Fluval 404 Canister Bypass Problems

I have two Fluval 404 canisters which both seem to have become useless as far as passing the water through the media. The filters are two years old.

For the first year, they worked well with the media dirty on cleanings. Water flow through the canister was correct with it passing through the sponges then up the enlosed column. Since then, the sponges are never dirty at all and the bulk of the detritus is on the top of the media in the enclosed compartments. I don't have any really restrictive media in the compartments either.

I've already replaced one with a Eheim 2028. It looks like I will do the same with the other.

cyberbeer65 said:

Why don't you just buy some new media?

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The water is not going through the media correctly. The current media is the sponges, carbon in 1 compartment, and Bio-Max in 3 compartments. This is basically the recommended media. What good will new media do?

TKOS said:

Have you cleaned the filters out to remove any gunk in the tubing?

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There is some gunk in the tubing but the flow from the pump is perfectly normal.