Eheim 2080 Maintenance

[yabadaba]

Hi, my tank is cycling now so there's no fish in it and no waste, but I'm thinking to the future and what my maintenance regime should be for what is my first external canister filter. Obviously the bit about cleaning the two filter pads (blue & white) is familiar to me from my experience with internals, but are you supposed to drain the filter to do this....and, if so, how? Also, I've seen references made to cleaning the pipes and note that you can buy tools to do this with - but is this really necessary? When I fitted the pipes onto the filter itself and onto the inlets and spraybar I didn't get the impression that they would be easy to remove?

The impression I get is that most of the regular maintenance just involves cleaning the blue pre-filter - is that basically correct? I'm really just trying to work out a routine that will keep it well maintained.

 

[jmkgreen]

Is it you with the ND tank? 4x2x2? I ask because I always wanted to it know if the 2080 fitted within the cabinet..!

Anyway, I have the 2075, it's been running since June without interruption. I believe the idea is to clean once the flow is clearly impeded.

You can buy the filter kits reasonably cheaply - about a tenner. They come with blue and white filter pads. The white is just standard poly pad but I've found no references to what the blue one is - in the Juwel world it's a bio filter.

If you're cleaning the filter you might as well swish the baskets of bio and mech-bio elements in old tank water too.

You know what I find really galling? I used to spend £15+ buying new pads for my juwel set-up before the members here told me not to bother. Yet the bits that really need replacing on my much larger Eheim cost less!

 

[yabadaba]

Is it you with the ND tank? 4x2x2? I ask because I always wanted to it know if the 2080 fitted within the cabinet..!

Anyway, I have the 2075, it's been running since June without interruption. I believe the idea is to clean once the flow is clearly impeded.

You can buy the filter kits reasonably cheaply - about a tenner. They come with blue and white filter pads. The white is just standard poly pad but I've found no references to what the blue one is - in the Juwel world it's a bio filter.

If you're cleaning the filter you might as well swish the baskets of bio and mech-bio elements in old tank water too.

You know what I find really galling? I used to spend £15+ buying new pads for my juwel set-up before the members here told me not to bother. Yet the bits that really need replacing on my much larger Eheim cost less!

Hi, yes it was me who was asking the questions about the 2080 fitting in the cabinet. I ended up phoning ND Aquatics for their opinion and at first they said it would be a tight fit and might not work, but then said that they would make the cabinet taller for me to give 70cm instead of 64.5cm internal cupboard height. They did that and the 2080 fits very nicely with the holes at the back of the cabinet being at a perfect height for the pipes to pass through without bending and space to spare above the filter. If the cabinet had its standard dimensions I think I would still have been okay, but would probably have had to enlarge the holes at the rear so that they extended right up to the top.

Thanks for the reply by the way. I've already got one of those filter kits, though was guessing that I'd probably just be able to rinse out the original ones a few times before installing a new one. I'm fishless cycling at present so there's no waste (other than maybe a little plant matter) so I shouldn't have to touch the filter for a while to come. My tank looks awful at the moment....brown algae everywhere....can't wait till it's finished cycling so I can give it a good clean! The ammonia part is okay now, just waiting on the nitrite.

 

[KittyKat]

Hi, my tank is cycling now so there's no fish in it and no waste, but I'm thinking to the future and what my maintenance regime should be for what is my first external canister filter. Obviously the bit about cleaning the two filter pads (blue & white) is familiar to me from my experience with internals, but are you supposed to drain the filter to do this....and, if so, how? Also, I've seen references made to cleaning the pipes and note that you can buy tools to do this with - but is this really necessary? When I fitted the pipes onto the filter itself and onto the inlets and spraybar I didn't get the impression that they would be easy to remove?

The impression I get is that most of the regular maintenance just involves cleaning the blue pre-filter - is that basically correct? I'm really just trying to work out a routine that will keep it well maintained.

It is best to work out a routine suited to your specific set-up. I normally clean the inlet 2-3 times per week and clean the filter one per week. To clean the filter: I switch it off, turn off the flow at the hoses, disconnect them, pull the filter out, clean the inlet (which is in the tank), drain some water from the tank into a bucket, clean the filter in it, discard the water (under the house plants), repeat the previous two steps until the sponges and noodles are clean, clean the baskets and the inside of the filter (watering the house plants with the water out of the filter), clean the guard which prevents the media from going into the tank and any other parts like that, connect everything up again, turn on the flow in the hoses and let the water syphon into the filter, once the filter is full of water: switch it on, top up the tank. This way, I incorporate the water change into the filter cleaning.

I recently cleaned the hoses on my external and it is scary how much crap came out of them!