Fluval flex fish tank issue

[Hannah14]

Hi, can anyone please help!!
We have a fluval flex fishtank and the water from the chamber with the pump in it is emptying when the pump is on and filling the tank up. The water In the pump chamber then gets so low it starts making sucking noises.
When the pump is off the chamber fills up again.
It’s like the pump is too strong for the return? It just started happening when it was fine prior to this.
Thank you.

 

[noobfish]

Hi, can anyone please help!!
We have a fluval flex fishtank and the water from the chamber with the pump in it is emptying when the pump is on and filling the tank up. The water In the pump chamber then gets so low it starts making sucking noises.
When the pump is off the chamber fills up again.
It’s like the pump is too strong for the return? It just started happening when it was fine prior to this.
Thank you.

Nothing partially blocking the return inlet?

 

[Myraan]

Is the intake holes all covered in gunk and blocked?

 

[Ch4rlie]

Sounds like the intake chamber is being slower to fill up against the pump pumping water out to tank.

Could be intake holes being blocked by gunk, algae or debris.

Simply check and clean intake area where water goes into the pump chamber.

Hopefully it’s as simple as that.

 

[Hannah14]

Nothing partially blocking the return inlet?

Thank you. We have just cleaned it out but it hasn’t made a difference.

 

[Fishfinder1973]

Where is the intake situated in the tank?

 

[Ch4rlie]

Is the water level inside tank high enough to go into the chamber if the intake is at top of tank area.

Am not sure but if it’s anything like my Fluval spec there’s two intakes slots, one at bottom and one at top of black plastic that separates the tank from filter at back.
I tend to ensure water is always going into both top and bottom intake slots into filter chamber.

Am not familiar with the Flex exactly but think may be similar since both are Fluval.

 

[Hannah14]

Where is the intake situated in the tank?

Hi, thank you so much for your help. We have just cleaned the media sponge and that so far seems to have done the trick!!!

 

[Hannah14]

I think we have sorted the issue! The media chamber! So far so good. Thank you everyone for your help.

 

[seangee]

I think we have sorted the issue! The media chamber! So far so good. Thank you everyone for your help.

Don't believe all those posts (especially on Facebook) where people tell you to cram as much media in there as you can. It doesn't give better filtration and causes problems as you have experienced. All I have in my Flex is the sponge that came with it. I don't even bother with the ceramic media that was included. Never had a water quality issue yet, and squeezing the sponge out as part of the weekly water change takes around 30 seconds.

 

[Desgirl]

Hi, can anyone please help!!
We have a fluval flex fishtank and the water from the chamber with the pump in it is emptying when the pump is on and filling the tank up. The water In the pump chamber then gets so low it starts making sucking noises.
When the pump is off the chamber fills up again.
It’s like the pump is too strong for the return? It just started happening when it was fine prior to this.
Thank you.

Did you ever fix this? I am going through the same thing now. I cleaned the sponge and cleaned the pump... Again!! And it's still not working right. My back chambers are so low I'm afraid my heater is going to get exposed and cause some problems.