Noisy Fluval U2

[zeltum]

Hi all,
am a newbie here so apologies if its a dumb question. Have been keeping tropical fish for about 6 months now and starting to get the hang and rythym of whats right and wrong. Had to get a new filter today as the one supplied with the tank stopped working.
On the advice of Maidenhead (who have helped me quite a lot) I bought a Fluval U2.
Kept my old media from the previous filter etc, installed it, plugged it in and away I go. Or so I thought.

My old filter made the standard low level noise of the air being pumped through. Pretty standard filter noise.
Plugged in the Fluval and it seems like its 'gasping' for air every other second and it looks like its 'squirting' the bubbles out.
I.e. the air flow/hum is not constant.

Is this ok or have I missed something. Double checked the instructions etc. and apart from the media packaging there was nothing else to remove.

any advice gratefully received.

thanks

 

[zeltum]

Oops forgot to say/ask. The media from the old filter is slightly different to that which came with the fluval. The old type is the 'hole through the middle' type. The new stuff which I havent used was solid. Could this be an issue.

thanks

 

[SimoUK]

Welcome to TFF ,

I just wrote an essay about what could be wrong, but was thinking of external filter. My goldfish tank has that exact same filter as you, and i experienced the exact same symtoms, if iam right, there are two filter medias on the left and right, and in the centre there is a blue cage that holds bio-rings of some sort, the mistake i made was leaving them in the plastic bag while in the cage, slowing the flow of air and water, as soon as i took them out of the bag, it did my tank a load of good and the air and water flow is now perfect (don't laugh, god only knows why i diddnt notice ) Check to make sure you are not as stupid as i was

Oh, and good choice on filter, it is great, does an excellent job, quiet, easy to maintain and the medias and what not are very easy to find.

Also, check the manual, see what that says.

Simo