Leaking Fluval 204

LadyMinion

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Bit of history first....

OK, this evening we noticed the water in the 180 was looking a bit cloudy. Looking at the filter outtake it had stopped completely. This seemed odd as we only did a media change about 3 weeks ago, so figured there was a blockage.

On opening the canister we found that it was the peat media we had put in on the last change that seemed to be causing trouble. It wasn't in a media bag and had gone everywhere. So we cleaned that up and put everything back together.

Now it wouldn't prime. In fact, as we were priming huge globs of air were coming out of the intake pipe. No movement from the outtake pipe at all. After ripping everything apart again and reseating the o-ring we eventually got it working. Briefly.

Then water stopped coming out of the outtake again. Looking at the canister a tiny puddle had formed underneath. No sign of where it came from, but we had dried the canister thoroughly after finishing. We reopened the unit, had a general fiddle and after a couple of tries got the cursed thing working again. That was 2 mins ago and it's still working and there's no new puddle.

What I'm worried about is that we come downstairs in the morning to find a flooded living room. Is this likely? Does anyone know what we can do?

After a quick bit of googling it seems the fluvals do have a reputation for leaking. Unfortunately there's no definite answer as to how to resolve it.

Any advice/opinions greatly appreciated!
 
I just went through almost the same scenario on my 404.

It took about 3 reseats of the top of the canister along with some helacious priming to get it running right.

My first mistake was having the impeller holder upside down. :rolleyes:

What I found is that it doesn't always like to fully seal around the top edge. It took some work for me to get it sealed, but I did. You can purchase a replacement seal, which is what I plan to do along w/ one of the clamps as it was broken when I recieved the filter (used).
 
Nice to know that we're not the only ones that this has happened to!

Thanks for replying!

Anyone else?
 
Fluvals are notorious for being fiddly and leaking, to put it bluntly they are cheap crap :*) I had one for about 3 months before it ended up in the great useless fish gadgets cemetary, after being kicked at great force so that it bounced down the stairs and smashed into several pieces. I had exactly the same problem as you experienced, the filter wouldnt prime due to trapped air "somewhere" and leaked like a seive from the canister, i was also appalled at the quality of the double taps which when turned to off would allow a river of water to come pouring out.

My advice is to scrap the fluval ASAP and invest in a Eheim classic or if you dont mind parting with the cash a Eheim pro2.
 
If you have the intake or spraybar at the bottom of the tank, then I would definatly drill a small hole in the pipe just below the normal water level. This way if it does leak the syphon will only empty a small amount of water before it is broken.
HTH
Ed
 
Well, I found out part of my problem today when I called Fluval. To start the canister backup the output must always be above the water. :( That is going to be a pain once I get my spraybar. :(

Also, I found out that they sell all seals, suction cups, everything for these filters and, after calling around, many of these parts are available for me locally.

Plus they are sending out a new clamp for free. :D
 
CFC said:
Fluvals are notorious for being fiddly and leaking, to put it bluntly they are cheap crap  :*)  I had one for about 3 months before it ended up in the great useless fish gadgets cemetary, after being kicked at great force so that it bounced down the stairs and smashed into several pieces.  I had exactly the same problem as you experienced, the filter wouldnt prime due to trapped air "somewhere" and leaked like a seive from the canister, i was also appalled at the quality of the double taps which when turned to off would allow a river of water to come pouring out.

My advice is to scrap the fluval ASAP and invest in a Eheim classic or if you dont mind parting with the cash a Eheim pro2.
:lol: the crap part could be debated , but they aren't cheap compared to other canister filters aside from Eheim.

I had an older model , the 403 , at times [ most of the time ] I had to turn it upside down to get it the flow going :( , while it worked it worked well , the fastening clips broke and it started to leak , I threw it away 2 or 3 years ago .

to bad , It had a good amount of surface area . :nod:

I've been thinking about getting another canister filter for my son to use in his 55 gal oddball tank , at over $100.00 for a 404 on line , in a shop it's like 40 or $50 more and this thread :dunno: , what to do . Magnum , rena, eheim ?
 
Ed4567 said:
If you have the intake or spraybar at the bottom of the tank, then I would definatly drill a small hole in the pipe just below the normal water level. This way if it does leak the syphon will only empty a small amount of water before it is broken.
HTH
Ed
That's an excellent idea - thank you! :)

Thanks to everyomne for your input. It seems to be holding up OK and no more leakages. We've bought another o-ring for the next change just to be safe.
 
i got very annoyed with my 204 when trying to start it up once and ended up punching a hole in the wall with my annoyance!!

But now i'ved found out how to start them up smoothly everytime!!

when you turn it off etc and put the aqualock on then remove the hose from the unit, open up the aqua lock thing into a bucket to release the water from your inlet pipe, close the aqua lock again and once you have put it back together, pump the primer to fill 'er up then then switch it back on and it worked perfect for me!!!

My 4ft tank will be coming with a ehiem Pro 2 so i'll have to find out the differences!!
 

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