Anyone Ever Had An External Empty The Tank For You?

[fry_lover]

I acknowledge the paranoia / pessimism here, and it's never happened to me....

But, has anyone ever had a problem with their external leaking to the extent it actually emptied the tank of it's water?

i.e. sucking up water, but instead of recycling back into tank, it's found it's way out of the tank, i'd imagine either through quite an extreme leak in the filter or the outlet pipe coming free for some reason?

I've never really read about it before, so i guess the odds of it happening are so small it's not really worth worrying about?

Is there any particular problems with positioning the inlet of the external half way up the tank (height wise) instead of the traditional bottom / lower regions of tank?

 

[rabbut]

Placing the inlet lower would reduce the ammont of waste removed by the filter before settling on the tank bottom. This is what the bottom is where most inlets are placed.

The only leaks I have had on my exturnals so far, have been due to my poor plumming skills when placing two filters in parallel off the same inlet and outlet pipes. This diden't empty the tank mind, I just lost about 30 drips of water a minuite from each joint (I had 6 ) I have also had dodgy inlet seals, but this allowed air into the filter, rather than allowing water out. So far I have been lucky. I'll wake up to a disaster tomorrow morning now

All the best
Rabbut

 

[andywg]

I know people who have had Fluval externals fail and start dumping water on the floor (including me twice and CFC). Haven't heard of it from any other manufacturer.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I know people who have had Fluval externals fail and start dumping water on the floor (including me twice and CFC). Haven't heard of it from any other manufacturer.

snap, with a fluval 205

 

[tigermoth2]

Haven't had this problem with a tank filter but had a disaster of that sort with an external box filter on my first pond. It had a gravity return and the overflow got blocked. The pump happily pumped the water out of the pond and down the path. I arrived home after work to find the pond left with only 4 inches of water and the fish looking decidedly unhappy. Got away with it - put on the hose and refilled the pond with straight tap water and every fish survived. Checked the outlet on a regular basis after that!
I bought new jubilee clips to make sure the tank filter pipes can't come off. I hope!
Bob W

 

[chr15_8]

my rena xp3 (i think thats what it was) leaked i lost about 30-40% of the tank water (45 gallons tank) doing the night. got woke mup by my mum who wernt very happy at 5.30 in the morning.

had to move the tank to clean the carpet underneath and leave it to get abit of air to it. stunk for a good few days

 

[geo7x]

Yet another reason to go with Eheim

 

[fry_lover]

Yet another reason to go with Eheim

yep, the externals i have on my bigger set-up's are all Eheim 2026's and 2028's. I do have some small Aqua Pro externals on my community planted though.

 

[chr15_8]

Yet another reason to go with Eheim

i have 3 now. wont be using rena filters again aswell as fluval even though i have no experience with them just seems to happen alot more then the eheim's

might be getting a tetratec though havent heard anything bad about them leaking

 

[CFC]

As Andy said i had a Fluval 305 dump most of the contents of a 80g tank onto the floor one evening.

 

[adamgreen240]

me too with a 305, avoid Fluval lol

 

[Dan81192]

ive only used Eheim but can reccomend it greatly, never leaked !

Dan

 

[Mr._Fishy]

I've had it happen 3 times with a fluval 405 (you would think I would learn the first time). One time was when I was setting it up and I bumped it, don't know why it happened the other two times though. Luckily I was in the same room the first two times it happened so I caught it quickly. The third time I ended up with almost a completely drained 75g. Sold the thing after that. As people have said, another reason to go with eheim. Never had any problems like that with them.

Ryan

 

[monkey_biz]

about 15 years ago i bought a new project external for my 100gal oscar tank and woke up one morning to a parted hose by the taps and about 20 gals left in the tank...... the rest was an indoor carpet water feature. insurance company wast happy but paid out

 

[jgray152]

My fluval 304 took a few gallons out of my 29 gallon during work. Don't exactly know where the leak came from on the filter. I think it may have come from the shut-off valve.

First time in 7 or so years though and hasn't happend again.