Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tanks and Equipment => Topic started by: Cazzybaby on April 28, 2014, 09:26:17 PM
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We just gone out and bought a 2nd hand tank and external filter. It's a fluval 305 filter. I think the tank and filter has been quite dirty in its past home, there was a lot of mucky stuff in the filter and algae. I am wondering how do you get rid of the algae from the pipes? and what media should we use in the filter? It currently has some sponge/ foam in it and also some white shaped things.
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Fluval filters are made by Hagen, and they have a very useful website. Here (http://uk.hagen.com/File/196a80be-6003-4243-889e-def2561f2131) is the 305 manual (the whole -05 range actually), it'll take a while to download as there are 90 pages with the same info in several languages. I would either print off the English part or save it somewhere to refer to again.
The media is discussed on page 14.
They suggest prefilter, carbon or zeolite-carbon in the lower basket - use prefilter (http://uk.hagen.com/Aquatic/Media-Inserts/External/A1470).
Mid basket, use biomax (http://uk.hagen.com/Aquatic/Media-Inserts/External/A1457), and biomax again in the upper basket.
There are also 2 long thin sponges that go outside the baskets - you'll see them in the diagrams.
The difference between biomax (home for the bacteria) and prefilter (to catch bits that the sponges miss) is that biomax is round and prefilter is hexagonal.
As for the pipes, find a long piece of string, a small weight and an old cloth. Attach the weight to one end of the string and the cloth to the other, then drop the weight through the tube and pull the string and cloth through. It might take several go's if they are as mucky as you say.
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I think the 305 has corrugated pipes the same as the 405/406. If so, I used to use a straightened wire coat hanger with a bottle brush taped to one end and used a twisting action to get into the grooves as it was push/pulled through the pipe.
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Thanks for the replys yes it has coorogated pipes so I will try the coat hanger technique. It also has the bio ax type things in it so I will check that the right things are in the right places. Do they last indefinitely ?
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They will last for years. They only need changing when they start to crumble.