Fluval 204 Mod. (May work with other fluvals.

[TipStylez]

Skip this if you want to get stright to work.

Cleaning out my fluval today, and notice my inlet was sucking in really weak...

Then i took it apart to clean since it was just doing a test run in my tank for a few days, so the canister was empty but for a sponge to see how much it sucked up.

So i took it out, and cleaned it out, found alot of sand on the bottom (i have sand for substrate) so it must of been doing its job.

Then i took the aqua stop off. Notice the intake side was stuck open. Pushed it around, turned out that theres sand in there and caused it to stay open.

Then it hit me...

How can a filter this large, have a intake this small...if a cricket or somthing (i feed live crickets) got sucked up it would pretty much clog the intake causing my tank to overflow.

So i fiddled around with it and decided it would be a good writeup.

So heres how to make your intake fully open to take in large sized waste.

All you need is some niddle noise pliers...finger nails would be good. And thats it.

See the little grey ball? Its the number 1 cause of the cloging...so it needs to go.

Step one, take the rubber seal off that holds the grey ball in. Just slides off with a lil force, be gentle tho.

Then the ball should pop right out, if it was jamed like mines..pull it out with the pliers.

Then, your gonna see some ridges inside the intake. (I forgot to take a before shot, so ignore the right side, witch is the intake, and look at the left.)

Stick your pliers in there, and break off all the plastic stuff.

Then somthing like this should fall out.

And your done...just clean up the job and put the rubber seal back on. And this is how it should look like.
(Right= Outlet Left= Inlet)

Then your done, throw away all the plastic and that lil grey ball...you wont be needing them.


Note: If you want water to exit even faster (for spray bar users) you can do the same to the outlet side.
I decided to keep mines since it keeps the water from flowing back out the hose when i disconnet the aqua stop from the canister.

OPTIONAL MOD

If your scared of your small fish getting sucked in...get the fluval strainer.

Open it up, and get rid of the little white ball that keeps the water from back flowing.

Done, now have fun with your new and improved Fluval.

 

[MilitantPotato]

Nice! When ya disconnect the hoses does the intake line continue to syphon water since that little valve was removed?

 

[Smash102]

Good thing to know, I was thinking of getting one of these canister filters. If i did, this is something I would have to do.

 

[TipStylez]

Nice! When ya disconnect the hoses does the intake line continue to syphon water since that little valve was removed?

What i do is lift the inlet out of the water so it sucks nothing but air. So all the water in the hose gets pumped back into the tank.

Its alot easyer if you have a flow control valve. Im getting one soon, since i will have a surface skimmer style inlet that cant be lifted out.

Theres a type of control valve Where its two knobs, and a twist type lock in the middle. So when you need to take the canister out, just turn both valves to off, and twist it and the hose disconnects.


P.S. If anyone know more mods for a fluval, let me know!

Im thinking of a 2nd mod to make the outlet/spray bar actually blow out tiny bubbles so you dont gotta worry about stupid looking airstones or bubble wand type bubbles. Kinda like how a sump blows out bubbles when the water level in the sump is low.

I always liked that look, gives it a more natrual look then a wall of HUGE bubbles.

So keep an eye out for that, and more to come. I like making stuff when im bored haha.