Regular Member Hidr Posted October 12, 2003 Regular Member Share Posted October 12, 2003 Ok will be ordering a Eheim ECCO canister filter soon for my 75 gallon tank and need to know what to get with it to make it work. Also do you have to put holes in my tank? If so I will have to rethink this. Oh and does any one use UV Sterilizer and would I need both? And what do you use to make the UV work. I am looking at the Double Helix line for this. Is this a good one? Anyway just wanted some imput for those of you that have these filters. Thank you Oh and any other info you think might help me make my choices I would be grateful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Reboot Posted October 12, 2003 Regular Member Share Posted October 12, 2003 I have an Eheim but it isn't an ECCO; it's a 2026 Professional. I don't have any holes in my tank. I also have the 18-watt Double-Helix UV Sterilizer. The canister filter sits under my tank inside the tank stand and has two hoses that come out of it. One hose (dirty water from my tank) goes directly between my filter and tank. The other hose (clean water from the filter) goes to the UV Sterilizer input. The output hose from the UV Sterilizer goes to the tank spray bar. The UV Serilizer slows the water flow from the filter a bit, but I also have a hang-on-the-back (HOB) filter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Hidr Posted October 12, 2003 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 12, 2003 Do these hoses come with the canister when I order it? Do I need anything to hold them in place? How do I know what size hose to get? Sorry for all the question but in over 15 years of keeping fish I have never bought one of these or even thought about it till I got these messy goldfish and plants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Hidr Posted October 12, 2003 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 12, 2003 Oppe one more question. Whats a spray bar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Reboot Posted October 12, 2003 Regular Member Share Posted October 12, 2003 The hoses and everything to attach them came with my filter. I'll try to take some pictures of my setup so you can see what I'm talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Obsidian Posted October 12, 2003 Regular Member Share Posted October 12, 2003 I just picked up a Fluval canister filter last weekend (I love it). So I thought I would chime in. If you get an Eheim, you may have to buy filter media, just to warn you. I have read that the filter media doesn't come included like it does with the fluvals. As for the kit, everything basic comes with, the hoses, the output, and all the little connectors and attachments. A spray bar, you can buy one at an additional cost with the Fluvals (I dunno about the Eheims), is a different way to output the water into your tank. The original output is just a little adaptor on the end of a hose that shoots water out. The spray bar, is well, a bar with holes in it where the water squirts out. It can be used to disperse the flow a little so it is not as strong and it can be put at the surface to create more agitation and thus more oxygenation of the tank. Hope this helps... you will love the canister filter, I got mine last week because my HOB filter wasn't cutting it anymore and I was getting crummy looking water. Now my tank is crystal clear, as good as when I first set it up Goodluck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Reboot Posted October 12, 2003 Regular Member Share Posted October 12, 2003 Here is a simple diagram that should help you understand how I have mine set up. The spray bar came with my filter; however, mine is a different model than the one you are talking about so I don't know if one will come with it or not. Also, unless the filter says "With Media" you will have to buy that separately. Mine came with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Hidr Posted October 12, 2003 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 12, 2003 Thanks for the help. I may be getting two used ones that a customer of my husbands has in storage. She has no idea what they are said they worked a year ago when she put them up and if they still work to make her a reasonable offer and I can have them both. So I may have to just buy some hoses to replace some. I plan to use both of them if they both work. Keep your fingers cross. My husband plans to just knock what they are worth off of the bill for the house painting he is doing for her. She said she only used them for about 6 months and then shut the tank down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member JDMac2006 Posted October 12, 2003 Regular Member Share Posted October 12, 2003 i've noticed that canister filters are more expensive than most filters...what makes them better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Kev Posted October 13, 2003 Regular Member Share Posted October 13, 2003 several seperate stages of filtration, i have the fluval 304 and have 7 different stages of filtration, and everyone can be a different material..... like carbon, filter floss, peat, bio balls all sorts. its also less messy for your tank when u clean the filter ive only had mine in a few days, but i lovve it already..... just setting it up was so much fun !!!!! Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member JDMac2006 Posted October 13, 2003 Regular Member Share Posted October 13, 2003 ohh sounds great! i like the idea of having many options for media, *starts writing out christmas list* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Kev Posted October 13, 2003 Regular Member Share Posted October 13, 2003 he he Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin koko Posted October 13, 2003 Admin Share Posted October 13, 2003 I personaly like them cause I dont have to clean them all the time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member jetman73 Posted October 13, 2003 Regular Member Share Posted October 13, 2003 Nice diagram reboot. That is very helpful. Now the reason why I love canisters besides what Koko said about the frequency of cleaning. That is a huge plus. If you pick up an eheim that is full with its media it is very heavy. There is no possible way that a HOB can incorporate the amount of biomedia that a canister can incorporate. What would you rather do? Push your water through a biowheel or a few pounds of eheim bio media. That is why the eheims cost so much initially. The best prices I have ever seen on them is at bigals and you can get them with all of the media included. Over a longer amount of time they will work out too be cheaper filters since you can use most of the media over and over but the initial cash outflow is kind of steep. I am also favoring the eheims since this is the only type of canisters I have ever owned and I don't have any expeience with the other brands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Kev Posted October 14, 2003 Regular Member Share Posted October 14, 2003 im the same but with fluvals..... never had a prob with my newer OR older fluval filter, though its all i have ever had. canister filter own, not only can u run them through a large mass of media, but u can vary the media also, to several different types Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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