Filter Media for Eheim 2217's....

[rennie_08]

Hi Everyone,

I am so glad to have joined this forum, I have had so many questions answered and so much feed back and ideas from people on here!

I know have another question that is really playing on my mind... Through hours of research I still can not get my head around this....

I purchased 2 Eheim 2217's and the following media and cant work out which way to put it in the filter:

* Marine Pure Spheres

*Seachem Matrix

*Seachem Matrix Carbon

*Seachem Purigen

I am guessing i need some sort of filter wool as well? A course grade and a finer grade? Is this correct?

I am planning on keeping a colony of tropheous in a 4x2x2 Tank..

Any ideas, thoughts and opinions are much appreciated!!

Thanks in Advance.

Regards

Chris

[luis]

I'm not familiar with all those media but the standard configuration is, starting from the bottom up and working up:

- mechanical filter media (noodles),

- coarse filter pad,

- bio media (lots),

- fine filter pad, and

- carbon pad (optional)

I think you should use a similar setup. Or are you looking for alternative configurations?

[MpimbwePete]

luis is correct=I would omit the carbon though unless you expect to be servicing the filter on a regular basis -It doesn't take very long to get saturated and need replacing

[rennie_08]

Thanks Guys!!

I am just after the best possible filtration media i can get my hands on for my 2 canister filters.. I have read up on what i have purchased and apparently its the gun stuff.

When you say regular servicing, i plan on cleaning one filter at a time at a 4-6 week interval... Will the carbon last?

Regards

Chris

[myster619]

With 2217 I would go with matrix. The basket of the 2217 is not wide enough to contain as many marine pure spheres you may think it will fit. Matrix will fill it up evenly.
With MP you may get a fill of 2-3 litres but you can manage to fit 4-5 ltr of matrix in there. Now MP is supposed to be superior than matrix, but who can prove? They are almost matched with Matrix being cheaper. Over time, the MP spheres will degrade to powder but Matrix will not.

If it were a bigger canister or sump, you could go with MP. Carbon is useless most of the time. For the wool, where the water enters the canister start with Coarse filter, then fine then the bio media.

[the cichlid kid]

Hi Rennie,

You've purchased two biological filtration products (matrix and marine pure) and two absorbent/polishing products (carbon and purigen).

I agree with the others and would omit the carbon, it's a bit old fashioned. It still has it's place for use in the aquarium but I wouldn't put it in your filter, if anything just put in a mesh/media bag and place directly in water column when you want/need to use it.

The classic/recommended set up is coarse foam first (in the bottom of the filter), this takes care of the mechanical filtration (larger particles)

http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au/catalogue_products.php?prodID=6298

Next is the biological media, you can use a either the matrix, marine pure or a combo of both.

After that is the fine filter pad, this takes care of the fine particles and some of the way to polishing the water before it heads back to the tank.

http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au/catalogue_products.php?prodID=6297

And finally the purigen, this absorbs all the impurities like tannins, organic waste etc and makes the water look crystal clear.

Other people might disagree and suggest putting the fine filter foam following the coarse foam so as to eliminate the all particles before the water passes through the bio filtration.

But the fine filter foam will require cleaning regularly and eventually replacing and it's much easier to replace when it's right there on top when you take the head off for maintenance. It's for this same reason it's ideal to have the purigen on top also as you can keep an eye on how it's going and easily see when it's exhausted.

The reason eheim put the filter medias in the traditional order is to take advantage of the "backwash" filter cleaning method making the filter very easy to maintain.

Thanks,

Beau.

[FullyYellow]

Hi Rennie,

You've purchased two biological filtration products (matrix and marine pure) and two absorbent/polishing products (carbon and purigen).

I agree with the others and would omit the carbon, it's a bit old fashioned. It still has it's place for use in the aquarium but I wouldn't put it in your filter, if anything just put in a mesh/media bag and place directly in water column when you want/need to use it.

The classic/recommended set up is coarse foam first (in the bottom of the filter), this takes care of the mechanical filtration (larger particles)

http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au/catalogue_products.php?prodID=6298

Next is the biological media, you can use a either the matrix, marine pure or a combo of both.

After that is the fine filter pad, this takes care of the fine particles and some of the way to polishing the water before it heads back to the tank.

http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au/catalogue_products.php?prodID=6297

And finally the purigen, this absorbs all the impurities like tannins, organic waste etc and makes the water look crystal clear.

Other people might disagree and suggest putting the fine filter foam following the coarse foam so as to eliminate the all particles before the water passes through the bio filtration.

But the fine filter foam will require cleaning regularly and eventually replacing and it's much easier to replace when it's right there on top when you take the head off for maintenance. It's for this same reason it's ideal to have the purigen on top also as you can keep an eye on how it's going and easily see when it's exhausted.

The reason eheim put the filter medias in the traditional order is to take advantage of the "backwash" filter cleaning method making the filter very easy to maintain.

Thanks,

Beau.

Good write up beau! Got any 2217 cleaning tips? I seem to take a while to clean my one out

[Yabbie Dabbie Do]

The carbon pad is only usefull to clean any chemaicals or treatsments out of your water.