Noisy, Buzzy Fluval 304s

[TheMirror]

Cheers all -

A long time tropical fish owner here. Recently (2 years ago) went to an external filter for my 70 gallon corner tank. The first 304 I bought worked quietly for about 3 months before developing a loud rattling, buzzing noise. Tried cleaning to no avail, then broke the $#&*! impeller coverpiece on the second clean. Bought another due to the plumbing already being in place. Now after a little over a year, this one suddenly starts buzzing and rattling. Horribly irritating.

From what I gather, more than a few folks have had trouble with the x04 series. Has anyone had this specific problem? It just appears out of the blue. This is not a heavily loaded tank, just 7 giant danios and 7 silver dollars.

Thanks
-Mirror

 

[three-fingers]

Not a good day for fluval external filters on these forums .
No idea what's wrong with it, sounds like it sucked up something big maybe?
Does the 04 series not come with a guarantee?

 

[BigIan]

welcome to the world of fluvals.....

there loud bastards

 

[xing]

my 304 did exactly this - i changed the whole impeller assembly including the shaft - problem solved. It seemed that the impeller wears quite quickly, certainly in my case. Now got an eheim as the fluval sprang a leak 2 months after again replacing the impeller (can already see wear) and shaft and upgrading the intake assembly to the 305 style one with shut off lever rather than spring-loaded valves that always clogged and stuck open when I was disconnecting.

I can send you the impeller if you PM me, otherwise the whole lot goes in the skip - the shaft is broken though. You can also have the new style intake if you're interested.

 

[TheMirror]

Thanks for the replys and the offers folks. I performed a work-around by putting the old impeller into the newer filter. Now it makes a different, less irritating noise that's not quite as loud.

Fluval, you've lost me. Eheim forever more.

Cheers,

-Mirror