Fluval 304

[Tropical_Fish]

I've just bought a job lot of bits and peices and one of the bits is a Fluval 304 which I'm going to try to put together to work with my tank although it maybe a little bit over the top.

I know a few people don't rate these, but on the other hand I have seen some good reviews - so ignore that fact for the minute...


I've found the instruction manual and printed that out and I'm just off to have a play with it,

What I do need to know though is if I can reuse the media?

I know it hasn't been used for at least a month so all bacteria will be dead, the media is still damp. There is some vertical bits of sponge on one side then three baskets with sponge in each and some black pellets.

I'm hoping to reuse if possible as there is a lot and it looks quite unused. Should that be OK?


Also don't think the tubes will be long enough can I extend with something that will fit? Or should I replace the whole lengths?


Will probably be back with some more questions in a few mins!

 

[Tropical_Fish]

I've tested it out,

It works perfectly, I was amazed at how quiet it is and it really provides some flow! Even the start primer works perfectly which alot of people have reported that, that bit fails after a few uses.

When I had a proper look at the black pellets - one of the baskets is full of them with a bit of sponge on top. They might be plasticy - I'm not sure - my first guess was carbon but I wouldn't have thought there would be that much.

So I want to set that up to do my fishless cycle but there are a couple of bits missing.

At the moment the pipes just end, from looking at the instructions there should be various suckers to attach the pipes to the glass on the inside and out side, some bend type bits to go over the glass and on the intake there should be a bit to stop the fish going up and on the output there should be a shaped bit.

I'm not too woried about the output bit and I can probably make something for the suckers but I wanted to get the intake bit right - Is that something I can buy / is it generic or fluval only?

 

[waterdrop]

Great that its working nicely. Even though it is, were you able to remove the impeller assembly and clean both the impeller and impeller slot and lube all the silicone rubber o-rings? Its a great time to definitively identify the media, as you're trying to do. I can't quite tell what it is from your descriptions. I find I somehow don't care for the bioball types of media as much as the ceramics and sponges. I could see you going either way, managing to identify the old media as ok, rinsing and useing it or else deciding its a good time to reload the trays with new ceramics.

I assume the the water flow is bottom to top, so one order would be larger ceramic rings at the bottom (getting dirtiest water first) (they "randomize" the water into little streams, slowing it down so large debris settles out) topped by a coarse sponge that keeps the larger debris down in the rings but also mechanically traps a slightly smaller size of debris. Next trays up could be ceramic gravel topped by finer sponges, except in the top tray a fine polyfloss or mat pad layer could be used to polish the water right before the pump returns it. If the old sponges are in ok shape they can be wrung and rinsed. You could consider a spraybar output rather than a fan spout.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Tropical_Fish]

Thanks for the input waterdrop.


Having played with it and read the instructions I can confirm that the water goes through the verticle coarse sponge first then down to the bottom, it then works it's way up from the bottom, so your order is correct - I'm hoping to have some mature media donated from a friends outdoor pond, which is some broken plastic pipe - So I think for the minute I'll leave that in the bottom basket, I'll then leave the medium sponge in the middle and the fine sponge in the top.

I popped to the LFS and managed to get the strainer which stops fish going up the intake, but it's supposed to go on a long tube (rigid plastic) but it looks like the previous owner had used that to make a spray bar for the output. So I'm just considering what to do with that.


Can anyone confirm how the pipes should be laid out in the tank? All I could find in the instructions was that the inlet should be at the back near the bottom in a corner (but it made out this was visual purposes more than anything)

Where should the output be?, in my head it made most sense to be at the opposite end of the tank, but then I was thinking about internal filters which obviously have the intake and outtake very close together and they work.

My next problem is how to get the pipes in with the lid in place, and be able to open and shut the lid. I saw an extra which hooked over the glass of the tank which may be the easiest solution as the pipes are quite large - but it was quite expensive


Forgot to add, yes I did take the impeller out to clean and it was all very clean - not sure if they had cleaned it up ready? The shaft looked in very good condition as was the impeller - no visible signs of wear. Haven't lubed up the seals though

 

[Tropical_Fish]

Really struggling to get the tubes in with a hinged lid - not sure I'm going to be able to do it

 

[waterdrop]

Not sure what type of light hoods and hinged covers you're dealing with but a lot of people have hinged lids that stop short of the back of the tank, leaving room either for a plastic extension piece that can be cut to fit the various things you want going through it or that can be left short and that area just covered by one of the lights when you're not working on tank things through it.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Tropical_Fish]

My hinge, is hinged on the tank rim, the lid then sits on the glass shelves inside.

I might be able to do it with various adapters and end etc but it will cost more than just buying a fluval 3+ or similar from ebay and putting that inside the tank!

Might just sell the Fluval 304 - not sure at the moment it's such a good filter it seems a shame not to use it

 

[waterdrop]

That just sounds a real shame. Can't believe you can't somehow get creative with an "X-acto" knife (razor blade cutter) and make a pathway big enough for a single input tube crook pipe! But of course we can't visually see the problem so probably we don't understand how daunting it is!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Tropical_Fish]

Managed now - and all is setup, had to buy some more bits though - used a double rim adapter.

All running right now and looks good - but the external filter does seem a little noiser in the living room!

The thought of the output pipe falling off the rim adapter scares me though as it would empty the tank in about 2 minutes

 

[waterdrop]

Well then perhaps design yourself some homemade way to get further insurance agains their separation.. you might be able to figure out something like that!

 

[Tropical_Fish]

It seems pretty tight, and the pipe is held in place further down with a clip I made so it shouldn't try and pull away etc. I've placed the fluval itself inside a swingtop bin (with out the lid) so that if anything leaks at that end it will fill up the bin. Not failsafe as the bin doesn't hold as much water as the tank but atleast gives us chance to catch small leaks etc.

My homemade intake pipe seems to work well but I'm not sure about my output pipe yet. I think it's too long at the moment. It currently forces some water straight down and some horizontally in the tank about 1/3rd of the way down. This creates a flow all the way round the tank (you can just about see by watching little particles in the water) and creates a little surface movement but not enough (I think) I believe it should be doing more at the surface? Or does that not really matter?

 

[waterdrop]

I only see disturbance a few inches beyond my spraybar holes and seems good enough to me, I don't know, figuring out what circulation is doing seems hard enough and describing/diagnosing it over the internet seems even harder, lol!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Tropical_Fish]

I know what you mean about describing/diagnosing over the internet but you've been a great help already - just having someone to moan to helps sometimes

I've attached some pictures so you can see better what I have bodged together so far...

All is quieter now too - I re-read the instructions and found a paragraph about rocking the unit from side to side to dispell air - I'm not sure it's as quiet as it was but it's definatley quieter.

The only thing I'm not sure with it now is to do with the impeller - not sure if you've seen these but the instruction manual show the use of a tool to remove the cermaic shaft assembly, I don't have this tool but I do have the yellow bit where the tool would go, but the shaft just lifts out - no force neccessary - I can't see what the tool would do - anyone have any ideas on that?

Pictures:

Full Setup Empty:

Fluval 304 Unit:

Rim Adapter:

Homemade Input / Output Pipes:

 

[waterdrop]

Wow! Looks great! What a handyman! Can't see what you'd be worried about on the intake going over the tank edge, looks good there to me. About the ceramic shaft: Mine pulls out pretty easily too, from what I think is a rubber cup snapped in to the very bottom of the propeller shaft well on my Eheim. I just took it out and cleaned it during my filter clean today and put it back in. As long as you are not getting excessive noise and its not breaking I'd say you're ok. The day may come for both of us when we need to replace whatever rubber bottom bracket is capturing the bottom of the ceramic shaft but until then I guess we won't need the tools.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Tropical_Fish]

My problem was with how to get the pipes in, that was before I purchased the double rim adapter. The way the pipes normally go is in a big U shape - the ribbed hose doesn't bend very easily so the U is quite large. So I was having major problems getting anything to work.

Basically I gave up and bought the rim adapter - which made it all quite easy.

The bits aren't that expensive each but they add up when you need to buy all of them. I think the bits I needed were:

Intake Stem - Made my own out of flexible tube (LFS sells for £9)
Output Adapter - Made my own out of a bit from an UGF setup (LFS sells for £9.50 - can get from ebay for about £5)
Rim Adapter - Couldn't find a double on ebay but LFS had one for £7.49 so I reluctantly purchased!
Intake Strainer - bought for £1.49
Mounts - Couldn't Find - So made one out of an old filter mount and a couple of zip ties

If I'd needed to buy all the bits it would have cost about £30 from my LFS, which is more than I paid for the fluval! In the end I've spent about £10 on bits.

The intake strainer was a must as the fish would fly up the intake - it has a lot of suction on it! The output is quite powerful too - if just left open it clears the gravel on the bottom of the tank! - The bend that I put on allows some of the air to go down which just makes the stones move about a bit at the bottom and diverts the rest sort of horizontally (I pointed it up a little to disturb the surface)


Just got to wait for my heater to arrive - should be Tuesday I hope - then I can start the fishless cycle