"Nate" wrote in message ...
Disregard any info you get from people who haven't used them all. I have,
I've had them all running side by side

Good advice there. I have an Eheim Classic 2213 and a Fluval 304 running
side by side (about 14 feet away from each other in the same room). I once
tried to determine which is quieter, and basically they are different, but
both very quiet. The Fluval makes more of a breathing noise (like a never
ending exhale) which travels through the air. The Eheim has more of a
vibrational hum which travels through the base it's sitting on (perhaps
their feet are of a harder rubber). Neither of them sitting inside a
cabinet makes a significant sound level. If I was going to put one or the
other in my room, I would pick the Eheim. The noise it makes is a slightly
deeper hum (somewhat easier for my brain to relegate to white noise), and
the fact that it's a vibrational hum means that it would be easier to slip a
blanket underneath to quieten it further (the Fluval noise comes from the
pump area).

They are both much noisier when their impellers start failing, and both have
seen 2 replacement impellers.

I purposely have them arranged so that the Fluval does more work and gets
serviced more frequently. The Eheim is slightly more effort to service, but
unless you have them side by side, it's really not a big deal. For the
record, the shut-off valves, the sponge media and the basket media are all
easier to manage on the Fluval as compared to the Eheim's in-line shut-off
valves, spring-clip pump housing, twist media cartridge with all the media
sandwiched on top of each.

I find that all these filters (including HOBs), as you switch from
manufacturer to manufacturer, they have their 'characteristics'. If I was
to design the ultimate filter, it would have parts from many different
manufacturers.

Specifically to the 204 you bought (I'm also currently running a Fluval 201,
a seriously crappy antique which will just not die, and is a very distant
relative of your 204), the 104 and 204 series use a much smaller diameter
hose than the 304 and 404. They might be ok for smaller tanks, but I don't
have any small tanks. At the store, I think I ran a small hex tank on a 204
(it was all I could fit it between the narrow cabinet door) and it worked
ok. I think we had to service it more than we would have liked, but it was
a planted tank, so ymmv.
--
www.NetMax.tk

until I decided to ebay my Filstar and my Fluval. Jebo's are an attempted
cheap imitation of an Eheim.

In answer to your question, your probably going to be happy with it for a
while, because you haven't seen or used better, yet. I was the same way
until I bought an Eheim. Shortly after that, I started asking myself,
"what the hell is this piece of crap then?" Referring to my Rena
inparticular on that one. You get spoiled. It's like upgrading from a
Ford to a BMW. At first, you think your new Ford is pretty cool. But,
you don't realize how bad you had it until you take the BMW out for a
spin.

You think your Fluval is quiet, you'll **** bricks if you had an Eheim
running. Your sense of hearing can no longer be used. You have to use
site and feel to tell if an Eheim is running. This is no joke. Back to
your question, you might expect some difficulty with your Fluval, but you
won't know anything better about performance or ease of assembly until you
get an Eheim Classic or Pro II series in your hands.

Plus, if you stay in the hobby for life, you'll likely recoup that money
spent down the road. Eheim's have been known to last for over 20 years.
There are folks who claim they have original classics from the 70's or
80's that are still running. I don't know when they came out, but that's
pretty damn good in my book.

N8


"Big Dummy" wrote in message
...
"Nate" wrote in message ...
You get what you pay for. You go cheap, you get cheap. Sorry for the
bluntness. Eheim's smoke those fluval's in every category. Except of
course, price.

N8

There seemed to be some ambiguity in the group, many people said most of
the
cannister filters now on the market are pretty good. The price
difference
was $50 something vs. $150...

Do you think I should expect trouble with this filter or just somewhat
less
performance and / or ease of assembly?

DB