prairielilly

Possibly a silly question... I actually just had to look up on one of my own threads when I set up my Eheim 2213 bc I couldn't remember (April 5). Two weeks later I removed the carbon pad as instructed, and put in a new white foam pad in its place. Since then, I've left it alone (wonderful isn't it), except for checking every once in a while to make sure the beyootiful thing is actually ON it's that quiet. So at some point I know I will have to take it apart and rinse out all it's media...when do I do that? how will I know it's time to do that? From what I remember taking out the carbon pad, shutting it down and getting it going again wasn't impossible but not quite 'fun'...I made a mess. I don't use carbon and my tank is very lightly stocked. Did I mention this is my first canister so that's why I'm clueless?

aquarist48

Good morning Prairielilly. What types of filter media do you have in your filter?

Lifesabeach

Hi Prairielilly. I've got the same unit. I can't remember the process when I first started, but I always made a mess trying to take the lid off. After about 18 months, I discovered that if I opened the shut off valve on the outgoing hose before trying to remove the lid, it was very simple
I was supplied with ceramic noodles, gravel, a thick sponge, 2 fine pads and a thin carbon pad which I later replaced. Do you have something similar apart from the carbon?

prairielilly

Good morning aquarist and Lifesabeach What I'm doing is shutting off the power, shutting off all the quick-release valves, disconnecting the valves (this is the first messy part), then taking it to the sink and opening the valves to let it drain into the sink (that's the second messy part). No issues with removing/replacing the head. When I'm done with whatever I reconnect all the valves, open the valves on the suction side and then on the return side and let it fill - this is the absolute messiest part, as I can never seem to get all the air out of the spray bar and need to take off the end plug and move it around and anyways I spill a lot of water. When I finally get the last air bubble out of the spray bar I plug it in.

Media is as it came: Eheim 'mech' (mechanical media that looks like noodles), coarse blue sponge, Eheim 'substrat pro' (biomedia, lots of it), thin white pad. There was a carbon pad above the white pad, that's what I removed after two weeks, and replaced with a (coarser) white pad, cut from generic sheet media and placed under the fine pad. I haven't touched it since, and haven't noticed any issues with performance, but don't know if it should have a 'maintenance schedule' or not?

Angela_96

I have eheims, I take a hospital pan and put it under them when cleaning (especially when hooking and unhooking them up.
I just change the fine pad, and rinse everything else about once a month. THen I will use a long brush to clean the tubing.
They are actually pretty easy on maintence. I am going to have to break down and clean mine this week.

prairielilly

Well just gave this a go...seems if you reconnect everything while the spray bar's still under water you don't have to deal with the air-bubble-that-won't-come-out issue and it was SO much easier than the last time. The topmost filter pad was pretty gunky but I'd planned to change that out anyway (great stuff to add to my cycling tanks!), just replaced it with a new one (generic) and rinsed everything else out in tank water. It was a breeze, took about 20 mins, and I plan on doing this once a month from now on.

I didn't clean the hoses yet, but I can see I'll have to at some point (I bought a long, flexible brush) as there's diatoms growing INSIDE the hose. That seems really odd to me, that there would be algae on the inside of the hose - they're transparent, but it's not like they're exposed to a lot of light...

CoryMac

This is how i clean my 2215 classic, i disconnect the power, shut all 4 valves,take the canister to the sink open the 2 valves tilt & let drain then pop the top off, carefully remove all media in to spaghetti strainers to clean one for gravel & one for ceramic noodles media,rinse in water from tank or a bucket of declorinated water,put all media back & put top back on making sure rubber ring is moist & don't add water to canister, close the 2 valves.


Return canister to proper position connect all tap valves tightly,make sure all 4 valves are shut,now open "both valves on the pressure side only" you should hear canister filling up with water, once you hear the canister stop filling up with water open the inlet valves & then plug power cord & that should work for priming, it works like charm for me all the time.