Fluval Flex Owners

[TucanSam]

And I guess anyone else who is interested. I have a Fluval Flex 9 gallon that has been running for a few months. On the back it has space for the heater and pump, the bio filtration and a course sponge and then an empty space, all seperated into 3 chambers.

Anyone done any "hacking" of this system? I haven't taken a close look at it, but water must flow into the bottom of the 2nd chamber and then into the third somehow. How well would removing the sponge that came with it and packing chamber 2 with bio media work? Maybe pack chamber 1 with floss? Any ideas?

 

[kansas]

I have a Flex 9 and a 15. I put the heater in the first compartment and on the 15, added a piece of sponge the water flows through to enter the second compartment. The sponge in the 2nd compartment can be removed by pulling it up. I replaced the charcoal with ceramic media.

I put as much ceramic media as would fit in the third compartment. I then cut a hole high up on the water return tube, so that some of the water flows over the media on its way back to the pump.

This still left more flow than I wanted so I put small pieces of sponge on the outflow tube. I'm new to the hobby, but my water paramaters are always good and my fish seem healthy I'm happy with the results.

 

[TucanSam]

Interesting. I had put the heater next to the pump, but I could switch that around. I'm curious how much good the sponge in the second compartment actually does. It never seems to catch much imo. I might just layer the bottom with ceramic media and stuff some fine sponge or floss on top of that.

 

[kansas]

I was thinking of the sponge as a surface that BB would grow on, like with a sponge filter.

 

[Addictedtobettas]

I’ve got backup filter media in the first compartment, primary filter media in 2nd, heater and pump in 3rd on 2 of my 3 15 gallon flex.

The 9g has fry and some plants in the 1st compartment right now. Not planned in any way.

I’d say you could certainly add extra media but at a certain point it’s not needed so unless you’re doing it quickly seed a new tank? Not sure it serves a purpose.
Or perhaps to keep minimal water changes being needed?

 

[kansas]

Being an ignorant new guy, I figured you can't have too much filtration.

 

[Mertgezer]

Hi,
I gave 9gl, i was planning to that into nano saltwater by changing the light and sump, but i decided to get 15gl instead. So i turned 9gl into cpo tank by removing the sump from the back (i need the space and i wanted to reduce the waterflow) there are some videos in youtube so i removed it like a pro

At the end i got serious space for a 9gl. The tank was set up 2 days ago so the water is still not ok
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