Eheim Classic 2215 - Concerns

Hey guys, I came here to try and find some help with this filter. I am hoping some people here have this filter, or at least a very similar one, and can tell me if everything is working okay. First off I did not setup the filter entirely, just after I finished assembling the filter it was about time for me to head to work, so my father took over and tried to get it running, which he did. The filter is extremely quiet and the outflow which connects to the spray pipe is spraying pretty darn strong, but the intake is what concerns me. There seems to be very little "pull" coming from the plastic intake piece. I put my hand into the tank and put my fingers near the intake piece and I feel absolutely no suction. I observed some small particles in the tank being very slowly sucked into the intake, but I also see some particles on the tank floor fairly close to the intake that don't seem to be getting moved or sucked near the intake. In hopes of fixing this weak intake I positioned the strong outflow spray pipe so it faces the intake, and blows water towards it.

I just wanted to know if everything is setup okay, and if it is normal for me to not be able to feel a suction force coming from the intake. If I am suppose to feel a suction... than something is definitely wrong.

Thanks for any help guys, I emailed the people I bought it from, just thought I'd try to get some help from regular people who know more about this kinda thing than I do.

-Jason

Sounds like it's working fairly normally.

The intakes on these things don't really suck that hard, which is usually good. If you vacuumed too much stuff in then the filter would block fairly easily and you'd risk sucking in your fish (they do block up eventually anyway if you don't clear the larger detritus like plant leaves). If you take a look at the intake you'll see the holes are a lot bigger than on the return pipe.

Logically as well, if water is firing out of the return pipe, then it must be going into the intake at the same rate.

What I would say is that you'd generally be better off putting the two pipes further away from each other, ideally you want the filter to turn over the water in the entire tank, with as few dead spots as possible. Stuff on the floor around the intake is, I'm afraid, a job for your maintenance and the gravel cleaner.

+1 to DrRob

But in smaller tanks, it is better if the water is taken in and expelled at the same end of the tank so that it circulates over the top and comes back over the bottom.

KittyKat said:

But in smaller tanks, it is better if the water is taken in and expelled at the same end of the tank so that it circulates over the top and comes back over the bottom.

Click to expand...

thats an interesting idea.
though, personally, i have problems seeing the logic, and the physics to supports it..
if the inlet is deep enough water is drawn from all directions. having the outlet as far away as possible, must be beneficial. (should i say "would seem to be")
if there is any variance, at all, the water coming out the filter will be slightly warmer than the tank as a whole. Heat transfer from the motor and water motion).
this will make it, in effect, float. as it cools it will drop. if the outlet is by the inlet. a proportion of the cooling water, will be drawn straight back into the filter. this makes where you put your heater, something to look at too.
its also easy to confuse water speed, with water flow. ( you can have the water output so fast it squirts right out of the tank. but the amount of water being moved(flow), remains the same. lol, as does the pressure)

ok kit, i have outlined MY view on possible problems with the solution you suggest.
any chance of you reciprocating?

to answer the OP directly. the size of the intake is, on Eheim, bigger than the size of the outlet. so, though the amount of water moved is the same, as DrRob says. so water moves faster through the smaller outlet pipe, than it does through the inlet. i guess you could say its a, tactile illusion.

raptorrex said:

if there is any variance, at all, the water coming out the filter will be slightly warmer than the tank as a whole. Heat transfer from the motor and water motion).
this will make it, in effect, float. as it cools it will drop. if the outlet is by the inlet. a proportion of the cooling water, will be drawn straight back into the filter. this makes where you put your heater, something to look at too.

Click to expand...

The temperature of the water coming from the filter is close to that of the water that it is irrelevant and in some cases can even be lower. The points you mention would only be worth consideration is the water came back from the fish at such a slow rate that the surface of the water would not be disturbed by it and an inline heater which was places directly before the outlet was used (with something severely cooling the rest of the water in the tank).
You also don't mention anything about the physical movement of the water which is returning to the tank and how it affects circulation.

raptorrex said:

any chance of you reciprocating?

Click to expand...

Flow is quite difficult to explain, so see attached image. The flows I have drawn on there conform with the physics of water circulation and with my personal practical experience and experimentation with flows.

It is quite easy to even test your own water circulation in practice by using a coloured liquid such as a medication containing methyl orange, like eSHa 2000, which will dye the water a luminous green, blue dechlorinator or food colouring (which is safe, as far as I am aware, but I have never added food dye to my aquarium before and not planning to).

Thanks for the help guys, appreciate the reassurance! Lastly, the water in my tank is pretty cloudy at the moment. I am housing a turtle in the tank and he was in the tank for a couple days before the filter arrived, so he clouded up the water. Do you think this filter will uncloud the water? Its been about a day so far with the filter running, and the water remains cloudy. Thanks again!

-Jason

Just to note I recently got the ehiem 2213 ( no idea if this model is similiar), this comes pre-installed with both a carbon pad and a poly pad as well as the actual filtration media.

the carbon pad and the pp if I am correct does effect the flow-rate ( less flow rate as the water has to be puchsed though more media), if you do have both of these pads running however by the sounds of things you will want to leave both of these in for a few weeks to clear up the water.

im only applying my limited logic on this lol as im still quite the noob.

Fisher155 said:

Thanks for the help guys, appreciate the reassurance! Lastly, the water in my tank is pretty cloudy at the moment. I am housing a turtle in the tank and he was in the tank for a couple days before the filter arrived, so he clouded up the water. Do you think this filter will uncloud the water? Its been about a day so far with the filter running, and the water remains cloudy. Thanks again!

Click to expand...

Bacterial bloom sort of cloudy? The water probably has high ammonia by now, so go read about "fish-in" cycling. Ammonia is toxic to turtles, so you're probably in for water change fun. For fish, I recommend that it's kept as close to 0 ppm as possible and you never let it reach 0.25 ppm. I also recommend that you use dechlorinator which converts ammonia into the less harmful (for fish) ammonium (the effect is temporary and is not a substitute for water changes).