Is this dumb? Pro2 2026 filter setup

[ErrorS]

I wasn't happy with how quickly this filter was cleaning my water. It outputs a lot of water.. but a few of my fish put out a lot of waste (The goby mainly).. it especially gets bad when I restock feeders. I have a lot of fish that have dense, sinking.. poo.. :D not to mention, all the decorations make it hard. There is little water circulation moving things around at the bottom of my tank, in all areas. Without any decorations I'd imagine I could keep flow at 1/2 and it would keep my aquarium spotless.

anyways, I went ahead and changed around the filters in my Pro2.

At first, I removed the Efimech and put in three course pads. The course pads dont' seem to pick up much, so I stopped that. I also tried Bioballs (for the first time ever) and put them with the Efisubstrat, that was a huge mistake.. these things are meant for wet/dry applications.

Anyways, just now I tried something different.

I completely emptied the bottom container and put:

At the top - White Fine Pad
In the middle - Generic cotton-type filter fluff.
In the Middle - Carbon Pad (I just had one laying around, it's looks to be in between the course and fine for mechanical so why not?)
At the bottom - Blue Course Pad

I realized Efimech didn't do a whole lot for mechanical filtration. Efisubstrat is good for biological but it can be too dense and really hurt filter flow when you have too much... so I mixed the two in top container and topped it off with a fine filter pad.

I hate the strainer on the Pro2.. it's just bad.. there is little suction at the lower part of the strainer, just extremely high suction over a very small surface area.. So I took an old prefilter I had for another application and attached it to the end of the intake on the Pro2.. other than the Eheim prefilter does anyone know of a good strainer replacement? Something that has high suction over a large area? (I liked the ones on the Emperor400 and would love for a similer one that would fit on the Pro2 intake)

Would you all consider this pretty efficient or can you think of another idea for filter setup that would help?

[garbon2535]

Have you had the filter running long enough to establish proper biological filtration? I have 4 Eheim Pro II's (2)-2026's & (2)-2028's. I think they work 100 times better than any HOB. I've used an Emperor 400 for years, a number of Whisper filters, and some odd-ball "generic" HOB's. I fill my 2026 filters like this, Efimech in the bottom with the course blue pad on top and Efisubstrat in the top filter with the fine white pad. In my 2028s I run two trays of Efisubstrat.

It looks like you took all your substrat out? Where will all your nitrifying bacteria live? You want at least on tray of some type of substrat that you leave alone and never clean.

[mooman]

Wow, you guys make filtration sound so darn complicated. Would you really see any difference at all if you just filled the whole thing up with generic foam filter pads? I've run all my tanks for years on HOBs with a foam block in them or straight sponge filters. Crystal clear water and no detectible ammonia or nitrite is all I ever see. Maybe we're just from different fish keeping "schools".

[ErrorS]

No, substrat is at the top container. I completely filled that with Substrat and Efhimech. The efimech helps bacterial production and will help increase water flow through the efhisubstrat section.

mooman, probably not.. that train of thought is what had me do this anyways. I told myself to try going back to the basics, lots and lots of mechanical filtration. That bottom takes care of particulates before they get to my bio filtration, so i clean them less. The top is filled with more than enough... which i probably dont even need considering the number of diffferent decorations I have in the aquarium.

heh, this was only yesterday? the prefilter (is just one of those old corner/box filters), completely filled with 'cotton' is a dark brown now.

I think I had the filter set up wrong originally.. the intake over the housing for the heater element (I can't remember, trying to find excuses) and my filter is just dirtying quickly trying to polish the aquarium so it can keep it at a stable level.

it's perfectly clear this morning. In fact, it's so clear that the side with my 10K bulb (waiting on a 6500k replacement) doesn't look cloudy and stupid like it always has.

[garbon2535]

I am not sure I am following you but I set my filter up just like Eheim recommends. Efhimech traps debris. It is mechanical filtration. That is what my water passes first. It is on the very bottom of the bottom tray. Sitting on top of the bottom tray I have the blue pad. The blue pad traps larger pieces of debris but smaller than the Efhimech. Since the layer of Efhimech is so deep not too much large pieces get to the blue pad. After the blue pad I have Substrat. My Substrat never gets too much junk on it. On top of the second tray I have the fine white pad. That gets very dirty. I clean my filter once every 1-2 months. I suppose you could put the fine white pad under the Substrat but then you would have to dump the Substrat out every time you wanted to clean the white filter. That is how my Pro II 2026's are set-up. I have no idea how Efhimech helps biological filtration? Substrat is full of small tiny holes. It grows the bacteria that IS biological filtration. Efhimech is designed to remove the large pieces of waste my Oscars (and other fish) generate after feeding. I would go with more Substrat and less Efhimech. One tray of each would be best. Fill your filter as Eheim says then wait a month... or two... until the flow decreases. You need to leave it alone long enough for bacteria to grow on your Substrat. Things take time and you need to wait. Have patience.

[TwoTankAmin]

Instead of messing around with the media, I would tryrepositioning the spraybar. Try one of two things- either put the spray bar closer to the bottom or else try it vertically instead of horizontally. You can also drill additional holes which will redirect some of the flow.

[ErrorS]

I found out that the Ehfimech helps spread the water out evenly so it's not only filtered in a small circular area below the impeller.. oops.. didn't take long to figure this out though

I felt it wasn't filtering enough.. with all of the mechanical filtration in the lower area AND the prefilter, the top filter pad in the canister was still being dirtied after a few days. Though it was to a much lesser degree.

I'm definitely keeping the prefilter, it's much easier to change than the canister and having it really cuts down on the amount of debris stuck in the eheim filter.

I just don't like the blue pads. They don't catch very much at all.. If I had lots of plecos or something that left waste that didn't break down quickly I could understand, but right now, the small detritus just passes right through. The blue filter is almost as clean as it was the day I bought it (6 months ago).

People have been using the ceramic tubes for a long time for biological filtration.. that's all the Ehfimech is. At least mixing some Ehfimech with the Ehfisubstrat (I have room using filter floss instead of the fine filter) wouldn't hurt.. I ran out of Ehfisubstrat and was able to fit more stuff in, so why not?

The carbon filter didn't do bad for mechanical filtration.. but they're too expensive ot use for mechanical

This is how I have it set up now.

Bottom - Ehfimech (just 2L) > Blue Course Pad > Marineland Rite-Sized filter material (love this stuff) > Fine filter floss .. so basically, in the bottom container I have a filter for large debris, one for medium and one for small.

Top - 80:20 Ehfisubstrat and Ehfimech with fine filter floss toping it off.

In the prefilter I'm doing a small experiment. I'm using a course pad with the rite sized below it and the fine filter floss below that. Even after one day the fine floss is completely brown.

I don't think the filter has enough flow for my aquarium (it's all the stuff i have. driftwood, rocks, etc). If I can catch enough detritus with one passthrough it will cut down on the amount of flow required to keep my aquarium clean. In other words, water doesn't have to be 'refiltered'.

I've never had a problem with Biological filtration..

and I'm experimenting with the spraybar. It seems like whenever I have it in a position to circulate the water the right way, i have a fish or two that are uncomfortable. I bought the InstallationKit for the spraybar and it is making it much easier adjusting flow..

[garbon2535]

I found out that the Ehfimech helps spread the water out evenly so it's not only filtered in a small circular area below the impeller.. oops.. didn't take long to figure this out though


Well, actually, the water goes down thru the tube in the filter to the bottom. From there it passes thru the media trays working it's way back up top filtering as it goes. The white filter (on top) is the last filter water goes thru before returning to the tank. My white filter gets dirty very quickly too but it does not impeed the waterflow. And my blue pad takes a long time to get dirty as well.

[garbon2535]

One other thing that I dont think was brought up... You might want to look at a second filter. I set-up my first 55 gallon with one Emperor 400. After a month or two with an Angel fish my water was looking pretty bad. I added a Regent 20 gallon on the other side. I feel the additional circulation helped more than the additional filtration but it can never hurt to have more filtration! If you have a lot of dead spots try a PH. You can get one to move as much or as little water as you want. They are cheap comparied to the price of a filter, can be positioned anywhere in the tank (high/low/forward/backward/up & down), they are quiet, easy to use, easy to relocate, and you can add a sponge to the input to perform mechanical filtration if you wish.