Fluval Fx5 Biggest Piece Of Crap Ever Made!

[Callum]

ive had a 2+ internal, thought it was rubbish, difficult to place in tank, and had to 'kick start' it. it was rubbish. Then i got a Fluval 205 which was a charm, an excellent filter in my opinion, very good value for money. The only things i didnt like about it was the intake gets clogged easily and i hated greasing the 0 rings.

 

[KathyM]

The trouble is for everyone person that has had good experiences with fluval filters it seems that someone else has had a bad experience with them, and its the bad experiences that stand out.

Personally i've owned 2 Fluval externals, both 304 models and both of them were nothing but trouble from the first time they had to be cleaned, difficult to restart after maintainance, leaked from around the seals and the double taps and the motors would stop working for no apperent reason, both of them met their demise at the bottom of the garden after being kicked down the stairs and out of the flat.

On the other hand i own 7 eheim externals and have never had any problem with any of them, statistics speak for themselves.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who have had the opposite experiences though, so not really "statistics" but personal experience.

I personally wonder how much of Eheim's positive regard in fishkeeping is from the factor of price tag = popular.

I saw an article written on another board where someone ran the FX5 against the Eheim equivalent and found they were both much the same in performance, ease of use, etc, with the Fluval obviously coming out top because of the price. And yet some other people I've spoken to think something that costs more must be better, with little experience to back it up (not talking about anyone here of course).

 

[andyt_uk]

I personally wonder how much of Eheim's positive regard in fishkeeping is from the factor of price tag = popular.

I saw an article written on another board where someone ran the FX5 against the Eheim equivalent and found they were both much the same in performance, ease of use, etc, with the Fluval obviously coming out top because of the price. And yet some other people I've spoken to think something that costs more must be better, with little experience to back it up (not talking about anyone here of course).

i'd be tempted to agree - filter snobbery
one of my other hobbies is powerkiting i have a modest 5.5m wide kite which cost me £50 delivered from china - now not many people will even consider it anywhere near as good as one of the 'better' branded 5m kites which cost upwards of £350!!! still flys and pulls like a train
personally though i can only comment on a fluval 305 as thats what i just bought - and to be honest the deciding factor was price, a good £20-£30 less than an equivalent sized / pump rate eheim..

although tonight i snagged the intake on my gravel vac (bad timing the lights went out on the timer as i was cleaning up) and in the dark i managed to pull the intake out of the water - wondering what the funny sucking noise was i realised too late it was the filter suffocating
restarting was a pain as it was almost full but not quite full enough....
when i did finally get it going it seemed it had also managed to swallow some plant leaves i had managed to uproot - they somehow eventually came flying out of the output... phew all ok now and pretty quiet but not silent - just how silent is silent?

 

[BigIan]

Unfortunately we have 3 fluval externals and i hate every single one of them and dread the day when they need cleaning.
They will slowly be replaced with ehiem filters i think,

Ian...

Now i'm sure there is a reason for this, as I know you are the deep thinker that has been solving my baby and universe problems.. But.. you have 3 fluvals that you hate. perhaps you thought the first was a one off mistake and bought a second one.. but a third?

Now please put my mind at rest as to why you have 3 of them...

Confused of Guildford..

2 came with second hand tanks we bought
I bought one, as Sp00ky recomended it. and out of the three externals its the best,
But i still hate it, when it comes to clean them.
And being 6`4" and climbing through the cupboard of a trigon 350 past the rena xp2 (good filter) to try and undo those bloody clips on the side then try and then get leverage to lift the lid off so i can get the canister out isn`t fun,
and as for getting it restarted the little plunger is useless i find turning it off and on at the mains works better. 6 or 7 times and it coughs and splutters its way back to life.
the 304 we have the plunger is knackerd, and all the seals leak so its currently sat in a bucket....
and the out puts on them are a bit crap really they blast one section of the tank and don`t spread the flow at all....

oh and in

 

[CFC]

The trouble is for everyone person that has had good experiences with fluval filters it seems that someone else has had a bad experience with them, and its the bad experiences that stand out.

Personally i've owned 2 Fluval externals, both 304 models and both of them were nothing but trouble from the first time they had to be cleaned, difficult to restart after maintainance, leaked from around the seals and the double taps and the motors would stop working for no apperent reason, both of them met their demise at the bottom of the garden after being kicked down the stairs and out of the flat.

On the other hand i own 7 eheim externals and have never had any problem with any of them, statistics speak for themselves.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who have had the opposite experiences though, so not really "statistics" but personal experience.

I personally wonder how much of Eheim's positive regard in fishkeeping is from the factor of price tag = popular.

I saw an article written on another board where someone ran the FX5 against the Eheim equivalent and found they were both much the same in performance, ease of use, etc, with the Fluval obviously coming out top because of the price. And yet some other people I've spoken to think something that costs more must be better, with little experience to back it up (not talking about anyone here of course).

Oh i am all for spending as little as possible, of my 7 Eheims only 2 of them have been bought brand new with the others all being second hand, 3 of them were used on a lfs marine system stuffed with Rowaphos for years before i bought them. My Eheims are also all the no thrills classic models, the 2217 which is the largest hobbiest sized model retails at around £70 new so its hardly bank breaking stuff (they do make two larger models but these things could filter lakes!)
I also saw that test but i would like to see how the fluval fares after a year of use when compared to the Eheim, the fluvals i had ran like a dream for the first few months but after the first time they had to be stripped down never worked quite the same again, some of my Eheims are getting on for 8-9 years old and still reprime and restart perfectly every time with no leaks and no hassle.

 

[andywg]

I saw a review (was linked in the hardware forum IIRC) and it found the fluval excelled at mechanical filtration but suffered on biological as it is mostly just stuffed with sponge.

It also mentioned that on first uses the auto no syphon start didn't work properly. My experience of fluvals is they are great for a month, ok for a year and will leak and fail after 2 years. Would hate to see the state of fluvals FX5 after a few years' service.

Like CFC all my eheims are second hand and the reliability is great. Only brand I would consider better than Eheim is Tunze where you really pay, but my powerheads are still working despite being at least 17 years old.

 

[SG-1]

Still waiting for the new filter in the mail, cant imagine it will be as bad as the fluval though.