Comments on Fluval 404 Canister

"Velvet" wrote in message
...
Rick wrote:





drill a small hole in the intake just below the water line, that way
if if
starts to leak out of the canister it can only leak to the level
where the
hole is at which time it will start sucking air and the siphon effect
will
stop.

Rick



Ah, I see! Not a bad idea, that. Presumably you're looking at
replacing
the filter if that happens though, due to impeller spinning in air/no
cooling?

--


Velvet

I'm not sure if that happens in practice. As soon as sufficient air
enters the siphon hose, the filter is no longer working in a closed loop,
where the weight of the water in the 2 hoses cancel each other out. Now
the filter needs to push water up with no help from the weight of the
incoming water and they are not designed to work under a lot of head
pressure. I don't think that they would be able to run bone dry, maybe
just having the water in the return hose bouncing up and down. What do
you think? It might still overheat eventually, and with evaporation
would go dry eventually, but for a few hours, or even a day or two, I
think it would survive. I recently found a 304 which had been run 'dry'
(water change went below the intake) for 3 days. It was hot. I cleaned
it out (rotten egg smell), plugged it in and it was dead, but a few days
later when I went to service it, it was working fine. I guess it just
needed to cool down a bit.
--
www.NetMax.tk

"Velvet" wrote in message
...
Rick wrote:





drill a small hole in the intake just below the water line, that way if
if
starts to leak out of the canister it can only leak to the level where
the
hole is at which time it will start sucking air and the siphon effect
will
stop.

Rick



Ah, I see! Not a bad idea, that. Presumably you're looking at replacing
the filter if that happens though, due to impeller spinning in air/no
cooling?

--


Velvet

I think if you were out of town or away from home for several days you would
likely find that the motor had burned out. There would still be water in the
canister which would likely keep the unit running o.k for some time however
I have no idea how long that might be. A lot cheaper to replace a motor unit
in the filter than having a lot of water running out onto the floor. In my
case my stand is one of those factory make pressed boards units sitting
ontop of carpet which is over hardwood floors. If I had not been home when
mine leaked I imagine my stand would be ruined, tank would be empty to the
intake level which is near the bottom which would have killed most of the
fish. My hardwood floors would have warped, in other words a total disaster.

Rick

In message , Rick
writes
For the difference in money I would buy a Filstar or Ehiem.

Having just had an Eheim Ecco fail after only a couple of months, I can
honestly say that I wouldn't use one of those again. Very poor design
and very fiddly to maintain. I had constant problems with it whilst it
worked (badly) and then the handle snapped during a restart.

Just my 2c, but I have very strong feelings against Eheim, or at least
against the Ecco.

--
Alan Silver
PSG Fish Tanks - http://fish.alansilver.co.uk/

drill a small hole in the intake just below the water line, that way if if
starts to leak out of the canister it can only leak to the level where the
hole is at which time it will start sucking air and the siphon effect will
stop.

Thanks,
I'd forgotten to do this on my latest filter.

I do mine about three inches below normal water level so I don't have to
re-prime after routine water changes but the tank won't empty too far.

( I do have ceramic floors though - waxed wood or carpet would make a
spillage a bigger issue ;o)