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Improving Eheim Pro 3 mech filtration

HarleyK

HarleyK

Canister Man
Staff member
Global Moderator
MFK Member
Howdy,

Many of you may know that I was not exactly happy with the Eheim 2080's performance on my 220 gal. Great biofiltration, but it could not get rid of suspended matter. Floaties everywhere.

If I am not mistaken, WyldFya was the first to use hydrosponges over his filter outlet baskets. That's a great fix, but I did not like the looks of it. Furthermore, I did not at all care for the resulting short cleaning intervals. Call me lazy. I want all that poop to disappear in the canister and then wash it out twice a year.

I worked it out by making two changes:
  • Probably most importantly, I hooked the 2080 up to my 75 gal. It's a great filter for that tank. Usually rated for 315 gal, I personally would not hook the 2080 up to a tank any bigger than 100 gal. At a theoretical flow rate of 450 gph, it turns my tank over six times per hour. That's good. Bottom line: A darn expensive canister for a small tank.
  • To not run into the problem with floaties again, I used an entire bag of filter floss instead of biomedia in the top basket. That significantly reduced the biological filtration capacity of this filter. But what the heck, it still holds more media than comparable canisters. Furthermore, I patched all cracks with strips of filter pads (see below)
    Here are pics, from the bottom up, i.e. in the direction of water flow:
    1. Bottom basket: Mix of EhFiMech (mech filtration) and SeraSiporax (mech and biofiltration)
    2. Middle basket: EhFiSubstratPro (max biofiltration)
    3. Top basket: An entire bag of good ol' filter floss. Bypass was prevented by stuffing strips of filter pads around the top basket. I used a ruler, that worked great.
    4. Top it off with the standard Eheim filter pad, the top tray and the standard Eheim coarse filter pad. Done.
It's been a little over a month now. So far, no floaties. Just thought I'd pass it on, now that I have indications that it works. Even if you run your 2080 on a bigger tank, you can still try to reduce bypass and, thus, improve mech filtration. Good luck.

HarleyK

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Looks good. Still a beastly filter. I liked the Hydro sponges for this, but I use the Pond hydros, which have a longer run time between cleanings.
 
I have found that the 2078 (which operates much better) will do fine with just a layer of filter floss in place of the eheim pads (except blue).
 
Hello

I'm using 2128 for my 450L aquarium and got tired with exactly the same issue with floaties ... and constantly dirty filter hoses... does anyone have experience to improve mech filtering abilities of this model of the filter?
Or for 450L 2128 is not powerful enough?

Regards
Igor
 
that's a nice set up harley I had tried something similar to my 304 and 404(flew into a wall) and didn't work... I was considering that ehiem to run on a new ray pond but will stick with an older model..... probally the large canisters forget its number....
 
Nic;986923;986923 said:
that's a nice set up harley I had tried something similar to my 304 and 404(flew into a wall) and didn't work... I was considering that ehiem to run on a new ray pond but will stick with an older model..... probally the large canisters forget its number....
Click to expand...
2260 or the newer more powerful 2262.
 
kingaru;986886;986886 said:
Hello

I'm using 2128 for my 450L aquarium and got tired with exactly the same issue with floaties ... and constantly dirty filter hoses... does anyone have experience to improve mech filtering abilities of this model of the filter?
Or for 450L 2128 is not powerful enough?

Regards
Igor
Click to expand...
You can do what HarleyK did, or you can do the Hydro pump setup. Both filters use the same intakes and returns.
 
WyldFya;987246; said:
You can do what HarleyK did, or you can do the Hydro pump setup. Both filters use the same intakes and returns.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "hydro pump setup" ? Is it about running the second filter in parallel with the first one or ... maybe I just don't know about link to some thread on this forum (since I'm pretty new on this forum) that would explain me everything :)

Thanks a lot in advance for the clarification...
 
Howdy,

It's the WyldFya-way ;) Just pop a Lustar Hydro-Sponge over the filter intake. :grinyes: ... if you like the looks of sponges in your tank.:nilly:

BTW: Depending on your fish stock, the 2128 might indeed reach its limits with your tank. Try the hydro and/or more filter floss, I hope it works for you!

HarleyK
 
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