eheim 2227 wet dry canister, water flow from top to bottom?

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iwiied

Candiru
MFK Member
Nov 2, 2008
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denver,co
can someone with a wetdry eheim canister clarify how it works?

it seem to be that water is being drawn from the wet/dry chamber which has an opening on the top of the filter, and the water also comes in on the top . which is kind of trivial me as in how the media get exposure.
 
im not really sure how mine works. i thought that water is taken in from the top of the filter and flows down over the media. the canister fills with water and the foam tube in the front rises. Once the foam tube hits a certain level the water in the cansiter is pumped out at a much faster rate and the water in the canister recedes again.
I have noticed though that when the power goes out the filter leaks very slowly from one of the seals that connects the plastic tube in the front to the main canister. does this happen to you too?
 
Once the filter is full of water and plugged into the electrical outlet, the pump starts to send the water out to the aquarium.
When the floating control valve is at its lowest point, it closes the suction intake and the canister fills with water again. A small flow of filtered water continues to flow to the aquarium, at a reduced flow, through the bypass opening. The water level inside the floater compartment does not rise at this time.
Once the upper filter media container is filled with water, then the floater compartment gets filled with water through a slit in the floating control valve. The floating valve rises, opening the suction intake and allowing full flow to the aquarium and the filter empties again.

This process repeats itself as long as the filter is plugged into the electrical outlet.

Does this help explain it better?
 
kind of, but where should i put my mechanical filter layer depends on if the water flow from the top to the bottom or the bottom to the top . where do you guys put yours
 
This filter is not meant to use mechanical filter media. It is supposed to be used as a biological filter only. Though it can be converted for temporary mechanical use by removing the Substrat Pro, filling the baskets with floss and plugging the breather pipe. Now it is no longer a wet/dry filter and will never empty and fill with water.

Here is the owners manual from Eheim if you do not have one http://www.eheim.com/base/eheim/pdf/en/anleitungen/afilter/wet_dry_filter_2227_2229_2327_2329.pdf .

You need to go to the English instructions in the manual, just page down until you find them.
Page 20, top left corner, explains how to use the filter for short-term mechanical filtering.
 
thanks for the info, my question is, if i don't have "any" mechanical filter, wouldn't the biological media get dirty? i've always follow a rule to have a mechanical filter layer protect the biological media and almost never wash the biological filter media.
 
I would suggest using a prefilter to minimize waste/debris getting into the filter...

In a wet/dry filter, the most effective bio media is something with a lot of open air space (such as bioballs or pot scrubbies) and not the tight celled porous media (such as the ceramic noodles). This is to allow the oxygen rich air to circulate into the media and come in contact with the bacteria. With water just trickling over it such as in a wet/dry environment, the internal cells of porous media will not experience water flow (water follows the path of least resistence, thus stays on the outside) and thus will not be an ideal environment for media.

It is critical to keep porous media waste/debris free as these tiny pores are easily clogged. Allowing waste/debris into media such as bioballs or scrubbies does still lock that waste/debris into your system where it rots and unnecessarily contributes to nitrate increasing, but it has far less effect at 'clogging' media unless there is an excessive amount of waste/debris.

I personally would never run a bio filter without ample mechanical filtration... which is why I suggest a prefilter (at the very least)...
 
I understand your concern with keeping debris out of the filter. While Eheim does recommend using the enclosed foam prefilter on the intake strainer (as nc_nutcase) suggests, Eheim says to only use it for about 6 - 8 weeks to allow the bacteria strains in the filter media to perform their biological & mechanical filtration.

I have been using the 2229 model since Dec. 2004 on a lightly fish-stocked and moderately planted tank. I haven't noticed any excess accumulation of debris, as compared to an Eheim 2217 or 2260. Occasionally some plant material gets sucked into the filter and sometimes clogs the intake port of the filter, but that rarely occurs.

I do keep the intake strainer about 5 inches above the sand substrate to reduce larger plant parts from being drawn in. I also have an Eheim 2028 on this same tank to provide additional mechanical filtration.

I clean the 2229 about every 6 months. Since I have untreated well water for my water source, I typically thoroughly rinse 2 of the 3 media baskets to flush any debris from the basket, keeping the 3rd media basket in a bucket of old tank water during filter maintenance. Then clean the rest of the filter, including the impeller cavity & other filter internal parts. Once a year I clean the hoses.

I haven't noticed any ammonia or nitrate spikes this way but then again, this is NOT the only filter on this tank and I do have sand substrate, rock decor & the tank is moderately planted with a low fish load.

I definitely agree with what nc_nutcase says about keeping the biological media clean and I have stressed this in other posts I have written. If you are more comfortable keeping a sponge prefilter of the intake then do so. But you will have to clean that prefilter more often so as not to reduce the ability of the filter to have sufficient water available to operate properly.

Hope this clarifies things a bit.
 
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