Pimp My Filter #35 - Fluval 406 Canister Filter (Same set up for 407)

Hello there welcome back to another edition of Pimp My Filter and in this video we're taking a look at possibly one of the most common filters throughout the whole world and that is the Fluval 406 canister filter. Now I've actually left the various parts of this sitting outside in the rain for the last few days because when it arrived to me it was absolutely humming. It's still got a bit of a smell to it now. It smelled like something had died in here. And when I took the foams out, I noticed that they were very, very red. There's obviously a lot of color enhancing food gone into this system. So those foams will be coming out. Actually, I think I better just leave those foams in there for the time being. Just in case you haven't seen my previous videos on the 206 and the 306, I'll just quickly run through what happens with regard to water flow and where the media would normally be. Right, let's get our top off. We've got the inlet coming in here and there and that is a one-way valve. It's like a little flappy valve just to ensure that the water continually goes that way and it fires it into here and in here we have four pieces of reasonably coarse foam. I absolutely love the layout of this. I know a lot of people complain about it. But to me it's set up very very well. This fits down into this canister very very tightly and the water is forced through this way and this way, runs down the inside of here, ultimately it comes out the bottom into this next section. So that is in my eyes a very very good system. I don't want to change anything about that although I may change these foams just because of the curious smell that's emanating from them. These ones are a bit stinky as well. So our top tray is empty and worse as I get down here. Next tray is full of two coarse foams, well not full of two coarse foams, it's got two coarse foams in it. They're getting chucked out. Next one has got more coarse foams in. All of these are getting chucked out. God! And the bottom one has got two pretty good looking Fluval foams. Now they're somewhere between coarse and medium and they've got a good initial contact area because it's dimpled. Look at that, very good. They're getting left in there for sure. This cartridge is our initial contact area for the water that comes into the filter so it does attract the heaviest muck. The foams have been reasonably well cleaned out, you can see through them, so I think I'll send those back instead of putting them in the bin. Got a little bit of bounce left in them. So Gary, who sent me this filter, can use those again if he wants. I'll put them in a sealed bag though so he doesn't get gassed when he opens the box up. So now all we need to do is just cut some new foams. It's a perfect size because the foams that I would normally get to sell on my website, exactly the same size. And all you've got to do is just cut a three inch strip. Just imagine how many three inch strips you could get out of that. Awesome stuff. There you go. That's our foams. I've pre-cut those. Very, very easy. These ones are different to the Fluval ones because mine have really deep dimple on them and they are just going to slot into here like so. There you go. Awesome stuff. See how all those dimples just really increase the initial surface contact area. Obviously the foams are slightly thinner in the valleys there but they're going to do a sterling job. So that's that one done. You could always go with a medium density pad. In one side of it if you wanted to or indeed in both sides of it. I'll stick a couple of those in, give Gary the option. But for the meantime we're sticking with the coarse foam. Straight replacement for the Fluvals. And in our bottom tray, which has got the good quality Fluval sponge, we're simply going to drop two fine pads because our trays are split into two sections. It's that simple. So now when the water comes through these big coarse pads it's going to come into the bottom Go all the way through the Fluval pad. All the fine muck is going to get taken out in our fine pad before it hits the filter media in the trays above. And the filter media in the trays above is going to be three kilos of BioHome Ultimate. You can use any media you want but it has to go above your mechanical filtration to be effective. Pick a good porous media. I'm aiming for full cycle filtration for this particular filter so I'm using the Biohome. As I say, just use whatever you want, I'm just showing you where to put it. So this is a three kilo bag, hopefully it should fit into these three trays. Now what a lot of people do with this stuff, because it's a stick shaped media, They'll stack it very very neatly and I've heard of a few people lately actually putting bio gravel in as well to fill in all the little gaps between it and they swear it works very very well. That is really, oh god, that's a belt and braces approach to the biological side. I'm just tipping this in loose. And when we're putting this media in we have to be very careful that the next tray will fit in properly otherwise we're going to get bypass and we don't want that. We want the water to be forced up right through the trays from the bottom to the top. Right, because this is in loose we haven't quite got the full three kilos in. We've probably got nearer two and a half kilos. If you stack it neatly you would get the full three kilos in. So let's get this thing put back together. First of all we put our coarse pad in, in the cartridge. All right. That's in like that. That's a really nice tight fit. Then our bottom tray which has got our Fluval foam and fine padding and then our three trays of media and three. I can feel those slotting together nicely so although this hasn't got a clear side for me to see through to check that they're all together I can feel that they're locking together nicely as I'm slotting them in. Then we put our top piece on which prevents any of the media entering the pump or filter finished Now, if you want to use chemical media, say you want to put bags of carbon or a carbon pad or any sort of other chemical media, that would go in the top of the top tray. So our filtration would go mechanical, biological, then chemical. And that ensures that our chemical media is operating in the cleanest possible water, and that will extend its life. So for the likes of carbon, you'd get seven or eight weeks out of it. For other media, I don't know it should extend the life but I've only ever used carbon. Carbon doesn't affect the development of the biological side of the filtration so I would say if you want to draw in colour from the bog wood or any any sort of like stain into the water and also fish treatments just use carbon or activated charcoal they're both very very safe. The top goes on and when you've put the top on just have a look around the line where it joins Pull it down. To make sure that the top is on properly. I found the Fluval filters. Sometimes they don't squash down properly. Or they'll be really tight here. And quite slack here. Never known them leak badly. But to avoid them ever leaking. Just pull that top down. And it'll stay there. It's a good fit. Okay. That was a quick one. Because it is a very simple filter to upgrade. And I had the foams pre-cut. So that saved us a little bit of time in this video. Let's get on to a few of the facts and figures from Fluval regarding how much this will treat. Okay, the 406 will pump approximately 1450 litres per hour, which equates to around about 382 gallons per hour. Now, like all canister filters, that figure is the maximum that the pump will shift with no media in and before you attach any pipes to this. Like all canister filters, you can halve that, just as a rough guess. By the time you get your foams and all your media in, you get your pipes attached, you get bends, you get those pipes lifted up and into your tank, that 1,450 litres pretty quickly becomes around about 700 or 800 litres per hour. Just bear that in mind. It's the same with all canisters, not just the Fluval ones. The good thing about the Fluval ones, however, is for the size, they generally pump a lot of water. Now Fluval will say that this particular filter is suitable for tanks up to 400 litres. Now that doesn't mean it's going to give you the full cycle for 400 litres. It doesn't even state whether it's going to cope with the ammonia and nitrite. It should but it's just one of those figures that manufacturers pluck out of the air and put out there and people regurgitate that figure. Online, on forums, with no consideration given to what is actually stocked in the tank. So is that 400 litres a fully planted tank with six cardinal tetras? Or is that 400 litre tank fully stocked with Malawi cichlids or piranhas or something like that? There's such a wide range. Okay, just a few real world figures for this. This is for full cycle filtration, which is the conversion of ammonia to nitrite, nitrite to nitrate, both by aerobic bacteria. That happens in every filter. And also the conversion of nitrate to soluble nitrogen, which happens with anaerobic bacteria. And this is why we need a certain amount of filter media to support that. sizeable population of anaerobic bacteria in little pockets all the way through the media. Some media will support it, most will not. That's why we use the BioHome. So Fluval will say it will be suitable for tanks up to 400 litres. I've got no doubt if it's properly set up with any filter media in there really, it will control ammonia and nitrite. So they're correct in that. However, For a full cycle of filtration, if you pack the media in neatly, you could get 3kg of the BioHome Ultimate. It generally takes 1kg per 100 litres, which is 26 US gallons, in a normally stocked tank to deliver the full cycle. To ensure that you have zero ammonia, zero nitrite, and low, if not untraceable, nitrate. So, I would say that this particular filter With regard to full cycle filtration, it's suitable for a tank up to 300 litres if it is normally stocked. 300 litres is approximately 79 US gallons. If it's heavily stocked, you can halve that. So in effect, this fully set up properly with the BioHome Ultimate should deliver a full cycle for a heavily stocked tank of up to 150 litres, which is about 40 US gallons. There's a few different units of measurement being used there so you may have to rewind that just to get the full gist of it. But basically it's a good filter, it's well made, it's well put together, it's got a lot of provision for the mechanical filtration and a reasonable provision for the biological filtration as well. So it is a good filter, it's been thoroughly tested all around the world by possibly the millions So, as a lot of people know that it does work. If it's set up properly it will work very well for you. Now the current cost of these is round about 150 English pounds which isn't too bad considering how much they hold in there. Yes it is quite tall but it pumps a lot of water, it holds a lot of foams and it holds a reasonable amount of media.