Filter Recommendation

[hfjacinto]

All,

I need some recommendations for a new filter. I currently have a densely planted 45 gallon aquarium.

The aquarium currently has 2 filters, an Aquaclear 300 (rated for a 50 gallon tank) and a pengium with 2 biowheels. I was thinking of replacing the aquaclear as it is over 12 years old and is very noisy. The impeller also sticks and a various occasions, I have caught the filter not running.

I will probably replace the impeller and move the aquaclear to a 10 gallon tank.

Now to my needed recommendations. I want a new canister filter, my current choices are the eheim ecco series, eheim professional series, rena or Fluval.

I had a fluval before and it lasted only 5 years (hence the Pengium with 2 biowheels). I like the eheim professional but it is so much more expensive compared to the ecco's. An ecco rated for an 80 gallon tank is $80 while the professional rated for an 80 gallon tank is $200. Is the pofessional worth that much more? Are the rena's any good? Has Fluval improved its product?

I stuff the filters with sponges and bio ball type products, I don't use carbon, or any other chemical products. Does it really make which filter i get?

One more question, how long should I keep all 3 filters running before I unconnect the Aquaclear?

[MatsP]

I have a Eheim 2028 (pro II) and I wouldn't swap it for anything (except a bigger/better Eheim perhaps).

The Eheim 2217 is a good alternative of the "classic" Eheim. Someone said bad things about the Ecco - I think it was Marc Van Arc that didn't like them. Not sure why.

Eheim is the "Mercedes" of filters, you pay lots, but they last and work well for a long time. And you can get spares too for a very long time.

--
Mats

[Marc van Arc]

The Eheim 2217 is a good alternative of the "classic" Eheim. Someone said bad things about the Ecco - I think it was Marc Van Arc that didn't like them. Not sure why.

That's not very hard to tell: they are not very handy. After some time you'll get problems with opening and closing them, and the filling mechanism is bound to make a mess of things when unprepared.
If the Eheim is the Mercedes of filters, the Eccos must surely be A-type Mercedes. For anyone not into cars: A is the lowest/smallest level in Mercedes types.
However, I consider myself a big Eheim fan, so I will gladly recommend any other type. I specially favour the Pro 2 and 3 series, and there is already a successor available (I believe it's called Pro 4, but not sure) with loads of electronics in the filterhead.
There seems to be little you can't do with it. Very expensive though.
So think it over and make a wise choice.

[Bas Pels]

An ecco rated for an 80 gallon tank is $80 while the professional rated for an 80 gallon tank is $200. Is the pofessional worth that much more?

I don't know, really. i got 7 pro II, but no ecco.

To me, a filter has the following specs:
power consumption
water / hour
content of the pot

The rest is bla bla bla.

The pro uses less power for the same water movement as the classic does, hence my choise for the pro II.

The difference in price is saved in powercosts in 5 years, and I expect the pumps to last 120 years or more.

Can't tell you about the ecco though but I think I remember the pot is considerably smaller - thus less interesting.

Bas

[hfjacinto]

Considering the issues Mercedes has been having with quality I might like the Lexus of filters.

I drive an Audi so I understand the relationship between quality and price.

Now on to more questions?

I purchase all my aquarium products through bigalonline, does anyone recommend a better/different website?

Does anyone use the other filter media available for Eheims, such as Ammonia remover, carbon, etc? Should I just stick with sponges and the ceramic noodles?

How long does it take a filter to cycle? Should I keep all 3 running for a week, 2 weeks?

I never used to be concerned but all my fish are over 2 years old and I don't want to stress them out and I have 4 very nice pleco's that are messy (hence the need for a bigger filter) and I'm afraid of an ammonia spike once I remove one of the filters.

[snowball]

Two to three weeks should be plenty of time to run the new filter in, then the old ones can be safely removed.

I am in agreement with Marc regarding the Eheims, forget the Ecco series and go for either a Classic 2217 or a Pro 2. I would probably stay away from the new electronic Pro 3s, simply because I do not know how well the electronics will stand the test of time, or if the filter would still be operable should they fail - but this is just me being overly cautious.

[Bas Pels]

Does anyone use the other filter media available for Eheims, such as Ammonia remover, carbon, etc? Should I just stick with sponges and the ceramic noodles?

I got 3 pro's with filtermedia included - but I don't use them.

I'll stick to foam, caramic pipes and the pluffy nylon stuff

regarding old fishes, I got a pleco almost 20 years old. 2 year old pleco's are - in my eyes more like children, I'm afraid mine will get 40 (by then I'm 78 - if alive)

[sidguppy]

I send the suggestions of the Eheim professional series.

I once had an ecco and like Marc I didn't like it much, but i hadn't much trouble with it. Once i confused them. bloody brandnames and a bad memory.....it's the one with the round baskets wich can be stacked and clicked in 1 pile, IF I'm not confusibg things again

the pro's with their square baskets and powerful heads are really good.
often second hands are fairly cheap and another thing; every single part from the professional-series is still in production and all can be bought, even online!

I only have 4 tanks left at home (from the 11), but 2 of those are 55's wich run on the big professionals. these tanks do perfectly well.
my 3 smaller tanks at work had bad internal filters, but all three have a backup smaller professional now as well and here too the biological balance has kicked in quite nicely. to illustrate the variety: 1 hometank is a breeder with Cyps etc (Tang cichlids), 1 is a tank with a few Phyllonemus, tiny eels and a bunch of juvenile Bathybates (very fragile fish), 1 tank at work is a Malawian set up, another one is a planted community tank and the last one has Axolotls and Polypterus......

you can use those filters for about anything

[MatsP]

As to filter media, I use the "stone noodles" in one basket, with Eheim's blue foam on top, and then two baskets of EhfiSubstrat Pro. If I were to change any of that, it would probably be to add mroe "noodles".

When I lived in Sweden I had "noodles" only in a filter resembling the Eheim Classic filters.

--
Mats

[hfjacinto]

I found the eheim PRO for $179 so I will purchase that one.

Regarding the fish ages, my 2 fancy pleco's are 2 years old. My lapardis (sp.) is 3 years old and the bristlenose has to be at least 7 years old.

[hfjacinto]

I am only going to remove the aquaclear, I will run the tank with the Pengiun (bio wheel) and the eheim.

I like the idea of having 2 filters so that if I clean one the other will provide biological filtration.

[hellocatfish]

I recently did what you did, switch out an AquaClear for a canister. It was a great switch and my only regret is that I had not known to start out with a canister filter. I got the Rena XP3. Today I switched out the microfilter pad, since adding new substrate to a new tank quickly dirtied up the microfilter pad that came with the filter. I discovered that cleaning it could not possibly be any easier. This is a great choice for nervous nellie novices such as myself who aren't known to be mechanically inclined. I did not even need to prime the filter back up when I reassembled it.

The only thing I'm not too sure about yet is bypass. My first time running it I had a lot of bypass, but that is because unbeknownst to me, I'd assembled it with one of the baskets slightly askew.

I went with Rena because it got lots of good word-of-mouth in lots of different forums and review places, and it was relatively inexpensive and was said to be very easy to assemble and clean, which it definitely is, meaning if I can put it together and maintain it, anyone could. The only problem I had was connecting the hoses. I am a petite woman and I had to really work at getting the hoses pushed onto where they needed to be, even after heating the hoses, as I'd read others recommended doing. And the plastic clamps that came with it were a joke. I went out and bought metal ones at the hardware store.

But now that I have the media baskets all tightened up and packed up like they should be, if I don't notice a reduction in floating particles in the tank, I will start to wonder about bypass being a problem with this filter. Also, I don't know if this is true of all brands or all filters or just a quirk of mine, but it will definitely stop running when I take out about 6 gallons of water (about 2 inches). I am using a Tetra brand intake tube on the filter, so that may be my problem. I just liked Tetra's intake strainer the best of all I've seen so far--fish can get stuck up against it and not get hurt.

I used Hagen Cycle this time around starting up my new 40 gallon SeaClear tank and got it to cycle in just a few days. I also had the nitrate and ammonia adsorption media in my filter so it remains to be seen how stable my cycle actually will be. I will add my AquaClear to the tank, too, once I no longer need it for my 29 gallon tank, that is.

Well please do come back and let us all know how you like the Pro. I would be interested in knowing how someone who switched over from AquaClear feels about it. In case the Rena ends up not working out so great for me, the Pro would probably be my second choice somewhere down the road when I can replenish my fish hobby budget. But I agree with Snowball, I wouldn't want to fiddle with the new electronic technology they just introduced. I'd hate to have to reboot my filter, lol...

[hellocatfish]

Update: with the baskets properly fitted together, everything seems to be working great and no apparent bypass issues anymore.

[hfjacinto]

I ordered the PRO, after looking at various websites I saw it cheaper($5 - $10 dollars less than at big als online), but when I called big als they gave it to me for the same price of $179. I should be getting it today. So far I called the wife enough times at home to have her tell me to stop calling her. I only have 1 hour and 16 mintues (not counting) before I can go home and set it up.

I actually liked the Aquaclear for several reasons, its 12 years old and only recently has it become noisy, it filters a lot of water, since I only use sponges inside I have never spent a penny on filter material. I am still using the orginal sponges and ceramic noodles that I got when I originally purchased the filter. If the new motors runs OK, I will basically have a filter that can last another 12 years.

The only reason I am keeping the bio wheel is that it is too big to go on the 10 gallon tank. The bio wheel filter costs more to keep in filter media and needs to be cleaned out every 2 to 3 weeks while the aquaclear can go over a month and still not need a thorough cleaning.

[hellocatfish]

Yeah I can just imagine your excitement at getting the new filter. I've just gone through the same excitement myself. I think it will work out well for you. That was a good price you got.

I have a Eclipse BioWheel hood arrangement on my 3 gallon hospital tank. The cartridge filter does fill up fast and I also prefer not to run carbon in my filtration for more than a few days--but with this filter you don't really have a choice. For whatever reasons carbon seems to make my cories lethargic when it's been in the filter for about a week.

I'm finding that with 2 sponges with a small gap between the two to avoid a recent problem I had with stagnation, I'm getting excellent particulate filtration with the Aquaclear. Much better than when it was my sole filter and I was attempting to culture beneficial bacteria in the bio pellet bag. And even slightly better than I am getting with the Rena XP3 so far. My complaint about the Aquaclear was that it was just too small to do the job I needed it to do. I should have gotten a larger one.

[hfjacinto]

I run home and there is my box from big als. BIG CHEESY SMILE . Mind you, I'm 37 years old, married with 2 kids and I have a big cheesy smile on my face because of a filter.

I open up the box and inside is my eheim, but lo and behold it is an ecco 2236 . I check the receipt and they charged me only for an ecco. I called up and was about to get the replacement, when I notice that the intake tube for the aquaclear had fallen down. I stick my hand in the tank and pull up the intake, as I'm connecting the tube (and getting burned by the CF Light bulbs) I notice the tube is cracked .

I start looking at the ecco, notice it doesn't look cheap, its made in Germany, comes with all the filter media and only costs $89. I decide to try it. Guess what it works really nice, it holds almost 2 gallons of water and creates a pretty nice outflow. I filled it with more media than my 804 fluval ever held and it was so EASY to Prime.

As I was coming back to post, I didn't know what to say and then I see Whitepine has an ecco and if someone who cares about fish as much as he can have an ecco 2236, I guess I can have one to.

So what if its only an "A" class Mercedes, I can live with it. hey I owned a VW until it hit 150K miles 240K km

[hellocatfish]

Wow, bummer of a mistake but I'm glad to hear it's working out for you! I almost went with an Ecco. Maybe next time I will go with an Eheim of some sort, as you are now the gazillionth person I've heard describe the quality and workmanship of an Eheim.

After we finish remodeling and repainting the family room next year, I'll be setting up a twin to the 40 gallon SeaClear setup I have now & I think I'd like to get something different just for the joy of comparison shopping, LOL! I like the Rena a LOT, but it's not perfect and I am curious as to how an Eheim addresses the minor issues I notice already with the Rena. Of course, I haven't worked out all the kinks in my installation job, yet. I think I need to shorten the intake hose a couple of inches, for one thing.

Hey...37, married--dude, that right there is the reason you have that big cheesy smile on your face over a filter! You know, you get to this age (I'm 40) and the holidays have pretty much become all about the kids. Spouses by this time tend to be at a loss on what to get each other after a few years, for various reasons. What's left for us? Well now the UPS guy and the FedEx guy are all we have left of Santa or the Easter Bunny or whatever gift-giving mythological figure we waited for when we were kids.

Honestly, my daughter's childhood memories will be filled with images of her mom jumping up at every traffic rumble that passes by, to look out the window for big ugly brown or blue & white trucks and dragging enormous boxes into the foyer.

[Marc van Arc]

I start looking at the ecco, notice it doesn't look cheap, its made in Germany, comes with all the filter media and only costs $89. I decide to try it. Guess what it works really nice, it holds almost 2 gallons of water and creates a pretty nice outflow. I filled it with more media than my 804 fluval ever held and it was so EASY to Prime.

Of course a new Ecco works pretty nice; it even does when not compared to an (older) Fluval. What I wanted to make clear was this: the most vulnerable part of it is the headphone shaped open/close mechanism; it tends to wear out rather quickly, which makes opening and closing, and thus the removal and putting back of the filterhead rather difficult. No other Eheim has that feature and that's not for nothing.
However, I truly hope you won't have the same experiences as I had with Eccos. That it may run well for a very long time.

[hfjacinto]

In 3 to 6 months I promise I will update everyone on the eheim 2236. See if its worth it.

[Acid John]

Hello I would just like to announce that this Friday my EHEIM 2017 has broken its impeller magnet, so what you may say. Well I brought it reconditioned from John Allen at Bellvue fishshow in Manchester 20 odd years ago, in that time it was only switched off for cleaning purposes so not bad at all! and to think I nearly didn't buy it at all because of the cost.

[apistomaster]

Hello All,

Regardless of the brand of canister filter you are using you can buy a lot of time between cleaning by using either the Eheim pre-filter accessory or Filter Max Sponge pre-filters.

Pre-filters are quick and easy to clean.

The less coarse material entering the main filter the better the biological media will perform.

The various bioglass media (ceramic noodles) and Eheim Ehfisubstrate or Ehfisubstrate Pro offer the most available substrate surface area for bacteria colonization.

They provide hundreds of more times of substrate suface area as an equal volume of sponge filter material.

I consider the sponge to be my primary fine mechanical filter stage with good secondary biological filter characteristics.

I use the fine poly floss material as the final water polishing stage.

[hellocatfish]

Prefilters...yeah...saves little fishies from getting sucked in, too. Had that happen to a Danio awhile back. I just haven't had much luck finding ones I was sure would fit my Rena. I saw some I liked at the LFS and it listed a bunch of brands it was compatible with except for mine.

Well I've got all my filters loaded with noodles now. The Rena uses little black stars--got those and then threw some ceramic Biomax noodles in with them, this time being careful not to overpack them and predispose the filter to stagnation when power cuts off, like I did last time with the AquaClear that caused my final filter failure.

I dumped out the spent carbon in the TopFin30 cartridge and put noodles in that, too. When I first had the TopFin30 hang-on-back filter that came as part of my beginners kit equipment from PetSmart, I thought it was an awful design since you have to replace the entire cartridge and lose all of your bacteria in one fell swoop. But I wised up and learned to rig it with filler of my choice and when the cartridge gets all clogged, I can still save the noodles/filler and put it into the new cartridge.

So, noodles are definitely something to get, even for people running hang-on-back filters. As I found with the Top Fin 30, you can put them into filters you wouldn't think would take them.

I did have biomax pellets in the Aquaclear. But I believe it's working out better & much more economical for me to use hollow Biomax noodles instead of the solid pre-bagged pellets which as I said, can stagnate if the bag is compressed or placed under any other kind of filtration material. Actually, I did not even bag the pellets in the AquaClear this time. I put a few of them in between two AquaClear sponges. There's room to "breathe" in there and I get to keep both sponges in the filter--which is not easy to do gracefully with the bag-o-pellets.

[apistomaster]

The only time you damage the bacterial colonies is when the water isn't flowing through the filter and there is no oxygen. How they are packed in really doesn't make any difference. I place all my porous ceramic biomedia in bags. It is especially helpful when you have to clean a canister filter to be able to lift it all out and not have to chase down any that drop on the floor. The whole bunch can be rinsed under water still inside the media bags.

In the Eheim Classics, the usual arrangement has the hollow cylinders at the bottom layer then the sponge insert followed by the Efhisubstrate. Without the bags the two types can easily become mixed together during cleaning. Just makes things more convenient.

All the porous ceramic biomedia are very good. The type used in AquaClear filters comes bagged of course. I actually buy a few replacement packs just for the bags.

I use them as "feed bags." The mesh is just the right size. I place frozen beafheart blend or frozen bloodworms in them and hang them in my discus tanks. Then the fish pick the food out in bites. Makes things a little less messy. The discus will hang around an empty bag for hours waiting for a refill.

It is also a convenient way to feed plecos blanched zuchinni. When they are finished I can lift the bag containing scraps out instead of having the crud going all over the tank like it does from the clip food holders.

[hellocatfish]

Hi HF,
I got the same Ecco as you and just got it up and running today. Wow, it was a real breeze to set up, especially compared to my Rena, which I felt was easy to comprehend, but physically difficult to assemble as that required a lot of hand and arm strength to get the hoses attached. It's also very bulky and heavy and harder to tote between my utility sink and my tank.

I love the green hoses of the Ecco because they blend into the background I have for my tank. The Ecco is also quite a bit smaller than the Rena, but still held as diverse an amount of media. I simply transferred most of my media from the Rena into the Ecco.

There was bits of mold in all 3 of the Substrat bags. Still, I braved it and washed some of the Substrat for use in the filter.

In terms of materials, the Rena seemed the more solid of the two. The acrylic casing is thicker on the Rena, the hoses are bigger and heavier, and overall it just feels far more solid. But the design of the Ecco may end up trumping the Rena. The media baskets in the Ecco screw together to interlock--in the Rena they simply sit inside one another, with nothing but pressure from the lid to hopefully keep them from jarring loose.

It will be interesting to see if this difference in design makes any difference in effectiveness.

I'm down to just one main tank now, so the Rena will just be put into storage as a backup. I could even rinse it out and use the chamber as a medication-hospital tank, if need be. When I go to set up a second large tank I'm just getting a different canister--probably another Eheim.

(I had a 20 gallon Long set up, but it proved more bother than it was worth. It was too squatty to really enjoy looking at).

[hfjacinto]

Hi All,

I must have had the Ecco for 3 months and after two cleaning it still runs well. The only issue was the final filter foam got clogged really quick, that now is gone. The Eheim is filled with substrate and a prefilter foam.

Pluses: Quiet, good filtering, easy to clean, easy to prime

Minuses: Small (wish it was larger) and the outflow is slow

Overall a good filter for the price, in terms of cost, I would probably buy 2 eccos for the same price as a classic.

I still use the biowheel for extra filtration.

[MatsP]

Minuses: Small (wish it was larger) and the outflow is slow

Yes, even Eheim are a bit on the "small side" when they specify the "recommended size". I always go for the "next size up" - and/or two filters for "the size" tank.

As for flow: If you remove the spray-par, and use just an angle-piece, you get more flow (the spray-bar is a real good restrictor on the flow - it has to be to be reasonably equal pressure across the whole bar, really). I think Larry (Apistomaster) suggested this before, and my most recent Eheim Classic 2217 was installed this way - it works really well - but of course the flow is more in one place rather than in many places. Compromise solutions using bigger holes in the spray-par (drilling them out and covering some over) would potentially lead to a similar flow-rate and more wide-spread flow. I kind of like the fish to have different levels of flow at various places, so I'm not bothered.

--
Mats

--
Mats

[hfjacinto]

Mats,

Thanks for the suggestion, I don't have a spray bar on the Eheim.

Did you ever try the eheim professional? They are much larger than the comparable classic or ecco, the major issue with the professional is cost. I think for the price of one professional one can get 3 ecco's.

[apistomaster]

For those who wish to replace spraybars with the more efficient and practical Directional U-Tube returns here they are from one supplier and it comes in two different sizes is.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... &catid=115

Several makes of canister filters come with this option but the Eheim Classic does not.

I agree with Mat about choosing filter sizes. I always go with at least the next size up from the manufacturers' recommendations. Even larger if your budget allows. This is a decision you won't regret and there is also that imagined larger next tank.

[MatsP]

Mats,

Thanks for the suggestion, I don't have a spray bar on the Eheim.

Did you ever try the eheim professional? They are much larger than the comparable classic or ecco, the major issue with the professional is cost. I think for the price of one professional one can get 3 ecco's.

Yes, my big tank uses the Eheim 2028 Pro II - it's about twice the price of the 2215 that I bought a few weeks ago [sorry, I said 2217 in the post above - got confused with the models]. I'm using the spray-bar on the 2028, as it's in the big tank which has another filter and a separate Eheim "circulation pump".

--
Mats

[hellocatfish]

I have an Eheim Classic 2213 and the Ecco 2236. The Ecco is much larger but the Classic can outfilter my Ecco any day. On the 40 gallon cory/danio/cichlid tank I had both running. Then I got my 50 gallon goldfish tank set up. I bought a 2213 for the goldfish tank. I took the media container out of the 2213 in the 40 gallon and put it into the new 2213 chamber, so I would have a fully cycled filter ready to go in the new tank. Unfortunately when I was setting all that up, the original 2213 took a swan dive off of my counter and cracked the motor housing.

The Ecco is now running by itself in the 40 gallon. The new 2213 with the old media is filtering the 50 gallon. Bottom line, if you have a Classic and an Ecco set up as advised, straight out of the box with the included media, the Classic will outperform the Ecco in providing circulation and mechanical filtration. (Bio filtration--can't compare because my Ecco is so much larger than my 2213).

But for its size, the Classic leaves a far cleaner substrate and you can actually see most floating bits of plants and poop getting properly circulated and sucked in. I can't say the same with my Ecco--gravel vaccing is a must with just the Ecco cleaning the tank. With the Classic, gravel vaccing is far less of an urgent need.

However--again, I set them up as specified right out of the box. Meaning the Ecco has only a blue coarse filter pad as its first media. The Classic has Ehfisynth noodles, and then it has the blue coarse pad. At some point when I get around to ordering more Ehfisynth, I'll try some in the Ecco and see if that will cause the Ecco to step up to the level of the Classic.

I do enjoy the Ecco for its easy accessibility to the media and ease of priming and engaging and disengaging from the setup.

Would the Pro 2 perhaps offer the best of both worlds? The ease of priming and maintenance, but the incredible performance of the Classic series? I have been looking at Pro 2's. But operation costs for a Classic are so much lower--media costs, electricity, and the unit itself. I love particulary that it's only 8 watts to run the 2213 and 15 to run the 2215.