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Hi Guys

I am just wondering if anybody has got any experience with Fluval 3 plus internal filter. It just doesn't seem to do anything apart from lots of bubbles

Many Thanks

I've got one. Has it been working before? They do clog up eventually, and I guess if it's situated in the right way, it may suck in air through some hole in the casing, and that's what is producing bubbles.

I'm not entirely keen on those filters, and I'm currently in the process of replacing the filter in that tank with a home-built sump-system [using 3 x 4gal header tanks and various bits of overflow pipes].

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Mats

Thanks for your reply. It is not that its clogged....it just does not seem to suck anything in. I used to use Shark filter in the past and i had to clean it every 4 days or so because it was full of s..t. I clean this one once a week and the sponges are relativelly clean.

w.

Well, that's probably just how they are. If you don't fancy building your own filter system like I'm planning to do, I'd suggest that you get a TetraTec EX700 or EX1200 filter. They are good external filters. External canister filters are better in many aspects, but mainly because you can leave them for a several weeks without cleaning the filter, and they will still work just fine. My Eheim 2028 that I have together with a TetraTec EX1200 on my RIO 400 tank I've cleaned about three-four times a year over the last nearly three years I've had it. The TetraTec I've only had for a few months, so it's only been cleaned once. I now have two EX1200 and one EX700. Very happy to recommend those to anyone, and the corresponding Eheim Pro filters are twice the price. The simpler Eheim Classic are not as good as the EX series, in my mind - and both cost about the same.

By the way, I run all of the external filters with a simple outlet, not the spray-bars.

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Mats

Hi

Thanks for your advice. My tank is only 100l big so i thought that F3 will be sufficient but now i think i should get some external filter perhaps. I will have a look at the ones you suggested.
Many Thanks

W.

wabluska wrote:Thanks for your reply. It is not that its clogged....it just does not seem to suck anything in. I used to use Shark filter in the past and i had to clean it every 4 days or so because it was full of s..t. I clean this one once a week and the sponges are relatively clean.

w.

Wow- I have to clean my Fluval 3+ every two days in the bristlenose tank! The one in a 100l community tank can go a week without starting to clog. They seem to clog very easily if there are wood-eating plecos, or cucumber/courgette-eating ones, in the tank. I don't find them ideal- they sometimes need the impellor to be push-started, and if you're not careful they dump water on the carpet when you take them out of the tank, but for the price I quite like the 2+/3+/4+ filters- I've just got a couple of internal Tetratecs and they seem to do pretty much nothing in comparison- I'm seriously not impressed with them.

The problem with this filter as with almost all internal powerfilters is that they are unsafe for fishfry/shrimps and most importantly they clog up way to fast.

One solution is to modify the filter as described in this norwegian article:
http://akvaforum.no/text.cfm?id=1883

Most of you can`t read norwegian, but the pictures are quite describing. Basically you rip out the bottom of the filter casing, and replace what is inside with a column of filtersponge material of desired density. The column of filtersponge will perform a lot better than the more elaborate original stuff.