Purigen for Eheim 2217

[Ulrichsd]

I just cleaned my eheim for the first time after running it for about 6 months and it was pretty filthy. I've heard good things about purigen. If I buy that and the mesh bag, this would replace my mechanical media and I keep the current bio ball media? Any one a fan of it? A critic?

I'm have 40 juvenile mbuna in a 60 gallon that I bought as fry 6 months ago. My plan was to remove some of the males when aggression or water conditions become a problem, but so far so good with weekly 50 percent water changes.

Thanks for the advice!
Scott

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[sealife]

Do you have an Eheim 2217 for 60g tank? Does it clean well? Is water crystal clear?
Im thinking of buying one for 50g tank.

In regards to your question, just remove carbon pads and add equivalent purigen as replacement. I never use carbon.
I would not take out the white filter pads as they are important to mechanical filtration.

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[Ulrichsd]

Yes, is in a 60g and I also run a sponge filter during the day as well in case needed for a qt tank. The eheim has been great, very quiet and does a good job, water has been very clear.

There is some little blocks with holes which I was thinking are used for mechanical filtration. The black pads aren't very big so I was thinking it would take up more space than that? But 100ml of puigen is pretty small so I guess that makes sense. The white pads were filthy so I can imagine they do the majority of mechanical filtration.

I wonder if those blocks are necessary or if I could just replace them with bioballs for extra bio filtration?

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[sealife]

Take a pic of blocks with holes.
The normal hard media that comes with classic eheims is mech pro, and substrat pro. Both are needed and serve a purpose. Only thing I would not use is black carbon pad. Not needed in my opinion.

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[dalto]

As others have pointed out, purigen is chemical filtration and should not replace mechanical.

It also isn't likely to make your filter cleaner if that is the purpose of adding it.

 

[Ulrichsd]

Thanks everyone!

Just curious if there was a more efficient way to use these things. I'm probably referring to the mech pro, seems like the white pad is doing most of the mechanical filtration.

Not trying to make the filter cleaner, I've just read good things so I thought maybe I'd try it out.

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[dalto]

What should happen if you have your canister setup as it ships is that the largest particulate matter hits the ehfimech and falls back down into the canister. The next size down gets caught in the blue foam. Finally, the smallest particulate matter gets caught in the fine filter pad. Most of the filtered waste should be in the water at the bottom of the canister or in the fine filter pad. In my aquariums, the fine filter pad will need to be cleaned or replaced the most often because very fine matter tends to be the most common thing removed by the filter.

 

[PB_Smith]

In any type of filter system you always want the progression to be;

First should be mechanical filtration;
sponges, filter floss, filter socks, protein skimmers and strainers are all forms/types of mechanical filtration in that they remove particulate matter from the water column and segregate it in a specific place.
In canister filters it is often best to use 2-3 sponges of increasing density for the best mechanical filtration.

Second in the progression should be chemical filtration;
Carbon, Purigen, Chemi-Pure, Poly-pads, zeolite, ion exchange resins, GFO and/or other phosphate removers, Cupra-sorb, etc., are all types of media used for chemical filtration.
Carbon, Purigen, Chemi-Pure, Poly-pads and ion-exchange resins all perform similar functions by removing dissolved organics compounds, chemical contaminants, odors, dis-coloration, metals, etc.
This is an important facet of the filtration schema as the more dissolved organic compounds you can remove prior to the biological section of the filter, the less workload on the bacteria colonies and as a result less nitrates present overall in the water volume.
Zeolite is more ammonia/chloramine specific.
GFO and a few other products are available but are specific to certain things, such as phosphate, but are still considered a chemical media.

The third and usually final section is the biological section. There are myriad products/things that can be used to fulfill this role, although the more porous, the better. It should also be of a size and shape that affords good water floe through it and helps preclude any bits of matter that may make it through from getting lodged amongst it.
I personally have grown to prefer Seachems line of Matrix bio media because it affords a tremendous amount of exterior surface area for aerobic bacteria for the nitrification process and an even greater amount of internal surface area with structures that are perfect for colonization by anaerobic bacteria for the de-nitrification process.

If set-up in this manner and with good mechanical filtration, and cleaning the mechanical section weekly or at least bi-weekly (6 months is just asking for disaster) in theory the chemical portion will stay cleaner therefore remain effective for a longer period of time and the biological portion would rarely need cleaning.

hope that helps

 

[PB_Smith]

What should happen if you have your canister setup as it ships is that the largest particulate matter hits the ehfimech and falls back down into the canister. The next size down gets caught in the blue foam. Finally, the smallest particulate matter gets caught in the fine filter pad. Most of the filtered waste should be in the water at the bottom of the canister or in the fine filter pad. In my aquariums, the fine filter pad will need to be cleaned or replaced the most often because very fine matter tends to be the most common thing removed by the filter.

that is actually a rather poor layout.
for one it looks as though you have to completely remove everything in it to actually clean the mechanical portion.
Having the fine filter pad AFTER the biological media is counter productive as the fine particle's are exactly what you do not want getting into the bio section to clog the micro pores and fissures.
It may make regular maintenance of the top pad easier, but the layout really is wrong and not the most efficient.

 

[trennamw]

Dalto is explaining it most succinctly in that purigen is not mechanical filtration media, it is chemical filtration media.

What are you wanting to improve? It sounds like you are wanting to keep the canister from getting so dirty.


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[dalto]

Having the fine filter pad AFTER the biological media is counter productive as the fine particle's are exactly what you do not want getting into the bio section to clog the micro pores and fissures.

Interesting, every canister filter I can remember recommends placing fine mechanical filtration after biological.

I wonder what the cause for the discrepancy is.

 

[PB_Smith]

Interesting, every canister filter I can remember recommends placing fine mechanical filtration after biological.

I wonder what the cause for the discrepancy is.

the Ehiem filter design is one of the simplest there is, but that is not saying that it is inherently bad. It just really needs to be broken down and cleaned frequently.
It is designed for ease of use by the average user and thus compromises have been made.
let me explain.

Having the water enter at the bottom of the canister alleviates any issues concerning air being trapped in a canister or having to "burp" it.
But that also means that the portion of the filter that will accumulate the most debris is at the bottom of the canister, not so good for ease of use.
but having water enter at the top is overall better and would make cleaning easier, but it does presents problems with getting the system primed and started properly without a lot of trapped air.

By putting the fine pad at the top of the filter after the other sections it makes cleaning, or at least the perception of cleaning easier. The fine pad will accumulate the most particles overall and being white it is even more apparent. So by putting at the top and easiest area to access, the end user opens the canister, sees this nasty brown pad that used to be white, rinses it and feels confident that they have adequately cleaned the filter, when in reality there could be a lot of muck and detritus in the lower sections and that is how/why canister filters have gotten such a bad rap as "nitrate factories".

There is nothing wrong with having a "polishing pad" after the bio section, but I would certainly for sure have one before it at least.

 

[Ulrichsd]

Interesting everyone, thanks for the replies!

Again, I am not looking for purigen to keep the filter clean, I'm just looking at some other ideas that are out there to improve the setup.

When I bought the canister I think someone on this site said to clean it every six months? I vacuum weekly when I do 50 percent water changes so I'm sure that helps with keeping things cleaner. I've never been over 10 ppm nitrates ever. But i can increase my filter cleaning if needed.

As for cleaning the eheim, I scooped out the bio media and put it in a plastic bag. It was kind off gunky but I didn't want to clean it for fear of harming the bacteria. I rinsed out the white pad and left everything else in and just hosed it off to push the gunk out the bottom hose. Added back everything and fired it back up. So far so good. In my system the carbon pad is just below the top white pad. So the purigen would replace the carbon? Sounds like I should move it to before the bio balls?

Thanks again everyone!

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[MatthewsDyer]

I have a 55 gallon planted tank with co2 and want to know if the Ehiem 2215 or the 2217 or is there a better brand or model?


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[Ulrichsd]

Seems like people who have eheim love eheim and people who have fluval love fluval. so they must both be good.

I have the eheim 2217 for my 60g am very happy with it. Good media capacity and very quiet.

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[Ulrichsd]

For anyone else reading this and looking for input, to clean an eheim, I dump the bio media into a strainer, rinse off the filter pad, and then hose out the mechanical media leaving it in the bottom of the canister. Put everything back and fire out back up. Only takes about 10 minutes.

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