Hi,
Hope someone can help.
I have a 162litre community tank, flitered by a fluval 305 and a fluval 4+ internal.

I've been running both filters in the tank for about a month and my aim is 2 eventually remove the internal filter.

On friday i cleaned out the external for the 1st time and changed some of the media.

When i came to restart the filter i cannot seem 2 get water flowing in/out of the filter. I've tried using the pump on the filter, but i'm on the verge of snapping it (it's only a thin pce of plastic).

Am i doing something wrong?
Wondered if someone could talk me through a clean and start up of a fluval external.

When the external was 1st used i wasn't around to see it start (i was somewhere hot, sandy and crap), and a mate started the filter 4 me (and he's away now too).

soz 4 the long thread....
Rgds Alfie

this is gonna sound really girley, but..
have you read the instructions????
i dont have that model (a smaller one) and i get hubby to sort it, it just took some pumping i think...
sorry its not much help

If you haven't got the instructions, they are here:

http://www.hagen.com/pdf/aquatic/Fluval_series5_manual.pdf

hiya alfie,

i dont have the fluval, but have the equivalent tetratec version, 3 things spring to mind..

1. does the motor/pump sound when turned on?.
2. are the hoses on correctly, i know it sounds daft but bear with us.
3. do you have a spray bar, i noticed with mine that when not totally submersed it wont pull water through. make sure the intake hose is completely submersed to form a complete loop with the filter.

i know all these sound really simple and probably daft but need to be ruled out for us to re-think.

hopefully the instructions above will help, if not feel free to ask again.

cheers

Hi,

Thanks 4 the replies...

Update - I've managed to solve the problem, i had not put enough water in the filter (i found i had to fill it to almost overflowing)...

Thanks again...

that was gonna be no.4 on the list but forgot lol

glad u could help lol

well done

Don't understand why you have to fill the filter. When you connect the pipes back on it should automatically fill up before u plug it back on. Look at the back and see the tubes is not kink stopping the water from flowing into the filter.

Tony

That;s what i thought - i have the 105 and as soon as i open the aquastop value i hear water gushing into the filter, then it's just a case of pumping the auto primer to make sure there's no air left in it.

Alfie do you have the filter under the tank and do you have the aquastop value open?

Hope you have it sorted - I cleaned out my fluval 305 for the first time a week or so ago and was so annoyed with it!

Ended up flooding my living room and with a very cloudy tank - not impressed.

Discovered that I hadn't put the lettering together and that the output pipe wasn't connected right.

Fingers crossed it is plain sailing from here...

hi...

not sure as 2 'how it started to work' but it's fine now...

will see when i do my next clean.

out of interest how often do u need to change media etc in these external filters.

i have a 160l community tank using RO water, (dennison / odessa barbs, congo tetra, GW panchax, clown loach, flagtail catfish) - planted with java ferns and moss balls.

media in the filter is clearmax (bottom tray), biomax (mid tray) and polywool (top tray).

i do a 1/4 water change and clean my internal fluval 4+ fortnightly.

thanks in advance 4 any advise.