"linda mar" wrote in message
...
Hi Iain,

do you have Eheim 2222/2224? I'm thinking about getting one. how do you
like yours? how long have you had it?


I've got two 2224s under my 90USG tank.

They are very quiet & very easy to maintain. I'm a bit dubious about them
only having two baskets - by the time you've filled the bottom one with the
Ehfimech & filled the top one iwth the recommended amount of Ehfisubstrat
there isn't much room for any form of filter wool on top. You get a thin
fine filter pad to go on top but I found this literally fell to bits after
about a month.

As is my way of course I've modified my filtration a fair bit by putting in
a Hozelock Bioforce pond filter in line in front of the eheims. The water
collects from the standard Eheim tubes at each end of the tank. These then
comes down into a T piece that goes into 16mm hose into the Hozelock - this
has two thick disks of prefitted foam filter in it and acts as a giant
prefilter - it also has a UV sterilizer in it which I use from time to time.

From the Bioforce it comes out via 16mm hose back into another T piece where
it drops down to 12mm and splits to feed the two eheims. Right now one of
these has the standard Eheim recommended load of Ehfimech & Ehfi Substrat in
it - the other is 3/4 full of Ehfisubstrat & 1/4 full of filter wool. I've
been waiting a 2-3 weeks before I reorganise the other one in the same way.
This gives me HUGE bio filtering capacity.

The theory is that by having the prefilter I will almost never need to touch
the Eheims. I disconnect and clean out the Bioforce once every week or two
and I do it under the tap - I don't actually want it to turn into a bio
filter - that's done by the eheims - its just there to catch the worst of
the crap. Its easier to take apart & clean than doing the two cannisters -
not that they are particularly hard to clean & there is kind of less risk to
my biofilters because I should rarely have to touch them

Of course having set this up I then decided/found that the flow of water
through the system was not what it was when the eheims were running on their
own. I umm'd & ahh'd about putting it back to just running the cannisters as
standard & then decided to stick another pump in the system - this now sits
after the Bioforce & in front of the eheims & has done the trick in terms of
restoring the flow.

Why'd I do all that? Is it really necessary?

Answers are because I just did and in hindsight, not sure if it's really
better or not except that I now have UV sterilization that will kill Ich &
ALgae spores as & when I want without adding any meds. In that context it
was a fairly cheap way to add UV - untill that is I had to add another pump!

........but then its all fairly typical of me really!

rgds

I.