BioWheet 350 with Eheim 2213

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mike770

Registered Member
Nov 11, 2007
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I have a 29 gallon freshwater tank. I have a Penguin BioWheel 350 and I am not impressed with the filtration. I went to my local aquarium store for a recommendation on a better filter and the rep stated that a canister filter is better. He stated that Eheim canister filter are very good and they happen to be on sale so I purchased the Eheim 2213.

He also stated that I should keep both the BioWheel and the Eheim running at the same time for 6 to 8 weeks to "prime" the canister and then I can take the BioWheel off.

Now on to my questions.

1) Is he right in stating that the Eheim canister is good?

2) What does prime-ing the filter mean?

3) If I like the results, is it OK to keep both filters running permanently?

Thanks!!!
 
I have a 55g tank with an ehiem 2217 newely set up, and a penguin 350 which I had on there to cycle it. I'm probably just going to leave both of them on unless I get a co2 system just so I have even more filtration. So
1) Yes ehiem is good, they are long lasting and the 2213 should be enough for your tank alone depending on the load in there.
2)I think Prime is the wrong word to use, when you prime the canister filter, that just means siphoning water to get the whole process going. He wants you to cycle the canister filter so when you take the 350 off, you wont have to go through another cycle. You don't need to take the 350 off like I'm doing, it'll give you better filtration.
and 3) Yes it's fine to leave them both running, perhaps even best to because canisters dont provide too much biological filtration.
 
Thanks a lot for the quick reply! I think I am going to leave both of the filters going.

Once again... Thanks!!!
 
They can, it really depends on how much media it can hold.
A large canister I would think provides more biological and mechanical filtration than a HOB, but the problem is it also costs 2-4x as much as a HOB.

I think it ultimately comes down to what you like best, and what you are willing to spend on the filtration.
 
The penguin 350 is a biowheel filter, which is specifically designed to have a large amount of biological filtration. And it does depend on what type of media you put in your canister filter. If people run more then one canister on a tank, they can dedicate one to biological filtration and the other to mechanical/chemical.
 
the eheim 2236 (which is what i have on both of my tanks) has four trays, so you can put all sorts of things in them-- some peat, perhaps, eheim's own substraat (glass balls which apparently will give a lot of space for bacteria to grow), carbon, fine and coarse polymesh... then you don't need to run multiple canisters.

but I think that the general gist of what the petstore guy was saying was correct; Eheim are nice. Run them both for a while so that the bacteria have a chance to set up shop in the canister-- and the HOB continues to filter in the meantime.

For water aeration and setting up a current etc, it might be worthwhile to have both running at once. but once it's set up it probably won't be strictly necessary.
 
OMG Alert the press!

There *is* one LFS who knows what he's talking about and mike770 found him!

[/sarcasm]
[/hijack]

A canister filter's ability to provide biological filtration is a function of surface area availability for bacteria & oxygenation. If you have decent water flow and some surface agitation in the tank, O2 should not be a serious problem. If your filter media includes some nylon mesh, ceramic rings or something else that can provide lots of surface area for bacteria to cling to, you can get decent biological filtration from them.

If you bouhgt the 2213 w/ Eheim media, you should be fine. If you find, after a rinse or two of the media (ie - after ~6 months), that it has "settled" some, you can add floss under the upper grid or nylon pot scrubbers to the inlet end of the stack to firm things up. Either will provide additional surface area for bacteria.
 
Squawkbert said:
If you bouhgt the 2213 w/ Eheim media, you should be fine. If you find, after a rinse or two of the media (ie - after ~6 months), that it has "settled" some, you can add floss under the upper grid or nylon pot scrubbers to the inlet end of the stack to firm things up. Either will provide additional surface area for bacteria.
Click to expand...


I did buy the 2213 with the Eheim media included. Is that the rule of thumb when it come time to rinsing the media(~6 months)? I did decide that I am going to have both the BioWheel 350 and the canister filter running at the same time.

Thanks.
 
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