fluval

[knutty]

i am saying goodbye to the fluval 304. decided to order a magnum 250 HOT pro system. the magnum has a completely sealed chamber forcing all water to pass through the micron filter. the fluval seemed to allow water to find a way around the filter stages and head to the output chamber. the result: it spits out dirty water. i am also tired of cleaning the corrugated tubing. tossing the tubes out and going with a HOT. we shall see what we shall see. also, getting rid of my large gravel for 60 pounds of tahitian moon black sand. this should be interesting. argh... going ot have to take the entire tank down to give it a good cleaning and re-cycle. argh. i will post some pics here soon.

 

[Mollymomma]

knutty,

I'm feeling for ya! I have a fluval 304 on my 55g and I am really hating it! I have the same problems you have had & just get tired of the water quality with this filter. Seems like no matter what media you put in it it's never really totally clear. Hubby won't let me change mine out though since it was so expensive to begin with & I've only been running it about 8 months.. I seriously thought about rigging it to fail somehow LOL so I could justify getting a new filter system but with my luck hubby would figure out how to fix the darn thing lol...Please let me know how your tank does and how you like the new filter..pics too please

Lots of Luck
Rhonda

 

[knutty]

it is not that the fluval is that bad. it jsut costs too much for mediocre performance. flow is good. unit is high quality. very quiet. the problem is the internal design. water can take a path the bypasses the filter. well..mm..that stinks for a filter.. my new one will be in this week. i heard the magnum is awesome for water polishing since it uses a micron filter with a sealed chamber. this requires a lot of cleaning for the catridge, but it is easy to get to and does not seem to be nearly as horrid as the fluval.

 

[Moe]

I did a lot of reading and decided to go with the Filstar XP1 filter. It is my first cansiter filter. So far it is doing a great job, crystal clear water. Here are some reviews of the Hot magnum filters.

http/www.aquahobby.com/products/magnum.html

 

[knutty]

thanks for the review post. i think filters are a very personal peice of hardware. we al lhave different tanks with different requirements. For me, the fluval was not a great choice. But i never would have known until I used one. I tihn I will be very happy with the magnum. It will be in tonight or tomorrow and I will be replacing my gravel with the black tahitian sand. I will be sure to post pics. This is going to be one heck of a project. I have a 5 gallon and a 10 gallon almost competely cycled to use as a temp housing for my inhabitants. I am going to use as much as the oringinal water as possible ( i can store about 40 gallons to return to the tank when i drain it) and I will keep several filter bags full of the oringinal rock in the main tank. I hope I can keep the bio load throughout the change. I do not want to go through a 55 gallon cycle. My water levels are perfect and the UV unit has done a great job keeping all of the nasties out. We will see what happens.