Help Me With My Eheim Filter

Hey everyone,

I set up both my filters for my 75 gallon tank today. One is a Seachem Tidal 110 HOB and the other is an Eheim 2217 Canister filter.

I set up both filters no problem whatsoever... at least so I thought.

The HOB Filter is working perfectly, however I made a pretty major mistake with my Eheim.

I had the filter running perfectly. Water went through the intake tube and then out the spray bar. I then decided to experiment with the self-priming feature. I wanted to know if I had to self-prime every time I turned off the electricity for water changes, maintenance, etc.

However, once I pulled the filters plug from the surge protector, all **** went loose.

The lid of the canister filter shot open causing some water to leak into my cabinet. The water was coming back from the intake tube, so the first thing I thought of was to mess with the valves on both sets of tubes. I turned them all the opposite way they were facing and that stopped the problem.

Now that I had a chance to clean the water off the floor, I wanted to ask you how to prevent this from ever happeneing again. This could have been a lot worse if I had not been right next to the tank at the time of the lid shooting off.

Also, can someone explain how the valves work. When should they be one way vs the other way.

Thank you and I am looking forward to your solutions!

 

I don't have the Eheim but I have a Fluval canister and I always turn off the flow valve before I unplug it. The valve should be horizontal meaning opposite the direction the hoses are going to ensure the hoses are not taking in or exhausting any more water. then I would say it would be safe to unplug the filter. as a safety measure if u have room underneath your set up it wouldn't hiurt to put the canister in a bucket or at least a decent size tote to catch any water that could come out during tank maintainence

 

Hey everyone,

I set up both my filters for my 75 gallon tank today. One is a Seachem Tidal 110 HOB and the other is an Eheim 2217 Canister filter.

I set up both filters no problem whatsoever... at least so I thought.

The HOB Filter is working perfectly, however I made a pretty major mistake with my Eheim.

I had the filter running perfectly. Water went through the intake tube and then out the spray bar. I then decided to experiment with the self-priming feature. I wanted to know if I had to self-prime every time I turned off the electricity for water changes, maintenance, etc.

However, once I pulled the filters plug from the surge protector, all went loose.

The lid of the canister filter shot open causing some water to leak into my cabinet. The water was coming back from the intake tube, so the first thing I thought of was to mess with the valves on both sets of tubes. I turned them all the opposite way they were facing and that stopped the problem.

Now that I had a chance to clean the water off the floor, I wanted to ask you how to prevent this from ever happeneing again. This could have been a lot worse if I had not been right next to the tank at the time of the lid shooting off.

Also, can someone explain how the valves work. When should they be one way vs the other way.

Thank you and I am looking forward to your solutions!

Hey I am sorry I cannot help you as I am still trying to figure out how to install and operate my EHEIM 350. The instructions are bare bones for us newbees. I do not want to bnreak it while attempting to tyry and follow the instrucgtions. Hope somewhere here on the forum can help us both.
Oledad

 

Seems strange for the lid to come open like that. I don't want to insult your intelligence, but are you sure you seated the cover properly? As said above, I also close the valves before unplugging, but I still don't see how not doing so could have caused that experience.

 

on a side note I leave my filters running during water changes when I know I'm not doing filter maintenence to avoid any issues like that. just be sure your intake stays below the water line whan you drain out your water. 25-30% water changes are usually suffecient on a well established tank that is running smoothly

Youtube has great Eheim canister setup videos i've seen in the past. I watched a bunch of Fluval canister vids on there before I set up my canister. It was a great help.

 

I don’t use eheim filters but I did find a link to help you it shows the set up of it I found it pretty easy to follow hope this helps and good luck.

 

I've watched that video and I know it is set-up properly. My main issue currently is when to close the valves and when to open them. I think the issue was me not closing the valves when I unplugged the filter. As a result, water must have backloaded into the canister filling up to the point where the lid shot open and water spilled.

That's my theory on what happened

 

Can't say what happened but as scarface said, "...are you sure you seated the cover properly?" The metal clips, physically restrain the cover so it is impossible for the cover to "shoot open".

Regarding valves, when the valve handle is aligned, that is in-line with the tubing, the valves are open; when perpendicular they are closed. There are two valves per line. But you already know this.

I leave my canister running during cleaning, in fact, I have a length of 12/16" hose that I put on the inlet's hard plastic tube, attach a gravel siphon (the siphon part, not the tube) that fits inside the 12/16" hose to the other end. Before I do this, I close all four valves, make sure that my siphon and hose are completely filled with water then vacuum. This, of course, increases my canister filter rinsing schedule but allows me to thoroughly vacuum.

I have never had any problems with the Eheim but check those clips. Sometimes you think that they are seated but they are not.

 

Can't say what happened but as scarface said, "...are you sure you seated the cover properly?" The metal clips, physically restrain the cover so it is impossible for the cover to "shoot open".

Regarding valves, when the valve handle is aligned, that is in-line with the tubing, the valves are open; when perpendicular they are closed. There are two valves per line. But you already know this.

I leave my canister running during cleaning, in fact, I have a length of 12/16" hose that I put on the inlet's hard plastic tube, attach a gravel siphon (the siphon part, not the tube) that fits inside the 12/16" hose to the other end. Before I do this, I close all four valves, make sure that my siphon and hose are completely filled with water then vacuum. This, of course, increases my canister filter rinsing schedule but allows me to thoroughly vacuum.

I have never had any problems with the Eheim but check those clips. Sometimes you think that they are seated but they are not.

You made a vacuum out of your canister lol. Very creative I've thought about using it to drain water for water changes, but not to attach a siphon. Love it You could even have a vacuum designated for water changes haha.

 

I had to learn the hard way the right order to turn everything off. Hours on YouTube I will never get back LOL. Now I close the 2 output valves, then quickly close the 2 input valves, then turn off the power. That keeps air out of the upper tubes and full of water, so when I reattach the filter after cleaning (fill it as full as possible), it starts right up with only a few air bubbles to remove. For some reason, lots of sites say start it with no water, but I have never gotten that whole self-priming thing to work!
If we ever have a power outage, I run like a crazy lady to close the valves quick, and then unplug it so it doesn't start on its own and have potential issues. I once had a 150 gallon flood after a power outage when the filter got all crazy on me...

 

I use a plennplax cascade filter, but per the instructions for that the steps I take are close the inflow valve, let the canister continue to pump out for like a second before I close the outflow valve and then quickly unplug the entire canister.

I do my maintenance and then open up both the valves and let the canister prime itself then plug it back in

 

CelticSJU
I use Eheims (2217 to 2211) on all my tanks (6). Never experienced the problem you described. As mentioned by others just ensure the top is seated correctly and the clips are lined up and secure. The only time I close the valves is when I am going to clean the canister, I unplug then close the valves. Works for me every time. As far as power outages, so far not a problem. In fact had one earlier this week for a few hours. They all started up fine.

Good Luck!

 

The Eheim design is great if the clips/lid are within the tolerances they need to be but due to marginal quality in craftsmanship they are sometimes less than ideal. My first Eheim experienced the same sort of failure when it was de-energized. The clips, even though they were up over the little ridge were not snapped over, just sort of sitting there and when water wasn't being pumped thru the pressure pushed the pumphead enough to start it leaking. After running it for an extended time it seems to have seated the O-ring better into the canister but I would still worry about it popping up when I cut the power off. The instructions above for closing the valves is correct and will minimize the amount of water that can leak if indeed the top does pop. I had Amazon replace the original and the second unit had a better fit so that the clips didn't flop up loosely but rather did snap a bit when they went over the ridge to hold them in place. You'd think German manufacturing would have better quality.