-value or however you would like to word it. People are forever preaching about cleaning filter foam etc in tank water, never tap water and never replace it all at once so how does this leave the G6 if you don't put anything in the media trays? Then it is just a pump which filters out the larger particles and 'polishes' the water with the carbon which then almost makes me think what's the point in cycling an aquarium.

I'm just trying to understand things a little better and sorry if I seem a bit dumb!

 

[Edvet]

There will be bacteria all over the tank and in the substrate, plants will use nitrogen in all forms, the roots of the plants will create bacteria friendly zones in the substrate.
The heavily planted tank doesn't need a lot of bacteria in the filter. it needs a good flow and distribution of ferts in the water so the whole plant has acces to the building bricks. Also no dead spots will improve oxygen for all bacteria.Now in a tank with a lot of fish and no or few bacteria you will want to make nitrogen safe and remove as much as possible, therefore you'll nee a lot of bacteria in the filter.

This one needs a lot of bacteria in the filter:

This one doesn't:

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

If I'm told the bio media isn't important in a planted tank why do we use it?

I wouldn't say it isn't important, I would just say it isn't as critical as it is in an un-planted tank. The point I'd really like to make is the one @Edvet makes ,that "plant filtration" is always "plant/microbe" filtration.

The problem with a canister filter is that a finite amount of oxygen enters it, and it can't be replenished inside the filter. For a lot of the biomedia it is seen as an advantage that it can potentially simultaneously support the aerobic nitrification of ammonia (NH3) to nitrite (NO2) nitrate (NO3) and the anaerobic denitrification of NO3 to N2 gas. This is dependent upon their being an oxygen gradient across the biofilm on the biomedia, with the outer layers of the biofilm aerobic and the inner layers anaerobic.

I'm not even going to go there, it is an idea that is guaranteed to lead to disaster. If the finite amount of oxygen is depleted before all the ammonia is processed you are in a situation where your filter re-circulates highly toxic ammonia back into the tank, leading to a positive feedback loop of lower oxygen and increased ammonia.

If you have biological media that is swept by oxygen rich water, it will still develop a complex biofilm over time, but one that can respond to increased ammonia, because it isn't oxygen limited,

I like belt and braces so I always have some bio-filtration media, but some people don't worry about biomedia, they have a substrate and plants and @Bart Hazes has some tanks tanks without filters.

cheers Darrel