Eheim Cannister filter

[Laracroft]

Hi, what are your thoughts around these filters?

I have two of them, last night while doing w/c I discovered the filter was not working properly, only to find out that the pipes were blocked. Now if I did not do a w/c I would not have discovered this, as in genereal the filter is so quite, you can hardly hear it or feel the vibrations.

Otherwise, I am very happy with this filter, just the pipes are quite thin.

Thanks

[f-fish]

Eheim has a good reputation and accessories for everything - even a pipe cleaner. I suppose it is one of those things that you just need to do regularly since you now have x meters of plumping out-side the tank. I have just become a canister filter owner - JBL e1501 - and this model has a 16/22 diameter pipe (16 on the inside - 22 mm on the out-side) but the smaller models do have a thinner pipes - I suppose eheim would be similar. What I am contemplating is adding a nice chunk of filter foam on the intake just to stop big things from getting stuck cause the strainer on the JBL would allow plant matter to slip in, sure you could do the same on yours.

BTW is this your only pump in that tank - I could see that if you had more pumps spotting one that is not performing would be difficult. I would not recommend that you upgrade the return pipe size (this might influence the pumps performance and reduce the pumping head) I can not see a problem with increasing the suction sides diameter if the canister is below the tank since that is almost free flow into the canister. But yes - you would need to do some interesting plumbing.


Later Ferdie

[TomK]

Speaking of interesting plumbing, I wondered a few times how feasible it would be to fit a power head to your canisters intake, to force feed it, so to speak. Would there be any advantages or disadvantages? Should the power head be slightly weaker than the canister head, or slightly stronger. What would the different influences be? What if it is a lot stronger?

I would imagine, if it is a lot stronger, the water flow is going to drive your canister head propeller and the canister will not do any work itself. If too strong, you could have too much pressure and pop your seals?

If weaker than the canister head, it will just make it a bit easier for the canister to draw water, thereby speeding up overall flow?

Ferdie, worth looking into?

[pHish_man]

What is the easiest way to prime these cannister filters after rinsing sponges etc and refitting? The penn plax cascade I use has a plunger to prime it, but the eheim I have doesnt and it always takes a long time for me to get the water flowing thru the unit properly.

Sorry for high jacking yr post....

[TomK]

easiest way to prime these cannister filters


That would be another advantage to fitting a power head to the canister intake. I thought about that before, as I also have the problem. Completely forgot about it.

Actually, it is me, high jacking Laracroft's thread, but I think it goes hand in hand with her problem and a possible way to overcome it.

[pHish_man]

Surely there must be a way to prime these cannisters. At the price one would think the manufacturer would have overcome this??

[TroyFish]

I remove the intake pipe from the canisters flow switch, suck water through the pipe an quickly lift it to the level of the tank.
I then connect the flow switch again, turn it off and connect it back to filter. Open up the 'air hole' and turn the valve open.

This i maybe do once a month when cleaning the filter.

For water changes i leave my canister on as the intake is about 50% below top of tank. Before i did that i would just turn it off while doing water changes then turn on when done. Never have to prime it during water changes. This is for a Via aqua.


As for Laracroft's question, i haven't experienced with their filter but have only heard good things about them.

[f-fish]

Would there be any advantages or disadvantages? Should the power head be slightly weaker than the canister head, or slightly stronger. What would the different influences be? What if it is a lot stronger?


Tom.K - I am not sure but would imagine that some design work went into these things for max - min flow vs filtration capacity and all that - adding a prepump could be messing with that thinking.

[Gert Combrink]

Using a powerhead to force water into the intake, is what I do to prime my canister filters.
Once the air is removed out of the canister, you can remove the powerhead.
When a canister is noisy, I suspect that it must have air in, I also use a spare powerhead to force the air out, and this not only rectify the problem, but could also remove any blockages or obstacles!

[Darkfin]

I'm looking for Eheim 2073 external filter in the Johannesburg area.