Anyone ever accidentally demolished a Fluval inlet valve?

[Gill Passman]

Just done the maintenance/water change on my 200L community tank
including cleaning the inlet valve for my Fluval 404. Put it back in the
tank and turned the pump on but it suddenly stopped working...turned it
off and started manually priming it. I was sitting on a little stool
doing this for a good 10-15 mins and couldn't understand why I wasn't
getting anywhere. Started cursing Fluvals and the far too often need to
prime them.

Took a look inside the tank again on around my 5th attempt to power the
thing up and saw a little white ball floating on the surface. Couldn't
find any of the other bits so went and got a spare from my spare 304 and
fitted it after removing part of the old one from the tube and the pump
started instantly. Then found the other bit - I didn't actually realise
they came apart - lol - all those hours spent cleaning it with a tooth
pick - aaghh.

No idea why it fell apart but at least I now know that they do and also
that the pump won't work without it.....

Hey Ho

Gill

[Daniel Morrow]

Bottom posted.


"Gill Passman" > wrote in message
.. .
> Just done the maintenance/water change on my 200L community tank
> including cleaning the inlet valve for my Fluval 404. Put it back in the
> tank and turned the pump on but it suddenly stopped working...turned it
> off and started manually priming it. I was sitting on a little stool
> doing this for a good 10-15 mins and couldn't understand why I wasn't
> getting anywhere. Started cursing Fluvals and the far too often need to
> prime them.
>
> Took a look inside the tank again on around my 5th attempt to power the
> thing up and saw a little white ball floating on the surface. Couldn't
> find any of the other bits so went and got a spare from my spare 304 and
> fitted it after removing part of the old one from the tube and the pump
> started instantly. Then found the other bit - I didn't actually realise
> they came apart - lol - all those hours spent cleaning it with a tooth
> pick - aaghh.
>
> No idea why it fell apart but at least I now know that they do and also
> that the pump won't work without it.....
>
> Hey Ho
>
> Gill

That happened to me too except not using the ball seems fine - summary; my
fluval 404 works fine without the little white ball in the intake strainer
that normally makes a valve that prevents the cannister water from
reentering the tank in reverse during a power outage. I actually prefer to
use the intake strainer without the white ball because it is simpler to do
so, I don't have to worry while priming as to whether or not to remove the
intake strainer during priming, but yes, the white ball came out of mine
surprising when the intake strainer's two containing parts separated and I
was surprised it did. It's easy to put it back together though - as long as
you can find the intake strainer part that fell off and as long as it
doesn't get lost in your tank! :-)

[Daniel Morrow]

Mid posted.



"Daniel Morrow" > wrote in message
...
> Bottom posted.
>
>
> "Gill Passman" > wrote in message
> .. .
> > Just done the maintenance/water change on my 200L community tank
> > including cleaning the inlet valve for my Fluval 404. Put it back in the
> > tank and turned the pump on but it suddenly stopped working...turned it
> > off and started manually priming it. I was sitting on a little stool
> > doing this for a good 10-15 mins and couldn't understand why I wasn't
> > getting anywhere. Started cursing Fluvals and the far too often need to
> > prime them.
> >
> > Took a look inside the tank again on around my 5th attempt to power the
> > thing up and saw a little white ball floating on the surface. Couldn't
> > find any of the other bits so went and got a spare from my spare 304 and
> > fitted it after removing part of the old one from the tube and the pump
> > started instantly. Then found the other bit - I didn't actually realise
> > they came apart - lol - all those hours spent cleaning it with a tooth
> > pick - aaghh.
> >
> > No idea why it fell apart but at least I now know that they do and also
> > that the pump won't work without it.....
> >
> > Hey Ho
> >
> > Gill
>
> That happened to me too except not using the ball seems fine - summary; my
> fluval 404 works fine without the little white ball in the intake strainer
> that normally makes a valve that prevents the cannister water from
> reentering the tank in reverse during a power outage.

I realized what the purpose the white ball is for - making the 404's built
in primer work. There is no internal valve so the intake strainer has the
white ball that acts like a valve for the built in primer's purpose. And I
don't need the white valve because I prime my filters with what in my
opinion is a superior primer method/equipment. I guess the white ball also
indirectly prevents water from exiting the filter in reverse like I
explained previously, later.

I actually prefer to
> use the intake strainer without the white ball because it is simpler to do
> so, I don't have to worry while priming as to whether or not to remove the
> intake strainer during priming, but yes, the white ball came out of mine
> surprising when the intake strainer's two containing parts separated and I
> was surprised it did. It's easy to put it back together though - as long
as
> you can find the intake strainer part that fell off and as long as it
> doesn't get lost in your tank! :-)
>
>

[Bill Stock]

"Gill Passman" > wrote in message
.. .
> Just done the maintenance/water change on my 200L community tank including
> cleaning the inlet valve for my Fluval 404. Put it back in the tank and
> turned the pump on but it suddenly stopped working...turned it off and
> started manually priming it. I was sitting on a little stool doing this
> for a good 10-15 mins and couldn't understand why I wasn't getting
> anywhere. Started cursing Fluvals and the far too often need to prime
> them.
>
> Took a look inside the tank again on around my 5th attempt to power the
> thing up and saw a little white ball floating on the surface. Couldn't
> find any of the other bits so went and got a spare from my spare 304 and
> fitted it after removing part of the old one from the tube and the pump
> started instantly. Then found the other bit - I didn't actually realise
> they came apart - lol - all those hours spent cleaning it with a tooth
> pick - aaghh.
>
> No idea why it fell apart but at least I now know that they do and also
> that the pump won't work without it.....
>
> Hey Ho
>
> Gill

Mine pops out all the time. Fortunately I saw it pop out the first time, so
I knew it had escaped.