Plumbing dual Eheim 2213s/dual Hydor ETH-200. Critique/assistance thread

My suggestion was instead of not in addition to. It was my understanding that you haven't purchased a second Hydor. You could resell the brand new Eheims for close to the same price you paid for them.

Eheims are not designed to be plumbed the way you have them and the back pressure WILL cause them to fail. The only waste of money will be the broken Eheims you're going to end up with.

I'm just trying to save you a headache as I've been down the road you're traveling once too many times in the past 35 years.

I understand that adding the spring-loaded check valve is going to restrict even more. The only other way you will reduce the back pressure is to take out the angles and go to a larger pipe size after the Hydors.
 
on eheim was $180, the other was $85, and the Hydor I do have cost me $85 .... I will not get anywhere close to that when selling them.

I dont understand how the backpressure will cause them to fail if it is less than their rated head pressure, and the two of them working together, should pressurize the "Hydor assembly" enough to keep the water going.

Not to mention, that on the outputs of the filters, the water flows down first, and there should be no extra backp[ressure from that little assembly, at least until the water level has risen to the same level as the height of the output nozzles.... which is right around the tip of the Hydors.
 
You don't hook pumps up in parallel, unless you valve them in such a way that only one pump at a time is working. What you should have been working on is hooking the pumps up in series. That is the only practical way to use multiple pumps to overcome pipe pressure.

In this case you will not overcome the backpressure you think you will; you will lose one or both of the filters, probably sooner rather than later, and I hope you listen to other posters that are telling you that you do not have a practical plan. Pressure knows no direction; you're just as likely to run one of your filters backwards or deadhead it rather than filter your tank.
 
that makes sense to me too, running them in a series seems like the way to go, although if one fails, the system fails... another thought is to add a simple variable speed pump to the whole system, that draws water from the return. ideally you'd be able to dial in the required flow with the pump, to offset your 8' of pipe.
 
Back pressure has nothing to do with direction of flow. The small downward direction isn't going to lessen it in any way.

The back pressure puts a strain on the Eheim pump. As I said, Eheims are NOT designed to be used the way that you want to use them.

Seems you'll have to find out the hard way. Good luck.
 
First of all, ataylor, I know what you guys are saying, and I will come up with a solution to the problem now that I have been made aware of it, but im not connecting the pumps in series.
I had asked about that last year when I started with the whole aquarium and was toying with ideas, and basically the verdict was no, dont connect them in series.

While that may in fact be the way to overcome the pressure, it doesnt make sense to filter already filtered water.
This way, I have increased my filtration volume IF I can keep the flow rate high.

secondly, I have mentioned numerous times, that I will most likely be getting a pump, to install on the output further down the main output pipe, to not only assist with flow, but also to create a suction pressure that will essentially pull on the filters enough to keep one filter from backflowing the other or deadheading it. Naturally, water will want to flow with the suction.
Im also going to purchase a flowmeter to monitor my flow rates.

and for about the third time, I dont have 8' of pipe. I should have around 5' or 6' at the most, as my overall output length.

you guys are correct, pressure knows no direction, but like anything else, it will tend to take the path of least resistance. With both filters pumping water down and back up into the two heaters, their opposing pressures will want to force its way out the larger pipe connected to the heaters, as opposed to trying to force its way back through one or the other filter.

this is of course NOT taking into account the force of the water weight pushing down against the filters output pressure, which will have an effect, I know.

I'm not trying to reject whats being told to me, But its already the way it is now, and I will be doing some testing once I get a few more of the parts together, seeing how things work in a practical sense, and making adjustments as needed.

For better or worse, things rarely ever turn out in reality, the way you thought they would in theroy..... communism works in theroy.... IN THEROY.....
 
Well, my comments are from practice, not theory. You're going to have to learn from experience that it isn't going to work.

Necessity is the mother of invention, so I'm sure you'll figure out a way to fix it after.
 
Well, my comments are from practice, not theory. You're going to have to learn from experience that it isn't going to work.

Necessity is the mother of invention, so I'm sure you'll figure out a way to fix it after.

I'll have it fixed before its turned loose on the tank. I will do plenty of testing before anything is installed permenantly.

you cant tell me that the addition of a pump on the output isnt going to help at all.
 
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