boogiedogo92

Im going to clean the cascade tomorrow- its has started to go into it prime cycle which is a sign it working too hard and needs serviced. Soo it ran almost a month exactly in a extra heavy load tank(then about a week in the 125). Im forsure getting some nitrate reduction. Im actually feeding more- have more fish - two Raphael catfish the two Oscars and a royal pleco. All are about that 5.5 to 6in mark and im having what i would consider normal parameters 0-0 and less then 40 for unplanted after 7 days. With just the oscars and placo we were over 80ppm every 4-6 days. I would expect 40ish ppm in the 125 gallon but at day 7 im still at this point where its just a bright yellow on the master test kit.

Update - i think I've started to get rid of nitrate- im still doing water changes every 3-4 days in my 125 but I hadn't been testing- tested today and 5 days i have almost zero nitrate- still very yellow with a touch of orange . Which in the 55 i would be around 40-80ppm.

This is only like 3 day of feces from these things. Too, but the air pump is a beast and the air in the lines are louder then the pump. But it has a very slight hum the microphone picks up very well

It doing fine, its putting out more then enough for 3 air stones. I ended up buying a fluval aquasky light- it looks good- stand with the sealant looks great still- no swelling yet haha. Oscar are in that 5-5.5in range now. Im still doing weekly water changes out if habit. I did get two Rafael catfish- they look small but are 3-4 in and their heads are about the same size as the oscars. - the oscar is about 6-8in closer then the catfish. They are feisty catfish- they come rolling out fast at night.

Ha i just bought the ap300 before i saw this.

It worse then those even- its like a single flexable strip attached to the underside of a hood- which the hoods are nice aluminum to my surprise. I did under the Cascade Max flow- i seem to always make some short of mess with it water wise. But i think for this "exterior MDF board" they build this stand with it is a requirement to seal the edges. I will tell you im using it mainly as a sponge/ chemical filter, they've updated the basket on the 110 too - it now had a vent on the bottom side under that section that shrinks down where the water inlet is. I have seen it was a major mod people did in the past to prevent water from bypassing on max flow flow setting. I do need to add a larger air pump to the tank- i have the battery backup aquarium co-op air pumps and those dude- the seem to struggle with the depth and tube length i am using on this tank. so i should be turning my tank over about 7.5 times an hour with the known flow out of the max flow (somewhere around 550-600gph)and the Seachem 110 advertised flow which I'm guessing is pretty close to being correct from just eyeballing it. I may try another cheap brand big canister filter thats big since these oscars make such a mess but sadly even then i think i am still going to be do 30-50% water changes still a week in this setup

So the pond armor did its job already- i had a intake hose pop off while moving the Cascada Max flow, I checked the area it that it dumped about 2 gallons on and it looks good- didn't swell at all- one problem ive had was. I leveled this tank empty- filled it up- was about .300-.400" off from being level left to right then only .125" off front to back after compressing the carpet- i went ahead drained ans theb shimmed the high side and gave it a full send once it was level front to back and with In about an 1/8 inch left to right. Went ahead and moved the oscars over- i bought a hang on the back 110 by seachem, 10/10 oscar poop smells about as bad as reptiles so i like to use carbon in a HOB to keep smells down between W/c. .. now i need to build a new 1in or 3/4 in drain system for water changes - this 1/2in system i have takes way too long. Then i want to note that the lights suck that come with this.

Thank you, hopefully i can report with the pond armor on the joints that it never failed haha.

I bought the top fin special for 399 plus tax, i found out its a Marineland/ perfecto tank which is a nice upgrade from the A named company whos heaters kill fish. im going to pond armor the stand. I will update in 3 month period because this stand will get wet at some point.

Its a great idea I don't understand why only sun sun shorta makes something like this but its like a full size canister filter. I still need to put an inline ball valve above it. I have have a friend who's an engineer that his specialty deals with pipes and inline filtration for public water who help me figure out sizing vs what kind of restrictions would occurs. I wanted to keep it somewhat compact but to where maintenance should not be needed much more then once a month or so. i did just flow test and 1 week deep its still flowing the same 450-500gph comfortably( this is also with the flow adjusted all the way down) i should be getting my 125 this weekend so hopefully we will get to move the oscars over so the royal plecos can grow in a more peaceful environment haha.

It doing good so far, i am actually seeding it right now on one of my smaller tanks - like i said I can't tell the difference in flow between the fx6 and it- it hold a dumb amount of media. I filled the bottom tray with filter floss and I actually made a prefilter with mostly 25ppi sponge stepping up to 50 ppi at the end of the 3.062 id acrylic tube. Im happy so far. I believe it will do great on my oscars 180- then i can build another giant guppy tank with this tank. To give you an idea i can fill a 1 gallon bucket up with this in about 4.5 sec so it moves a massive amount of water

So i have an fx6 currently and ordered a Cascade Max flow from amazon, im currently surprised, plastic feels fine and the only complaint is the handles for the trays. I'm going to post some pictures of it tomorrow. But its flow is great and comparable to the fx6....the kicker is it has 20lbs of seachem Matrix 🤪.