Odyssea CFS 500 Can-filter review and circumference modification

If you did the full mod, specifically the full trimming of the sponge and most important the use of Poly-Blanket wrap I would say absolutely more then enough filtration for tanks up to 150. Let me reiterate my position on this with a post I made on another forum.

Quote: "The only reason I first had cut groves in top sponge was becasue I was experimenting but the next day had the epiphany that in order to take advantage of the filters full circumference potential, both top white and bottom block sponges had to be trimmed evenly away 2 inches from the sides of the canister inside walls just like the FX5 (sigh) from the top white sponge to all but the bottom 1 inch of the black sponge. The bottom 1 inch acting as a bushing to keep the sponge centered and provide a bypass-prevention seal to make sure water does not sneak past in a short cut to the pump, clearly indicated in the photo's I posted showing the white ring at the bottom of the poly-blanket rapped sponge (sigh). In addition the whole purpose of a circumference filter witch is 6 times the surface area of the stock configuration is to allow fine polishing media (the poly blanket) to wrap and seal the sponge becasue with so much surface area you are able to have all the benefits of fine polishing with long endurance and high water volume throughput, all while while increasing bacteria colony surface area by at least 5 times due the the poly-blanket micro surface-area which is far more then the sponge alone (sigh). This method is an all win (polishing)-all win (endurance)-and all win (bio-filtration) situation. Again his is the way "ALL" world-wide industry "circumference filters" work, the finest media on the outer orbit followed by successively courser media toward the center or bottom where the pump or intake is located. To NOT wrap the sponge in poly-blanket as clearly shown in my pictorial is counter productive, akin to placing high performance rims on a car with no tires (sigh). From the prospective of knowing and understanding circumference design that is a pretty accurate analogy (sigh).
icon_rolleyes.gif
"
 
I have the cfs 500 with CWO4GUNNERs mods on my 150 and love it. My stocklist is two 9 to 10 grass pickerel,2 northern longear,2 8 inch black crappie,2 6 inch carp,a 7 inch rock bass,a 4 inch yellow bullhead and a 6 inch white sucker.The filter is extremely quiet also.
 
Wow, thank you so much... looks like I will ordering one soon! I will be reveiwing all your threads about modding the filter to get the best performance and washers/o-rings too.

BTW, Mr. Catfish...
I would love to see a picture of your tank. I keep Sunfish as well.
 
An itty bitty 9w uv on a filter with a listed flow rate of 700 GPH is a waste of space and will do practically nothing.
 
I thought I had replied to your post but apparently logged off before posting lol. In a nutshell besides the UV which is a valid and needed consideration (no tank should be without a UV). The CFS700 is not all that bigger for the price and IMO has an inferior body design. The CFS apparent size is exaggerated by that fact that it sits on elevated feet which represents a false size while the CFS500 has no elevated feet becasue it contains media all the way to its base. Having a segmented body which is basically acrylic with a separate plastic bottom and top means that there are more potential for leaks and besides acrylic is much more susceptible to fractures and crazing then colored plastic. I could be wrong but I also believe that there is no difference in the motor size of flow rate of both the CFS500 or 700, and I believe the apparent size difference and transparent feature is just a upgraded marketing ploy amounting to very little difference except for the cost. Anyway that's what I think.
SandyGravel said:
You seem to have quite a bit of experience with a range of filters and are willing do the experimentation, testing and use to find out the suitability of filters for varying situations, have you any experience withe the CFS700 w/UV? Shown here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/CFS700-Aquarium...101?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45f9a38ac5
Click to expand...
 
Actually I thought you were just joking until I did a search "here". In this case the problem becomes obvious. If you were to use this filter as designed, a stacked inline series filter that approaches 4 feet in height with 3 times the media length then the CFS500 but the exact same top sponge surface area of about 80 square inches, all that happens here is restriction with almost no improvement in filtration surface area throughput. Now if they had made the filter 3X the circumference instead of 3x the height (bigger around), the top sponge would have 3X the surface area at the top (220 SI vs 80 SI) in the stock un-modified configuration. While this 3x tall CFS1200 could theoretically be modified like my CFS500 to include the entire 360 degree surface area and length of the sponge (approx 900 square inches), maintenance, manageability, and storage would be difficult and stressful, and susceptibility to impact damage and fall would be much greater, this is why the FX5 is bigger around rather then taller. I suppose one could use red and white sponges in a spiral pattern and mount the filter up on the wall as a barber pole lol.
 
Well, I finally got around to doing the mod to my CFS 500 and am a bit frustrated I can't track down the source of a noise it developed post-mod. There is now an annoying water turbulence noise while the filter is on from inside it. I would assume this means there's air trapped in there somewhere, but I've tilted it every which way and no matter what I do, the air never comes out (if there even is any in there). I don't know what else it could be, as while the flow rate is considerable it's nowhere near the amount that'd be required to make this noise with no air in the system... that'd be like hurricane force.

I trimmed the top blue sponge roughly 1 inch all the way around and about 1 1/2 all the way around on the white sponge, then wrapped it in poly as Gunner did. Then took the "ring" cut from the top blue sponge and pushed it down around the poly-covered central cylinder to block off easy access to the bottom black sponge, which I left unmodified. The blue ring fits fairly snugly around the poly cylinder. I may cut the black sponge later but currently do not see a point in doing so.

I am a little disappointed in the quality of this thing even post modification -- the top is far too flimsy, and the nuts have to be fairly tight to avoid leaking. I got some 1 1/2" rubber washers and 1 1/4" carriage washers to distribute pressure across the lid surface a bit more, but the wooden ring another poster made above is definitely in this thing's near future. It needs it.

That aside, any ideas why it's noisy now? Went from dead silent (barely any pump hum even) to louder than my Penguin 350 in best conditions with the tank completely full... which defeats about 9/10ths of the purpose of getting this thing in the first place.
 
Last edited:
Take the motor apart and clean it then clean all the sponge trimmings out of the canister by rinsing the sponge thoroughly. Make sure all the hose fittings are tight, you dont have them crossed and make sure the intake hose is closest and shortest to the canister. While the outflow can be to the far side of the tank, the intake hose needs to be directly beneath the canister. Usually something like this is operator error as you yourself stated it occurred post modification which would not affect the canister that way unless reassembly was incorrect or left over cutting debris is somehow interfering with the pump or hydraulic circuit. Take a look at some other posted reviews and note the assembly comparison to yours to see what you missed.

This is the first time I have heard of this problem with the CFS500 post MOD. But then again there was a member who did my FX5 mod and insisted that both FX5 motors spontaneously failed to work after adding Poly-batten to the circumference baskets. I suppose this corroborates that old saying that "sometimes truth is stranger then fiction".
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom