Fluval 404 very happy

[Bad Inferno]

I finally decided to retire my Ehiem 2215 (after 10years only ever changed the o-ring.). I felt guilty not buying Ehiem especially after such a good run however costs/saving over come this and I now am the owner of the Fluval 404. I just moved my filter media across.....It has great power 4 times that of my 2215 and is very quiet....especially as it has to suck through my pH probe and then go back via a large UV canister. I luv the idea of baskets within the filter and I am wanting to fill these baskets with goodies...
Tank has never looked sooooo clear its like my fish are suspended in air !

[flukes]

Congrats they area great filter...

[Bad Inferno]

Sometimes you want to think your new purchase has improved the water qualitiy......My water was very clear since I installed the 9W UV about 6 months ago however I think its polished now because I am using two of the four bags of carbon that came with the filter in the lower basket.

[weird]

I have 2 fluvals, they are great. Sometimes I have trouble restarting them after a clean though, however I do have additional attachments to them which may cause the issue.

[pitchblack]

I have a fluval 404 as well, great filters but it is hard to strat after a change over. The easiest way I found was to shut the vales off while on. Turn the filter off, change over the media and then fill to the top. Turn back on as quickly let the shut off value loose. It works ever time.

[chris]

yes I agree Fluval make an awesome product, and sometimes they are hard to start again after cleaning.

[Bronx19]

So you cant just suck the output pipe and let the water drain in, then start her up? My Eheim starts every time doing this.

[Bad Inferno]

I must admit I have only had to start it once (yet to clean it) however seemed OK. I just used the built in plunger and primed it for 20-30 seconds. I'll pay more attention when I clean it in a couple of weeks and let you know.


cheers rob

[Blue]

Sorry eheim every time. That Eheim classics design has only been refined very little since they first started making them. Fluval on the other hand have thrown out 3 previous designs and are now on the 4th thats because they have all been rubbish. It won't be long before this model is gone either.

Evolution, not revolution.

Barry

Sorry that didn't help much but I have strong feelings on this.

[kalebjarrod]

when Henry ford was asked what choices of colour you could get in the model T he was annoyed and said "it comes in five shades of black"

he refused to change

IBM did a study before personal computer came out and belived that by the year 2000 between 500-600 homes would house a computer, they continued down the mainframe road for many years till they reailsed how wrong there thinking was

they only saw what they belived, they refused to believe what the saw

just because its a great filter dosen't mean you should not try to make new models

change = growth

if you aren't trying to be one step ahead you'll look up and find your one step behind :wink:

(thats my positive thoughts for the day LOL)

[Merrilyn]

Ryan, such profound thoughts at this hour of the morning. Whew - I'm impressed :wink:

[Blue]

Eheim do have more modern models and they are excellent.
And I am talking from personal experience, I have 2 filters on my tank. A fluval and an Eheim Classic.
I did this because I sell both in my shop and wanted to give honest opinions on both as they are in direct competition with each other.

Here is what I found.

Eheim
Good
Everything you need is in the box.
Regular maintenence means a quick clean once a month.
Contains a much larger amount of ceramic media for my bacteria to colonise.
Has a considerably higher flow rate to money spent ratio.
The pipes are not ribbed so they do not trap dirt and then realease it back into the tank.
There is no wasted space inside the canister making for no short circuits so to speak.
Bad
The green pipes are a bit unsightly against my black background (scraping the barrel a bit I think).

Fluval
Good
It tells me when it needs cleaning (by slowing down to a dribble every week).
It only has 1 tap to turn off, instead of 4 (like 4 is a hardship).
[/b]Bad :evil:
The pipes are ribbed. This means that they collect dirt in the pipes, which is really annoying when you have just water changed your tank to get the water to clean your filter out, you clean your filter out, put it back on the tank, start to prime it and it throughs all the dirt from the pipe back into your freshly cleaned out show tank.
You do not actually get enough media to fill the trays in your filter and there is no fine grade media to stop particles getting back into the tank.
The pipes are not actually a small enough diameter to create enough back pressure to make the filters impeller work efficiently thus producing a mere dribble from the out take, a simple spray bar would help this but you'd have to buy that seperately.
THe sponges seem to be biodegradable which is useless in water (but great again great for after market sales). they deteriorate at a very efficient rate.
The priming mechanism seems to be made from the most pathetic plastic and to make it worse, struggles to prime the canister because of the large diameter piping they have used.

Do you want me to go on?
Am I not putting forward a good argument?
Please correct me if I'm wrong or at least ask my opinion instead of preaching about someone who was dead a long time ago.
This hobby is actually rather simple and there far to many people that make it a lot more difficult than it has to be.

EHEIM EHEIM EHEIM

Barry

These are my personal views and not that of the website.

[Blue]

By the way isn't ford a huge multi national now, he couldn't have been that wrong.

[kalebjarrod]

Eheim are a great filter, and isn't it great that fluval is making steps to catch the competition

what a positive step in the development of that company

and won't it be great to keep Eheim on there toes producing even better filters than the ones we already love

what a great set of positives for the hobby as a whole :D


By the way isn't ford a huge multi national now, he couldn't have been that wrong.

Yes they are, but they also make coloured cars :wink:

[Blue]

Whats not great is that huge chains of pet stores can buy these so cheap from the manufacturer that they can afford to sell them for the same as price as the privately owned shop with knowledgable staff who actually care about fish and the customer can buy them for them.
Unfortunatly people see savings, buy it from the huge chain store who dont care about fish and dont have knowledgable staff to care for the customer.
These are the same people that talk trash about the chain store and wont buy their fish from the chain store because quality and selection is rubbish
yet keep the chain store in business whilst driving the smaller quality fish store out of business through lack of big sales.
Where do they buy there fish from then?
They have to go to the chain store and believe everything they get told and yes that 4 inch red tail catfish will go in a community tank (if you ask the wrong person).

Told you I have deep feelings about this.

Please take a look at the website, Its a work in progress as I have only had my P.C. a month still trying to figure it out.

I bet you wouldn't mind a nice shop like that near you, but we are struggling to stay afloat due to competition from a face less chainstore thats specialises in pets.

And with fluval dragging there heels I dont think Eheim have much to worry about.

Barry

What time is it there? Its 00:29 here.

Thanks for making me write this, I needed it off my chest. :D

[Blue]

Sorry just figured it out its 11:30 in the morning

[Kaza]

I have 6 fluval filters I agree with Barry about all the negative points. But they do the job.
However I dont particualrly like Eheim either, I have 1 classic and a large newish one with a push down primer. However I certainly can't push down the priming mech (very hard), and the green hoses look cheap.
I have a Rena (my first filter) it is wonderful, I can lift it, priming is easy, quality fittings, easy to clean. I would use a Rena any day over the other 2.

[kalebjarrod]

Barry

i would love to discuss these issues further with you but i think we are taking over this thread

Perhaps we should make a new one in the lounge