46 replies to this topic

[Hypanheaven]

Have you tried cleaning the hoses yet?

[Bowdy]

I have heard that the FX5 actually work better when there tapped down to bout 75% more contact time with good bacteria and still a very good flow rate. A little hint you only need to tap down the canister outlet, leave the canister inlet open full. Hope it all run's well from now on. Loosing sleep is shocking.
Cheers

[Westie]

hypanheaven - no I haven't yet, as it would take me longer than cleaning
bowdy - yeah man no sleep sucks. how come I don't need to turn down the inlet to the same rate? Wouldn't that put more pressure on the inlet?

[ice]

Shouldnt make any difference to the inlet Jason, all youre doing is restricting the discharge on the pump and effectively increasing the head pressure slightly. This will throttle the pump down to a lower flow rate and might stabilise the impeller a bit and stop it from making so much noise. Throttling the inlet will only reverse what ever effects that you have put on it by throttling the discharge. Just dont throttle the discharge down too much or youll end up damaging the pump (I wouldnt go more than 30%)

Give it a shot and let us know how you go.

[Bowdy]

how come I don't need to turn down the inlet to the same rate? Wouldn't that put more pressure on the inlet?

There is no need man it's a feed to the canister it's much better to have more water avalable to the canister then not enough and the head trying to draw more water.

[Yggdrasil]

This is more relative to your pump/impeller and motor but put a load on the out let causing back pressure for the pump if often good I know its not the same but with my large pond with a 100mm Grundfos pump giving it back pressure made it a lot quieter and also doesn't put as much load on the pump, Doesn't sound right though But ill explain, when you run your pump free with little to no back pressure the impeller/motor will be able to spin very easy and almost free spin and run very fast, yeah you get a little more flow but you end up with your impeller running at 110% causing more wear and tear, more vibrations and a noisy pump (bigger pumps with bearings get even more issues with heat and what not).
There is no need to limit the inlet as that will some times cause issues with your canister sucking hard on your hoses and also some times sucking air threw parts of your joins and other issues. but Limiting your outlet is a good thing for a lot of pumps

[Westie]

Ok thanks guys. I'll give that a shot tonight. I have also heeded the advice to not use the lights too. I keep them off until I get home at night to feed them, and the algae is almost non-existant on the glass now.

[Buccal]

I have been running two fx5 on my display for eight years now. What I'm about to say may go against the grain in a kind of way compared to what has been said. Like a lot of canisters, it's gravity fed down to the canister and then pumped upwards. The pumps are quite strong.
It might be possible that the canisters are not low enough in conjunction to the tank height. Your pumps are pumping strong, but the water supply to the canisters are not quite enough. The further down the canister from the tank the stronger the gravity feed supplementing pump more water pressure. I see these canisters fx 5 as this being a flaw that doesn't effect other brands so much in this way.
I had my filters sitting on the same level as tank, bottom of tank level with bottom of canister. They were noisy like water gushing inside a shoebox. I lowered the canisters so their bottoms were 300mm lower than the tank base. The noise lessened by 80% !!!
I now have the bottoms of canisters 700mm lower than base of tank, sitting on the ground increasing gravity feed tenfold, they are now super quite, impossible to hear. The instructional diagram that comes in the box show the canisters having to be lower than the aquarium.
I guess also the shallower the tank the effects are worse.

[ice]

That will effectively be increasing the head pressure due to the canister having to pump higher and through more discharge hose. Does the same thing as throttling discharge.

[Bowdy]

Go and see the masters of ehimes of Ehime Vebas and Gosnells Aquariums they know there S@#t

Ehime are they some new Chinese brand Dave. Never heard of them

[ice]

Why is everyone so bloody sensitive lately? Can't anyone have a friendly joke around anymore these days without everyone taking it so seriously?!

[fishking123]

Bowdy y do you always have to be a smart arse?
I'm helping someone out
Your a complete drop kick

What is a drop kick? people say that at school all the time but im just not 'with it' i dont even have face-book!!

i got a 2217 and its realy good! my fx5 is good but its on my big tank but the filter is out of my room..

Edited by fishking123, 21 August 2012 - 05:43 PM.

[Bowdy]

Bowdy y do you always have to be a smart arse?
I'm helping someone out
Your a complete drop kick

Gees sorry Dave just having a friendly laugh no need to crack the tissues out. Didn't mean to offend where all here to help jas out but a little bit of light hearted humor isn't bad. Jas sorry if I disrupted your thread and let me know if you want them removed.
Cheers.

Edit. Replying to king's question.

Basically king a drop kick is the same as saying someone is a loser or similar. Hope this helps.
Cheers.

[Hypanheaven]

what buccel is saying is right! the higher head pressure on the supply side allows more water flow through the supply side stoping the pump from cavitating (this is the noise) cavitating is when the impeller spins in the water causing microbubbles to form and the sound of the microbubbles hitting the impeller makes a racket. my FX5 is underneat my 6x2x2.5 so sitting atleast 300mm below the bottom of the tank and its whisper quiet.
Due to these pumps being centrifugal pumps you can throttle in the discharge as much as you like and you wont damage the pump, only when you run the pump dry will you damage it as the water acts as a lubricant and a coolant

[Buccal]

That will effectively be increasing the head pressure due to the canister having to pump higher and through more discharge hose. Does the same thing as throttling discharge.

Because the canister is enclosed, the gravity fed siphoning water downwards assists the water drive that has to be pumped upwards by the pump. This actually cancels out a lot of head height reduction. In fact it assists the pump. Water being fed in creates pressure inside canister to expell outwards.

[Buccal]

Yep, tried it just then. I picked up my fx5 canister of the ground and raised it. I noticed the water flow slow down and low and behold it became noisy. (bloody heavy things full of water)
The further the drop with siphoning the faster the water flows, so the lower you go, the more assisted the pump is. The noise I reckon that comes from the impeller is cavitation. Restricting it may solve it sound wise. But get enough flow to the impeller and the volume will be there to push, thus not cavitating.
Head height on canister does not work the same way as a open sump. An open sump is not pressurized.