Fluval 404 A+++ so far...

[dwish8990]

I just hooked up my Fluval 404 and I was a bit weary at first about purchasing it because I had read that a few people said it was noisey. Nevertheless,I wound up at petsmart buying it for $102 (brought a printout of the price on petsmart.com) It took me approx 45 minutes to get it setup and going and I have to say it is totally SILENT. Its been running for about an hour now and I can't hear any sound at all from it (5 feet away) Gotta love it. One question though -- I have the output hose about 1" below the water surface. Is that where you guys have yours too? My tank is VERY cloudy right now from all the sand blowing around I guess? I"m hoping that will clear up.

[dwish8990]

Oh and did you put the carbon on the top or the bottom of the cannister?

[RLG2182]

I had one for a couple weeks, then returned it. After researching cannister filters, I learned that there's really no need for them. That unit has a sponge that will need to be cleaned out regularly so nitrates don't get out of hand. Might want to take out the ceramic rings too... those can do the same. People I heard were just taking the media out of the canister and using it for water flow... just food for thought.

But to answer your question... my setup was the same. Carbon was on the bottom. Everything else was the same. Silent... nice unit... but probably more for freshwater. (I got mine at petsmart.com and was able to return it to the store for full price. Invested the money in LR and an awesome skimmer)

~~Rob

[stusclan]

I have had my fluval 404 for a little over 2 years - no noise at all. I now am using it on my sw tank - I have removed everything except 2 of the 4 sponge filters, and filled the baskets with live rock rubble. I clean my sponges everytime I do a partial water change. Easy to do, and makes me feel good just knowing that I have some form of filtration.

[Salttanker]

I have to agree. I used Fluvals before I setup my wet/dry sump. They do an awesome job. Just make sure you keep up with the maintenance on it as it can become clogged and trap detrius. I still use mine to run carbon every now and then. Very quiet unit.

Mike

[IfoundNemo]

My 1st choice of filtration was wet/dry sump, but don't want SW overflow on the hardwood floor. I switched to the Fluval 404 canister...works wonderful.

[phases99]

I used Fluvals in my FW days and they did the job. I don't remember them being too noisy unless they got air in them. They need to be cleaned too often to make them useful for a reef tank. Fine for FO, but keep an eye on your nitrate level.

[tiptoptank]

The fluval line is good but just has a crappy design. It's like they tryed way to hard on it. Either way I made a little modification to my 304 that makes it a pretty **** good filter. Check this out all you fluvaler's

Awile back i made the mistake of buying a "trash can". I got aggravated with the bin setup it had going on inside cause it used up alot of valuable media space.
So what I did is took all three bins out and the foam holder thing and the bin top, so I had pretty much a empty bucket.

I then took the bins and stored them away in case my project didn't work.

Then i took the foam holder and traced it on some 1/16in plastic. then I cut out the peice and cut a gap in the bottom so water can pass under it.I alos drilled acouple of holes for added curculation. It looked like this.


I put this insert on the foam filter side of the bucket and slide the foam holder back in to place.

It looked like this


In the end I put "one" of the bins back in the filter on the bottom with the biomedia that came with it. Then I filled the rest of the media side with bioballs and put the bin top thing back on. But, you could fill it with what ever you want.

The filter actually run quieter and in the end much better. I hope this helps all you trash caners.

PS: I have been runnig it for months now and nothing has gone faulty in the moter. But, if it does fuval will never know you tampered with it cause you didn't modify the filter it self in anyway. >8)