help with picking out the correct filter

[ineke]

I went ahead and got the 2213 didn't realise the price difference was so close it has a 3 year warranty so can't go wrong.. Never mind this will be fine together with a couple of sponge filters in each side. Its a start on the right track and As I slowly replace my cubes with bigger tanks I might end up looking into a sump anyway. Think Alan has seen the light- he has seen me trying to catch shrimp out of the cube sump -I'm going to be putting the shrimp from the cubes into the tank I am doing up now and putting my leftover Reds and some male other type shrimps in to the other one then I won't be so worried about them. I've also lost a couple of nice shrimp crawling out overnight so may even try to get rid of the sump area on the cubes during changeover if I do change the shrimp -it depends on whether there are any berried girls at the time of changeover. Thanks for all your input I'm on my way just not quite there yet!!!:encouragement:

[shrimpstan]

yep good buy :)

i have 3 of them now and have a 2217 for a few yrs with no dramas. they're super quiet. i was going to say that u can still buy eheims made in germany.. the ones made in china have chinese writing on the box.

for my 3ft tank has approx 120L i use 2213, fluval Q2 with 3 x dual sponges, and an internal filter stuffed with matrix has really good flow. combined its 2000l/hr cost me less than $300 (including all new media) and that way there is all bases covered. fleabay is good to get cheap sponges from china real cheap and get an air pump and this ensures many filtration points in ur tank so no dead spots. im soon going to add K1 bottles to the outlet of my canister for that finishing touch. like BB said u can have flow issues but u cant over filter and u can never have too much bacteria housing media. remember our friend Alvin from singapore.. he has 1 litre of media for every 10ltr of water! now that's some filtration!!

[fishmosy]

I'll throw in my two cents worth about external filters.

1. You get what you pay for. Cheaper filters can work well but you are playing russian roulette in buying one. Is it ok, will it fail, how reliable will it be? You may get a good one, you may get a bad one. The ones I have had all went bad at some point.

2. I don't like the Eheim classics. There I said it. Priming them is a pain in the butt, getting them open to clean them with their tiny little clasps is painful and finally in comparison to other filters they are power hungry and inefficient. To give you a quick example, a fluval 306 pumps 1150 lph for 15W, a eheim 2217 pumps 1000lph for 20W, thats 15% more flow using 25% less power.

I have swapped my Eheims for Fluvals (06 range) (I now run 3 Fluvals, mix of 306 and 406 models), have never had a problem and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

[BlueBolts]

I don't like the Eheim classics. There I said it.

LOL, that's a bravest statement said in 2013.... Will definitely consider the fluval next time? Thanks for your honest assessment.

[shrimpstan]

just recently grabbed a second hand 205.. and upon a simple demo by the seller the primer broke and required super gluing back together.. :p

its flow rate is good and i have to say that if there were no eheims i would probably have 5 fluvals :)

the flow on 205 is 600lph using 10w, probably more comparable to the 2215 but a 2213 has flow rate of 440lph using 8w... so much of a muchness.. but i gotta say that if there were no more german made eheims still around i'd be a fluval convert too as i know someone who spent 3k decking a breeding setup with fluvals and he was chuffed to bits he loved 'em!! the all electronic reader ones.

gotta say though.. my new Q2, which is a fluval air pump rated for 600L, is the loudest air pump i have.. and i have a large hailea!! kinda thinking of returning it actually.

one thing im not sure of is whether the fluval filter media is of the same quality as the media that comes standard with the eheims.. as this is a tried and tested success. the fluval i've got had all its media thrown in the bin although i suspect it wasnt original anyway. needless to say its packed with matrix now :)

can anyone comment on the fluval media?

[ineke]

Well thanks guys but I've bought the 2213 now and will see how it goes I got it for $130 delivered and 3 year warranty ,if it lasts 3 years I will be very happy. But it's great to get the conversation going about the different pumps and filters so we can all buy with some knowledge behind us. I didn't buy because of the price although it was a good price and from Australia not overseas, but because other members gave good reviews of it.:encouragement:

[fishmosy]

can anyone comment on the fluval media?

My view on media is this: assuming you don't want your media to also change water parameters (e.g. Buffering using coral skeletons), anything that has a surface is good.

I've used commercial medias, 5-10mm gravel, plastic bioballs, sponge, jap-mat, K1 and probably others as filter media and they have all worked. I don't get hung up on manufacturers claims that they have more surface area than another media. Why? Because we generally have more surface area for bacteria to grow on in aquariums (think tank, plus substrate, plus plants, plus ornaments, plus filter, plus pipes, plus bacteria growing in the water itself) than what is actually needed to keep nitrogenous wastes at or near zero, so having extra surface area within your media isn't going to make much difference.

That said there may be conditions where it is important to maximise surface area within media; when tanks are heavily stocked/over-stocked, contain no substrate, and there is limited space available for media (e.g. can't fit a big filter under the tank), i.e. in cases where you need to maximise the amount of surface area for bacteria within a limited volume.

As for the fluval media, its fine but I do top up my filters with extra media because like most filter manufacturers, the amount of media you get is not enough to fill the media baskets.

[Squiggle]

Well said fishmosy, couldn't agree more :encouragement:

[KiwiBigD]

Got to agree as well, our shrimp don't tend to produce that much waste in the overall scheme of things, at least not by comparison with some fish

species. And I'd always prefer to open filter my tanks and have a smaller number of stock that the other way round. Beginning to wonder if Ineke

works for Eheim at this rate ;-)

[Squiggle]

our shrimp don't tend to produce that much waste in the overall scheme of things' date=' at least not by comparison with some fish

species.[/quote']

Lol, Oscars spring to mind after that statement, they are poo machines! Hahaha :victorious:

[CNgo2006]

Yeah but more surface area is never a bad thing, especially for peace of mind if anything. Same as over filtration....If you can, go for it!

[ineke]

Got to agree as well' date=' our shrimp don't tend to produce that much waste in the overall scheme of things, at least not by comparison with some fish

species. And I'd always prefer to open filter my tanks and have a smaller number of stock that the other way round. Beginning to wonder if Ineke

works for Eheim at this rate ;-)[/quote']

Haha no I wasn't even going to get another eheim-I have an internal power filter- I did say the reviews for the newer models were not good! I was going to get a generic one that sounded really good but decided to go with this one because A) it was recommended by several members and B) a 3 year warranty from an Australian dealer. Just I jumped in quickly hoping to get it before the weekend and didn't wait long enough to get more posts from others. It's just arrived now so will see how I go putting it together myself:encouragement:

[shrimpstan]

If u havnt put one of these together before ill give u a tip.. u havnt lost anything and the instructions dont mention much but u attach the spray bar to the shephards crook thing with a small cut piece of hose. I wish someone told me the first time I bought an eheim.. I was convinced I lost something :stupid:

Tbh I much prefer the fluval outlet :p

[Squiggle]

If u havnt put one of these together before ill give u a tip.. u havnt lost anything and the instructions dont mention much but u attach the spray bar to the shephards crook thing with a small cut piece of hose. I wish someone told me the first time I bought an eheim.. I was convinced I lost something :stupid:

Tbh I much prefer the fluval outlet :p

Who told you that? There should have been a plastic sleeve joiner :confused:

[MrShrimp]

One big advantage of using eheim or other German pumps is they consume less electricity then those Chinese brand. Just do a comparison on the wattage from a eheim and a Chinese brand. So in the long run Ineke, your also saving electricity to compensate for paying a little extra for eheim.

[KiwiBigD]

Got to agree with MrShrimp, the chinese brands tend to use larger less efficient motors as they're cheap, thats pretty much

it pure and simply. So while they work I'd only use as a quick fix last resort method until I got a good German or European

one. When living in the UK we use to occassionally see good Italian filters as well, beautiful as well as functional but not sure

whatever happened to them. Don't remember the brand these days but there were pretty much the Ferrari of filters from an

aesthetic perspective.

These days I look to the long term savings, especially in terms of filtration, lighting and heating. Its very similar for heaters

as well in terms of wattage/litre, have a look the next time you're in the market. I remember seeing some nasty Chinese brand

heater that was 2W/L so you had a 100W heater only good for a 50Litre tank, so so wrong! Whereas Eheim do a 200W if I

remember rightly thats good for a 300Litre tank, really does show in the quality and efficiency.

[ineke]

Who told you that? There should have been a plastic sleeve joiner :confused:

there isn't a plastic sleeve joiner and I wondered about that too?

[ineke]

If u havnt put one of these together before ill give u a tip.. u havnt lost anything and the instructions dont mention much but u attach the spray bar to the shephards crook thing with a small cut piece of hose. I wish someone told me the first time I bought an eheim.. I was convinced I lost something :stupid:

Tbh I much prefer the fluval outlet :p

i sat and looked at it yesterday and couldn't figure it out so put it away for a clear start today. Thanks for the tip. That answers question number one.

Then there's the taps they werent even mentioned in the instructions. I insisted they were needed and Alan couldn't see where but we figured it out. So today we will put it together and see how it goes

[torface]

If u havnt put one of these together before ill give u a tip.. u havnt lost anything and the instructions dont mention much but u attach the spray bar to the shephards crook thing with a small cut piece of hose. I wish someone told me the first time I bought an eheim.. I was convinced I lost something :stupid:

It took me ages to figure this out, the instructions are rubbish!

[ninja]

The long solid hook part goes in the tank to pick up water, the long part of the hook has the little sieve on it which you put a sponge over to stop little shrimplets getting in and the curved part sits on the glass. You can cut that pipe going into the tank to suit the height of the tank.

you put a piece of the hose supplied onto the short curved bit then a tap. Another piece of hose goes on the other end of the tap and into the bottom of the canister. That takes care of the inlet.

Now another piece of hose goes on the outlet from the top of the canister into a tap. Another piece of hose goes from the tap to the funny hook which sits over the glass again to put water back into the tank. A short piece of hose connects the hook to the spray bar.

they supply one piece of hose so you can cut up to suit your application. An easy way is to cut off 3 small pieces of hose first then the rest into half. The taps are so you can detach the filter for maintenance without disturbing the bits in the tank.

[ineke]

Thanks Ninja hubby has it all sussed out now and your instructions are exactly what he is doing. We got a couple of elbow/90 degree joiners because of the height of my tank and the fact that the hose almost needs to double back on itself. He's just watching the end of his movie and we are all set to go. I'm amazed how good just the sponge filters are the water is crystal clear. The canister won't have much work to do for a while!!!!:encouragement:

[CNgo2006]

Thanks Ninja hubby has it all sussed out now and your instructions are exactly what he is doing. We got a couple of elbow/90 degree joiners because of the height of my tank and the fact that the hose almost needs to double back on itself. He's just watching the end of his movie and we are all set to go. I'm amazed how good just the sponge filters are the water is crystal clear. The canister won't have much work to do for a while!!!!:encouragement:

I wouldn't judge the water quality by just the clearness of the water ineke...To see how well it really is doing you better do some tests!

[shrimpstan]

Who told you that? There should have been a plastic sleeve joiner :confused:

no one told me. 4 eheim canisters no plastic joiner ever. just used some of the pipe to connect the spray bar and it seems this is just one of those things that are currently being over looked as at the time i bought my first one i remember seeing others on utube with the same issue/confusion as im not really one to loose my stuff.

i just thought i'd mention it as just tryin to help.

[shrimpstan]

It took me ages to figure this out' date=' the instructions are rubbish![/quote']

trust me torface ur not the only one! :P

[ineke]

Oh Chi I know that thanks I will start testing Monday just the ammonia and nitrites and nitrates then once they start showing I will do all the others. I'm not in any hurry i was just meaning that they work well at polishing the water but then it's RO and nothing in it anyway! My sponge filters are for the babies and also instead of airstones I have the sponges in all my tanks may as well use the air for something besides bubbles. I also use the sponges as pre filters on my water intakes and the work well just need to make sure they don't get clogged but they are great protection for the babies so far none have gotten into the filters!:encouragement: