Fluval 406 Bypass Problem

[Bertie]

Hi,
Anyone got any experience with the Fluval 406? I have had this for a couple of months and I think that it may have a bypass problem. I have had a problem with particulates in the water column ever since I started using this filter, and it is appearing not to go through the filter system. I have been watching and it appears that the return pipe from the filter is actually throwing the stuff out of the filter. I did a water change and filter clean this morning and it is even more obvious that the detritus is coming from the filter return in a small but steady amount. I stripped the filter back down and cannot see any obvious reason for this has anyone any ideas? as this is getting annoying now.

 

[Julian]

Could it be coming from the ribbed pipes? Mine throw out this weird white flakey stuff now and then, usually when I've given the pipes a clean or moved them about a bit.

 

[Bertie]

Thanks Julian,I suppose it could be but have not had experience of ribbed piping.

 

[Julian]

I think stuff builds up in them after a while, then when you move them about or clean them, it breaks up. As soon as I used to turn my filter on, I'd get a huge cloud of the stuff. Might have been limescale now I think about it. Looks similar to what's in the bottom of my kettle.

If you wanted to test your filter, chop up a plant or something and let it get sucked in, see what comes out the other end.

 

[Bertie]

Will do and thanks

 

[Rahms]

Could it be coming from the ribbed pipes? Mine throw out this weird white flakey stuff now and then, usually when I've given the pipes a clean or moved them about a bit.

I read this thread before you replied and thought "hm thats strange, I wonder how it could bypass the sponges." Only after you mentioned the pipes have I realised I had almost exactly the same problem as Bertie 😳 I'd clean the filter, put it back together, turn it on and WHOOMPH my tank would be covered in what looked like decaying leaves. Definitely the hoses. I found that fully removing them from the intake/spraybar/filter and blasting tapwater through them got loads of gunk out. Also the fluval stop valve itself seems to store a fair bit of dirt (again, running tap through it while opening and closing).