Emperor 400

Agreed. In particular, you might want to consider means to remove waste, etc. via mechanical filtration. The biowheels on a 400 should be plenty for biofiltration, but the more gunk you remove before it breaks down and contributes to dissolved compounds, the cleaner your water will be.

Good luck,
Jim
 
Thanks, Jim. I will make a trip to my dealer soon.

Best,
David
 
Just a thought, (and you can read all about it in the DIY forum on the post entitled filter floss and prefilters) I highly reccomend prefiltering everything with a sponge. It just makes life easier and keeps the tank cleaner. For my emp 400 with the funky shaped intake tube, I buy bulk sponge from big Al and cut it to fit. just cut it into blocks, and hollow out enough of a space to get the suction strainer inside of it. AC sponges will work as well but the AC sponges are much coarser, and the yellow is hard to hide. The Big Als sponges are black and hide easily as well as being quite a bit finer. MY emp prefilter picks up more garbage than any of the others I assume because it is a finer sponge. This tank has an AC 500 on it as well. I have 6 prefilter sponges in my 115. I have several on hand and each week I just swap out the prefilters with a clean one and wash them later and let them dry for a week until I need them again. with adequate bio-filtration elsewhere in the tank (bio-wheels, RFUG etc.) I don't have to worry about killing off my bacteria when I swap them out. The sponges in the media well fill up very slowly with this system, and I only have to change them and clean the filter about once every 2 months, maybe longer ( I'm still testing)
Dave
 
Also, I have given up on using the disposable Emp cartridges. I buy Aquaclear 500 sponges and cut them to length so they fit snugly when lodged horizontally in the media wells of the Emperor. Much cheaper and better at mech filtration, I think.

Jim
 
daveedka,
Are you saying you are putting sponge media in the black uptake tube of the Emp 400?? My Emp 400 gets really gross with slime etc and I fully clean it every month. Would this help make it cleaner?? Also, would it strain the filter motor at all?? Just wondering how it is working for you....

I know have an Emp 400 and an Aquaclear 500 on my 58 and an Emp 400 on my 75 (with a UGF) I really don't want to spend my life on filter maint.... :rolleyes:
 
Not in the tube, I do prefilter my Emp, with a foam block cut to fit, but in the media wells I just cut flat sponge to the correct shape and set them in instead of cartridges or baskets. Wow those pictures suck, I never will figure out how to srink these stipid files and still get a picture. Anyhow if they are too small to see let me know and I'll try again.
Dave

rdit3.jpg untitled2.jpg
 
daveedka said:
...I do prefilter my Emp, with a foam block cut to fit, but in the media wells I just cut flat sponge to the correct shape and set them in instead of cartridges or baskets. Wow those pictures suck, ...
Dave
Click to expand...


Dave - as has happened b4 - you've given a great suggestion. :bowing: I never thought of replacing the pre-made emperor cartridges with just a sponge for mech filtering. I will go to Big Al's and order sponge material right now. I'm thinking, with the money I save, I may be able to get that 150 for my tinfoils after all!

And, as for frequency - I have been letting the pre-made cartridges go abt 2 months before I replace them. I have twin 400's on my 75 and and only change out 1 filter (2 cartrusges) at a time, so as not to lose all my bacteria. So, like I'm changing half my cartridges every month.

BTW - I could see the sponge stuff fine in both pix.

Thanks again for a great suggestion - Mary
 
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