Fluval Filters

[Orbit887]

Few months ago, my old trusty fluval 2plus just stopped working one day after a water change when I plugged it back in. Kept trying the plug thinking it was a dodgy conenction, but just was totally dead. In the end I had to go to the lfs a few days later and got a fluval 3 for the tank, which works fine.

The other day I aquired a new tank, and had to buy a reasonably sized filter for it, so back down to the lfs and got myself a fluval 4. That same night I was doing a water change on my older tank, and after all water level was back up in the tank, I plugged back in the fluval 3, and just as the fluval 2plus before, absolutely nothing! I ended up opening it up all, as thought this was a bit strange. As soon as I touched the spinning motor blade thingy, the filter kicked back in. I was obviously pleased that it had started working again, but then my thoughts turned to the old fluval 2plus. Luckly I'd not actually got round to throwing this out yet, so opened up the bag it was in, plugged it in, touched the motor blade thing (this time with some cardboard as when the otherone started, it spins v quickly straight away and had wacked my finger!), and to my annoyance, it started working straight away again!

I'm slightly annoyed that I only spotted and found out bout this problem with them after I had 3 in the house, but at least if they stop working now, I'll know why! Has anyone else had this problem with their Fluval filters?

 

[linda1503]

Hi Orbit. I have a fluval 3 and a fluval 4, haven't had your sort of problem with them but a couple of weeks ago my 3 started to get noisy. Good advice of DevUK was to pull out the impeller (the spinning motor blade thingy lol) and give the hole where it goes a good clean with a cotton wool bud, I was suprised at the amount of yuck that I got out. It works silently after doing this. My thought was, do you think maybe some gunk was stuck up there and maybe stopped the impeller till you touched it and dislodged the blockage?

 

[Orbit887]

Haha, impeller, that's the word I was looking for. Had v late & drunk nite last nite, then back in the office at 8am today, so brain is not working 100% yet!

When I checked inside, it didn't look too dirty, and literally just needed to be touched with no force for the impeller to start moving again on both of them, so not too sure if it was blocked up. But the fluval 3, which is in my room, is very noisey, so I might try giving that a clean tonight with a cotton woll bud, to see if that reduces some of the noise coming off ot it

 

[Jozlyn]

I don't know about the Fluval 2 & 3, I have a 4 but in the instructions it does say to take the propeller out when doing tank maintenance and give it a good wash under running tap water, it also says to clean the filter pads in tank water, perhaps it's a problem that they had.

 

[OohFeeshy]

It happens occasionally, probably a problem with the magnet alignment or something.