Which sintered glass media ?

Hi its been ages since I have bought any of this
What do you guys reccomend for a Eheim classic 2217?
It does come with media but dont think it comes with ceramic or sintered media just sponges
Just ordered it waiting for it to arrive
Its to replace an Interpet prime 10 plus which keeps blocking but to be fair its too small to cope with pleco poo!
I will add the media from the old filter , the eheim is much bigger so will need some more
Pete

Sera's Siporax or Eheim Bio-Mech will serve you well :thumbup:

Thanks Derek :clap:
Just wanted to make sure
I bought some a couple of years or so ago , think it was interpet , that seems to be breaking down, there are bits of it in the bottom of the canister when I clean it out
I bought Siporex years ago and its still in one of the externals probably will go for that just wanted to check that nothing better has come out lately
Thanks
Pete

Hi all,
I'd go with Siporax or Eheim BioMech for sintered glass media, I think the best media is probably the "Ehfisubstrat Pro", but you don't really need any of them.

If you want to save a bit of money, the work we did on landfill leachate showed that ceramic rings are as good and you can even use "alfagrog".

I like a coarse sponge on the intake and the filter body no more than 3/4 full of ceramic rings. This makes maintenance easy as the sponge can be cleaned regularly and you don't need to open the filter body very often.

As long as the water flow speed through the filter remains high, and the water is fully oxygenated, all the biological media will be functioning and you will have huge biological filtration potential.

cheers Darrel

100% agree pre filter sponges are the way to go
I fitted the Eheim fitter sponge on all my intakes almost a year ago.
I have just dome my once a year filter clean and I am now confident I can go for 2 or 3 years between cleans now

Do you guys mean a sponge that fits over the filter intake in the tank like one would use in a fry tank?

I use this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EHEIM-PREFILTER-External-Canister-Filter-PRE-FILTER-/280724609486?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Fish&hash=item415c7d99ce
Quite easy to change the sponges when the unit is running.

Hi,

Personally I don't mind cleaning the filter out every couple of months or so and would rather the detritus was removed from the tank a.s.a.p. Which just goes to show there's more than one way of doing things.

Ceramic rings and Ehfisubstrat pro are my media of choice for the mainstay, but then I haven't used a lot else ceramic wise. I'm sure there all quite good.

Chris.

Thanks Darrel, Bob, and Chris :clap:
Thanks for the link Bob , I have ordered that prefilter
I did used to put sponges on the inlets but had problems with the sponges blocking up and the filter being starved of water and stopping but now realise that the sponge I used was too fine a mesh and I probably did not clean it often enough
I will clean the inlet sponge when I do the weekly water change
Will go with Siporax, just waiting for the filter to arrive so I can work out how much I need
Pete

Hi all,
I use the really coarse PPI10 sponges, I'm to tight to use the proper Eheim ones from Bob's link, so I DIY mine. There are advantages to this in that you can make them as big as you like. I've got a 12" x 4" x 4" Koi sponge in a shrimp tank at the moment, and flow speed is still good after 6 months with no maintenance.

Here is a quick DIY job.

Personally I don't mind cleaning the filter out every couple of months or so and would rather the detritus was removed from the tank a.s.a.p. Which just goes to show there's more than one way of doing things.

Click to expand...

A lot of people like to do this, but I'd much rather syphon the debris out, and do regular maintenance on the pre-filter sponge. The faeces, saw-dust etc looks unsightly but it doesn't actually impinge too much on water quality. As soon as the flow volume drops I will clean out the canister, although it is often just the hoses that need cleaning.

There is a much fuller discussion of why I want the ammonia in the filter and all the bulky organic waste out of it here: <http://plecoplanet.com/?page_id=829>.

It isn't too bad re-priming the Eheim Classics, (which is often given as a reason for not buying them), if you have a double tap on the inlet hose and keep the water column intact in the hose from from the intake to the tap. The canister should then fill automatically under gravity.

cheers Darrel

Hi,

I've read that excellent article through a couple of times before thanks for posting it up in the first instance.

I'm not saying that its better to allow the debris into the canister and I can see the reason why you want to keep it out being to help maintain a high oxygen level in the canister.

Personally I just don't like the look of the debris in the tank and don't want my bottom feeders rooting around in it. To me it looks like a bacterial infection waiting to happen. I certainly wouldn't let my children play in their own faeces and apply that logic to my fish. Never had a problem with there not being sufficient oxygen to sustain an adequate bacterial colony either to warrant a rethink of how I do things. If I had I almost certainly would have seen a massive ammonia spike followed by all sorts of trouble.

Chris.

L777 said:

Hi,

I've read that excellent article through a couple of times before thanks for posting it up in the first instance.

I'm not saying that its better to allow the debris into the canister and I can see the reason why you want to keep it out being to help maintain a high oxygen level in the canister.

Personally I just don't like the look of the debris in the tank and don't want my bottom feeders rooting around in it. To me it looks like a bacterial infection waiting to happen. I certainly wouldn't let my children play in their own faeces and apply that logic to my fish. Never had a problem with there not being sufficient oxygen to sustain an adequate bacterial colony either to warrant a rethink of how I do things. If I had I almost certainly would have seen a massive ammonia spike followed by all sorts of trouble.

Chris.

Click to expand...

See what you mean Chris but think that ways are right as the dirt is either taken into the filter or into the sponge away from the bottom of the tank.
I also run a large internal in each of my 2 tanks and clean them weekly to try to keep the muck out of the main filters
Pete

dw1305 said:

Hi all,
I use the really coarse PPI10 sponges, I'm to tight to use the proper Eheim ones from Bob's link, so I DIY mine. There are advantages to this in that you can make them as big as you like. I've got a 12" x 4" x 4" Koi sponge in a shrimp tank at the moment, and flow speed is still good after 6 months with no maintenance.

Here is a quick DIY job.

A lot of people like to do this, but I'd much rather syphon the debris out, and do regular maintenance on the pre-filter sponge. The faeces, saw-dust etc looks unsightly but it doesn't actually impinge too much on water quality. As soon as the flow volume drops I will clean out the canister, although it is often just the hoses that need cleaning.

There is a much fuller discussion of why I want the ammonia in the filter and all the bulky organic waste out of it here: <http://plecoplanet.com/?page_id=829>.

It isn't too bad re-priming the Eheim Classics, (which is often given as a reason for not buying them), if you have a double tap on the inlet hose and keep the water column intact in the hose from from the intake to the tap. The canister should then fill automatically under gravity.

cheers Darrel

Click to expand...

That looks good Darrel. Will try that on my other externals :clap:
I have wondered before if the solid gunk that builds up in filters was harmful or was already fully broken down. I guess it needs removing anyway as the filters would get blocked up
Pete

Hi all,

Personally I just don't like the look of the debris in the tank and don't want my bottom feeders rooting around in it. To me it looks like a bacterial infection waiting to happen. I certainly wouldn't let my children play in their own faeces and apply that logic to my fish.

Click to expand...

I think there are 2 different issue, if you keep Panaque spp. particularly, I'd agree that a layer of faeces and saw-dust is going to build up fairly quickly and look very unsightly. Personally I do a little bit of syphoning (when I do my daily 10% water change), but I try not to disturb the substrate. This is one reason I have sand as a substrate, so that there aren't gaps for the debris to fall into. In the high flow tanks I have a mix of silica sand and very fine gravel, this allows the water to sort the substrate dependent upon flow.

Whether it is more likely to cause bacterial problems in the fish is another matter, and I think the answer to this is probably no. The risk of the transmission of internal parasites might be higher however. It is very much "horses for courses". I'm sure that both Bob (Macvsog) and I keep tanks which have more mulm than most people would consider acceptable, but I think we also manage to maintain high quality water. Jo(Zebs) is totally the opposite and she maintains very high water quality via the ultra-clean approach.

Never had a problem with there not being sufficient oxygen to sustain an adequate bacterial colony either to warrant a rethink of how I do things. If I had I almost certainly would have seen a massive ammonia spike followed by all sorts of trouble.

Click to expand...

I'm not sugesting that you do have a problem with oxygenation. I'm a probably a bit OCD about this, because it is the one issue that if I get it right 99.9% of the time, but then wrong (even for a couple of minutes), it is going to kill all my fish.

If you had a catastrophic lack of oxygen to the filter you would get an ammonia spike, but often the problems are less obvious and occur when an additional ammonia source is added to the water (we had loads of this in the winter/spring when the freeze had caused water mains to burst and the water companies were adding more chloramine (or adding chloramine to a supply usually disinfected with chlorine)). In these cases, or where a lot of the filter capacity isn't being used due to low flow/O2 levels, you can get chronic effects which often manifest as various aliments, rather than a sudden fish kill.

You can get the same effect if water temperatures are higher, reducing gas solubility, or when some medications are added to the water increasing the chemical oxygen demand.

cheers Darrel

Hi all,
With apologies for the cross-post, but just to say that there is a similar filtration thread running on the moment at PC.
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=33662

cheers Darrel

dw1305 said:

If you had a catastrophic lack of oxygen to the filter you would get an ammonia spike, but often the problems are less obvious and occur when an additional ammonia source is added to the water (we had loads of this in the winter/spring when the freeze had caused water mains to burst and the water companies were adding more chloramine (or adding chloramine to a supply usually disinfected with chlorine)). In these cases, or where a lot of the filter capacity isn't being used due to low flow/O2 levels, you can get chronic effects which often manifest as various aliments, rather than a sudden fish kill.
cheers Darrel

Click to expand...

Hi all,

The way I run my tanks as you are probably aware is that I use 100% remineralised RO water 100% of the time so the above just simply wouldn't effect me at all.

I don't think that the way you do things is wrong necessarily, just a different approach. I was merely pointing out to the OP that there is more than one way to do things. Please don't take offense.

Chris.

Filter arrived today looks excellent well made and like the way the impellor is easy to get at for cleaning :clap:
The hydor one is under a cover which is tricky to get off
Only thing is it did not come with taps . A bit misleading by Zooplus where I got it from as most shops sell them with taps.
Now realise that its the plus model that comes with taps , ordered them now
Worked out that I need 4 litres of filter media and will use the stuff from the old filter in the bottom so it seeds the new media.
It comes with a carbon filter pad and the instructions say to leave it in for 2 weeks.
I assume this is not really nessersary as I have rinsed everything under the tap ?
Pete

Hi all,

I don't think that the way you do things is wrong necessarily, just a different approach. I was merely pointing out to the OP that there is more than one way to do things. Please don't take offense.

Click to expand...

No, there is no offence taken. If you have a method that works, stick with it. I'm a great believer in "if aint broke don't fix it" & "KISS - keep it simple stupid".

I've come around to doing things the way I do because it suits my working schedule and it seems to work, it is only if something goes "wrong" that I change things, but again as much as possible I always try and make it one change at a time and give all changes a reasonably long period of evaluation.

I need stability and resilience in the tanks, because I'm not always at home, some of the tanks are in labs where I can't get at them regularly etc.

In a very few cases I've changed the way I do things because of experimental work, but mainly I've looked at the systems that successful breeders/keepers used and then used them "as is", there isn't any empirical proof of my method, it is a "faith" position if you like and may not be the best method.

Worked out that I need 4 litres of filter media and will use the stuff from the old filter in the bottom so it seeds the new media.
It comes with a carbon filter pad and the instructions say to leave it in for 2 weeks. I assume this is not really nessersary as I have rinsed everything under the tap ?

Click to expand...

Sounds fine and I would probably leave out the carbon pad, although it won't do any harm, but may clog more easily.

cheers Darrel

All set up and running this morning :clap:
Filter was easy to set up and get running easiest one I've done. Just filled the inlet pipe and opened the taps :clap:
Like the idea of the classic the water flows in the bottom out the top then into the tank should have bought one years ago !
Went for the Ehfisubstrat Pro media in the end found it cheap on ebay
Pete