5 replies to this topic

[BengaBoy]

The eheim website says the following:
“Your 2211, 2213, 2215, 2217 needs to be cleaned every 3-6 months.
You should change 1/3 ­ 2/3 of the EHFISUBSTRAT every 6-12 months.
The EHFISYNTH pad should be changed with every cleaning (every 3-6 months)
and the EHFIFIX pad should be changed when it becomes flattened or every year.”

So what is the purpose, cynic that I am, of replacing the media so often? Does its performance degrade? Any evidence for this?

Given that it is the EHFISUBSTRAT that does the biological work, is there any harm in cleaning the filter pads (the mechanical filtering) in warm tap water to give them a better clean, but continue to clean the media in tank water (I actually only clean half the media)

What do others do in their maintenance schedule?

Edited by: BengaBoy at: 9/12/02 8:30:53 pm

[mtchye]

Hey Steve,

Apparently the ehfisubstrat needs replacing as the minute pores get clogged up. The round coarse scrubber thingy (not sure if its ehfifix or not) is easily washed and i doubt you need to replace that. The white foam stuff does get flattened, but if you clean it regularly you can use it for ages until it tears. I clean the foam with tap water no problems, as you said, the bulk of the biological filtration is in the substrat.

I've lost your email address, Steve. Can you drop me an email at mtchye-at-perthmail.com? I have a few q's about tropheus moliro and fronties.

cheers
vince

[BengaBoy]

ok, I can imagine the poors getting clogged, so maybe giving it a boil might rejuvenate it??

how long has someone out there run an Eheim canniser without replacing media and not got an ammonia spike??

[greshaki]

i have to REPLACE that stuff!? after i paid that much for a bucket of GRAVEL!!!!

i had no idea...mines been in for over a year, but i dont test for ammonia/nitrite regularly

yes, what if we boiled it?

and is there a media that doesnt have a use by? bio balls or something?

[mtchye]

Hi guys,

I'm not sure if boiling it will remove the gunk from the micropores. Its not really a matter of a 'use by date', more a factor of the reduction in surface area over time due to clogging of the minute pores. I think its a problem with a lot of the porous filter medias.

You can use stuff like bioballs which is much less likely to clog up due to the large pore size. HOwever i suspect that the surface area wouldnt be too much different from clogged up ehfisubstrat??

In the end i guess its always better to overfilter. I wouldnt throw away your expensive gravel yet:P If your filter continues to handle your bio load then i would keep going with it i guess..

[Ryan]

I bought a 2213 from malaysia a month ago and it came with five coarse pads and a fine pad on the top as well as a carbon pad.This would be cheaper to replace and maybe you wouldnt have to replace it for a while.It may not be as good as the other stuff but it would still do the job i'm sure.By the way im amazed how cheap every thing is over there.I went to an aquarium shop and saw leopard plecos for about $2 australian at about 3 to 4 cm and electric yellows like 5cm for $2.50 australian. I bought my 2213 for $135 and an aquaclear 150 for $38 aussie.