vitacrux
Aquarium Advice Activist
UPS just brought my fluval 405 today. ( only a day late haha) are there any common pitfalls when installing these I should be aware of? I've heard some people don't like carbon, any pros or cons to it?
jdizzle3id said:I have a 405 and I'd say it takes me about 40 min on average to get the POS primed after i do a water change. I hate this thing. I'm not sure what the "primer pump" does on your 405, but on mine, all it does is start building up air pressure on the supply side. When the air pressure gets high enough it blows off the check valve end cap and scares the sh** out me and the fish.
jdizzle3id said:I have a 405 and I'd say it takes me about 40 min on average to get the POS primed after i do a water change. I hate this thing. I'm not sure what the "primer pump" does on your 405, but on mine, all it does is start building up air pressure on the supply side. When the air pressure gets high enough it blows off the check valve end cap and scares the sh** out me and the fish.
The check valve is in the intake. Both my 305 and 405 have one. It's right at the strainer. Probably a 3/4" white ball. But, it still dosn't make sense. I've never had any issues like that. My guess is it's the technique, not the canister.Once setup you shouldn't even have to prime it. Fill the tub with cured water reconnect the hoses and it'll prime itself. Where's the check valve? My 305 (smaller version of 405) doesn't have one.
That's a great filter (I have the 305) and I'd suggest saving your carbon for when you need to remove meds. If you put poly-fil in the bottom tray, it'll catch all the gunk the sponges can't before it fouls your biomedia in the upper trays.
Any 100% polyester floss/filling can work as a fine mechanical media. I use pillow stuffing crammed in as tight as I can get it in the bottom tray. You don't need carbon. I would return the Biomax and fill the third tray with Seachem Matrix, it is a better biomedia than Biomax. So the trays would be: top three: Biomax/Seachem Matrix, bottom: 100% polyester pillow stuffing OR filter floss from the LFS OR Fluval's fine/polishing pads (the most expensive option).