Eheim Ecco Pro filters
Corey Doras
Pro. The difference with the previous model is that they have a donut-
shaped prefilter sponge sitting on top of the media baskets, instead
of a coarse sponge in the bottom of the lower basket. I thought it
looked like a good idea, but I am not so sure anymore. I find my
filters sometimes rattle loudly and often gurgle. The rattling is so
annoying I have to flee to another room... In addition, they seem to
get plugged up faster than the old model and need to be cleaned more
often because the flow rate really goes down.
Is any one else using these filters? What is your experience with
them? Perhaps mine are lemons?
Corey Doras
yet. I googled "Ecco Pro" and found they were mentioned only on
British sites. Anyway, now that I have used them for a while, I found
they are not so bad after all. The rattling is mostly gone; may be
they just needed a little fish gunk to "oil" them. It's just once in a
while, when I plug them back in after a water change, they start doing
it but if I quickly unplug and replug it fixes the problem. Also, I
have added the regular coarse blue sponge in the bottom, in addition
to the donut-shaped prefilter sponge, so they won't get clogged up too
fast.
NetMax
entrapment, then the impeller is cavitating, and it's not a good
operating mode for the pump to be left in. There's lots of tricks to
clearing the air out, like tilting the filter with a small wedge
underneath. When you first start up, there are tiny bubbles which
assemble, so these can take a few hours to clear out. Start up air
entrapment is pretty normal for any filter, but some designs are worse
than others for clearing themselves.
If you can re-plug the filter and it solves the problem, then it might
not be air entrapment. It's the magnetic-coupled impeller which loses
it's 'grip' and doesn't lock to the magnetic field being generated.
If this happens a lot, it may be a design issue (undersize hoses,
excessive flow resistance, insufficient blow-by area in the impeller
well, excessive impeller well spacing, weak magnetic field, impeller
bearing load etc etc). The danger is two fold. If it only happens on
start-up, then a power interruption can take the filter out of
service. If it happens a lot, it may start happening while the filter
is running. In either case, the resulting loss of bacterial filtering
can be devastating, so it's always recommended to have more than 1
filter running.
'Ecco Pro' must be an oxymoron like 'military intelligence' or
something. The Eheim Ecco series is a stripped-down low cost ECOnomy
filter (not as in ECO-friendly). An Ecco Pro must be something like a
jumbo fishbowl. ;~)
.. or a luxury Chevette?
NetMax
> > them? Perhaps mine are lemons?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Daniel Morrow
Is eheim the brand known for having the first canister filters that
weren't junk? Or was it another brand? I read in an aquarium magazine a
long time ago that the first canister filters were junk that leaked and
cavitated a lot - was eheim the first to break free from that mold?
Speaking of canister filters - 3 or more years later after constant
working during that time my fluval 404 for my turtle tank appears to
have died. :-( I can't get it to work again but one last thing I am
going to try is flushing the return and output hoses and the input
strainer with house water pressure. I will use 2 50 foot garden hoses (I
will flush them out before any water from them could get into my turtle
tank to prevent my pets from being poisoned, by the way - supposedly the
only thing garden hoses can do to hurt aquatic pets is to output poisons
because garden hoses are almost universally exposed to chemicals used to
control lawn plants and gardens, etc. so the pvc thing might not hurt
aquatic pets - it might have been those lawn and garden chemicals that
the hose usually gets rolled around in that hurt or kill aquatic pets,
which would explain who is it - denizen? - using a garden hose to the
laundry facet and it has not hurt or killed his aquatic pets) with
another brass snap connecter (python brand like the one already attached
(permanently) to the sink) and an adapter to have the last foot or so of
hose 5/8 inch or 1/2 inch in diameter but transparent) and blast those
hoses and strainer out, hopefully that will fix it but it might not and
I have no further ideas on how to resurrect my fluval 404 for the turtle
tank. I will soon be getting a whisper 40i internal filter that
supposedly only needs 2 inches or more of water and I will replace the
fluval 404 with it if I have to. Currently my turtle tank only gets
biological and minimal mechanical filtration and it appears to be enough
of both types of filtration - for the moment only though as I don't feel
comfortable with only one filter for any aquarium/ paludarium, etc. I am
hoping the whisper 40i I will get (I also ordered the much smaller 10i
just in case, it is inexpensive at the minimum) operates in 2 inches or
deeper water, if only the smaller whisper internals work in 2 inches of
water I will be a little frustrated and sad, even though I will have the
10i (smaller) for use just in case. Normally I would replace the fluval
404 with another of it's category but I find that the price of canister
filters has jumped unacceptably recently (I bought my fluval 404s for
less than $120.00 originally and now they appears to cost what - $170?
For the same product functionality. Ever since the turtle tank lost it's
fluval 404 I have been vigilant about cleaning the sponge prefilter for
the biological bio-wheels pro 60 and feeding a little more
(coincidentally or not) I have had much more fancy guppies in their
population in that turtle tank, pretty interesting occurrence.
By the way - thanks for the recommended air pump (netmax). :-) The
commercial air pump (eco-something brand) I bought appears to work just
right for my situation. Some time has passed since I first set it up and
it hasn't lost power - at least not yet. I expect minus me occasionally
forcing air through the airstones to rejuvenate them once in a while
that I won't lose power with this air pump and it will be mostly
permanent which is just what I am looking for. It's being used in deep
water too and I still vent off excess air (it looks like valves always
have to be used with air pumps but at least this once doesn't need a
diaphragm or more) so it's working great - now lets just let time tell
what the ultimate judgment will be with this air pump product,
everything seems to be working great with it so far. Good luck all and
later! P.s. - good to see Mary hanging in there with her Mollys. :-)
Mollys seem to do better than fancy guppies of all things. Too bad her
fancy guppy population mostly if not entirely died off - :-( . There is
just something about fancy guppies that makes them especially fragile, I
had a tough start with them too, It seems like the only way to get a
population of fancy guppies going is to buy some and try to make them
survive long enough to have babies and them raise the babies even if
their parents die off which seems inevitable from what I have heard /
read and initially I experienced.
Altum
after cleaning. It's nothing that would send me fleeing to another
room though. I would have to rock mine to get rid of larger air
pockets. It sounds like I tilt mine more than NetMax does - I don't
think a small wedge would have been enough of a tilt for mine.
I didn't know about impeller issues locking onto the field. That's a
great tip and explains an Aquaclear filter I had that never worked
right until I replaced the perfectly fine-looking impeller.
--Altum
Daniel Morrow
very happy with it (consider this a mini-review). I am using it in my
turtle tank with shallow water and it has an excellently strong pump it
(the whisper 40i that is). The only complaint I can come up with is that
there is some bypass (the reservoir water enters before going through
the media) as the reservoir overflows some over the media and that water
reenters the tank minimally filtered. BUT I had an epiphany thinking
about that and it goes like this - this allows any accidentally trapped
fry to un-trap themselves by swimming over the media AND the bypass is
relatively small but enough to allow fry to renter the tank on their
own. Even if the bypass didn't exist the fry would most likely swim at
the top of the reservoir and I would rescue them after spotting them
visually and moving them back into the tank. This product is one of the
most highly reviewed products I have ever seen, pretty much 4.5 or 5
stars out of 5 stars ratings by end users at stores. I doubt fry would
ever get hurt by it's impeller. I do wonder if it is fully submersible
but I figure in the future if I ever used the whole 40i completely
underwater my gfci's would prevent any kind of electrocution and the
gfci tripping would virtually ensure me knowing whether or not this
product is fully/completely submersible or not. Plus there are no shock
/ electrocution warnings in it's literature minus the water running down
a power wire without drip loop into the power socket warning, etc. so it
should be fully submersible, one other thing though - you need to run it
in a minimum and maximum amount of water, i.e. 2inches or more up to the
lip of the filter otherwise filtered/ unfiltered water would mix undoing
a lot of the done work and the media might float out of the filter just
by sheer buoyancy while the product would be entirely under water.
Summary - excellent inexpensive product / filter. Good luck all and later!
Corey Doras
>There's lots of tricks to clearing the air out, like tilting the filter with a small wedge underneath. When you first start up, >there are tiny bubbles which assemble, so these can take a few hours to clear out. Start up air entrapment is pretty >normal for any filter, but some designs are worse than others for clearing themselves.
Sorry for the late answer. I have been busy with other things andI did
not even switch on my computer for the last three weeks. Anyway, thank
you for the suggestion to tilt the filter (or to rock it, as Altum
suggests). Just tilting and rocking for a few seconds solves the loud
rattle (by the way, Altum: I am quite sensitive to noise, so what is
loud and unbearable to me may not be so to other people); after that
it is just a light gurgle for a few hours.
Corey Doras