Eheim Ecco Pro 300 (Amazon): http://geni.us/fC1wG Eheim Ecco Pro 300 (Ebay): https://ebay.to/2ruNIEB Biohome products: http://www.filterpro.co.uk Small mesh bags for media: http://geni.us/DtoexHC The Eheim Ecco 300 / 2233 is a nice filter with a secure locking mechanism and efficient use of space internally - plastic does not feel 'cheap' like it does on the new Pro 4 range of canister filters. Although the 'pre-filter' is not really needed it is a decent size to catch really heavy muck and save the foams from being prematurely clogged so it does help to extend maintenance times.
In summary - a great little filter which makes provision for effective mechanical, biological and chemical filtration. When upgraded it should provide a full cycle for a normally stocked tropical community tank of around 150 litres (40 US gallons), heavily stocked tank of around 75 litres (20 US gallons)
This series of videos is all about trying to squeeze more efficiency out of internal and external aquarium filters which generally have a limited filtering capacity - If you have a filter you'd like me to feature in a video then please contact me on: [email protected] 07772848730 (Richard)
Anyone who sends a filter will have it upgraded and returned to them for free and the only cost you will pay is how much it costs to ship it to me - I'm helping to boost your filter and the resulting videos will hopefully be useful to viewers all over the world so it's a win/win. *Please do not send any filters without contacting me first as I want to try and cover every type of filter, not 20 of the same make and model*
Due to the high international shipping cost I am currently only taking filters from the UK but I'm hoping that as this series progresses a useful database of knowledge will be built up which will help viewers understand how their filters work, the limitations and the steps you could take to improve filtering capacity and efficiency.
The goal with any filter is to try and achieve FULL CYCLE filtration which is the reduction in ammonia, nitrite AND nitrate - if you look anywhere online you'll see people tell you that the nitrogen cycle in an aquarium ends with the production of nitrate which is removed by regular (often large) water changes. That is HALF the cycle and is done by AEROBIC bacteria which favors highly oxygenated conditions and is very easy to grow on any surface. The last part of the cycle (reduction in nitrate) is completed by ANAEROBIC bacteria which favors an environment which is very low or devoid of oxygen. It takes filter media with a very specific internal structure to support both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria to allow for full cycle filtration but a suitably sized, well set up filter, will allow the full cycle to complete which results in more stable water conditions and less water changes (typically 10% every 1-2 weeks). Canister filters will generally offer the best provision for filter media but even internals can be significantly improved to boost water quality and fish health.
The following videos will be useful to anyone interested in learning more about filtration, bacteria and making the conditions for your fish as good as possible: Sizing a canister properly and filter set up: https://goo.gl/om19un Looking INSIDE different filter media: https://goo.gl/hZWS6c Bacteria and filter media: https://goo.gl/123gAF How to clean an aquarium: https://goo.gl/bPMhvh Aquarium tips / filtration playlist: https://goo.gl/pXgqVj
Check out my channel for hundreds of videos on a wide range of my hobbies - many of the videos have educational content so if you have enjoyed any give them the thumbs up and share.
This channel is purely a hobby for me so I will never ask viewers to donate money for any of my projects or charge anyone for information - information should be shared freely and I certainly don't consider myself an 'expert' in anything I pursue as a hobby so please do your own research, never accept anything as 'fact', reject anyone claiming to be some sort of authority or 'expert' and make your own minds up about anything you wish to study.
We all are on a long path of learning.........
If you've enjoyed this video please check out the playlists on my channel for hundreds more - on a variety of subjects. Feel free to share or link any of my videos on facebook, twitter, forums etc. for the benefit of anyone you think may also enjoy watching. See you next time. Pondguru
Hello there, welcome back.
In this particular episode of Pimp My Filter, we're going
to be taking a look at this, which is the Eheim Echo Pro 300.
So let's not waste any time. We'll take the top off,
and I'll show you how it works and what comes with it.
Okay, get this open. You tilt this forward, slide it in,
and that disengages the lock and allows the top to come off.
So that's our pump section.
Okay, now what happens with this is,
the water comes in, it then goes around here.
This is like a pre-filter foam.
See that? It's like in a ring.
So the water goes through there first
and then it goes all the way around
outside of the main trays down to the bottom
and then the water rises up through the trays
through here,
comes out the middle and then it's sucked up by the pump
spat back out to the tank. So we've got
a pre-filter tray that sits under the
pre-filter tray and that allows the water to come
Through the centre of the pre-filter tray,
now to our pump, but it serves a dual purpose it also
spreads the water out on the way into the filter
and down the sides of the trays. And then we've
got three trays. I like these because they're locked together.
So there we've got a top tray
that comes with just a fine pad in.
Next tray down comes with nothing in and then the tray down from
that comes with like a mechanical stroke bio media
that's meant to settle out all of the muck.
So that is a pretty good cartridge sort of a system.
You know, it all locks together, and I like that.
I really do like that.
It just enables you to remove it easily.
Okay, that probably makes it
a little bit easier to see what's going on.
Water hits this around the outside first,
so it comes out through underneath of there,
down the side of here,
through the trays, back out the middle.
Now, as it's set up now, really all it needs is some media,
and the suggestion is that you put the filter media under here,
So you put a little bit in there,
and then you fill that tray with filter media.
There's a massive problem there, because if this pad
is the last thing that the water hits before leaving the filter,
all the fine muck is going to get concentrated in your bio-media.
It's going to clog up very, very quickly,
and it's going to be very, very inefficient.
We need all of our mechanical filtration
to be done before the water hits the media.
So here's how we rectify that situation.
First of all we get rid of this plastic stuff,
plastic media has no place whatsoever in a filter
unless it's moving. If it's a moving bed it's okay
because it supports very vigorous bacteria,
if it's static really all it is is a mechanical media.
So we're going to leave this ring,
this pre-filter ring as it is,
we cannot really do much with that and it does catch
quite a lot of the heavy muck that comes into the filter first.
We're going to use the fine pad in a moment,
but we're going to concentrate on this bottom
tray first, and we're going to cut a coarse foam for the bottom tray.
That's our coarse foam.
It's one of the pond filter foams with the dimples on.
Dimples go down.
That's it.
So the water's going to come up and hit the dimple side first.
Then we're going to go with a medium foam.
That is a medium density foam
so whilst the black one was quite open poured this one is slightly
tighter so it's going to catch the medium density muck.
So that one again dimple side down.
We might just get the fine pad on top of there
and then on top of that our fine pad.
So that's our very bottom tray.
Coarse, medium, fine. A little squash in,
no problem.
And now that leaves us two trays for media.
It is. It's a simple setup.
And into the media trays we're going
to put the Old Faithful BioHome Ultimate.
Because this water
distributor sort
of column attachment
that goes on the top
has got about an inch to play with, when that goes on the top
we do have room to kind of heap the media up in this tray.
The tray underneath needs to be pretty flat, very level.
This one can be heaped up a little bit.
Yeah, easily get
that in there.
And on top of that we can put
the carbon pad that comes with the filter.
That goes on top of there.
That's
a good fit.
So now when the water hits our pre-filter, it goes down
the side of the trays, up through coarse, medium, fine foam.
Then it goes through two trays of filter media,
and then it goes through the carbon pad.
So we've got mechanical, biological,
chemical filtration in the right order.
Drop that back in there,
that in there,
top on, ready to go.
Now, according to Eheim's website,
this particular filter is for aquariums up to
300 litres
or in the real world for aquariums of about 160 litres.
Now we managed to get approximately,
hold on, hold on, hold on,
there's room for more media in here.
There is a little bit just in here.
We're going to get a few more bits of BioHome Ultimate in.
I never like
to see any wasted space
in a filter.
This maybe is another 100, 150 grams in there, not much.
Every little helps.
Okay so with that extra little bit of media
in there we've got let's see each tray held roughly
650 grams so that's 1300 grams 1.3 kilos 1.4 kilos possibly
if you pack it in neatly up to 1.5 kilos
in here and for a normally stock tank of 160 liters
which is what they're recommending
1.5 ish kilos is about right by the time you take
into account your substrate that knocks
the literage off your tank and also your ornaments
and so on they all eat into the
literage that's actually in your tank.
So that is sized correctly according to Eheim's website.
Eheim are the only company to get this right.
All the other companies will say our filter
This filter does up to 300 litres, but 300 litres of what?
They say for aquariums of about 160 litres
so they're basically halving it which is what I've
said so many times in my previous videos.
Eheim do it right. I'm not too happy with the way the
filter actually came set up
but the size of the filter is right based on it being set up properly
like it is now. So that was a really easy one
to do there was no drilling there was no cutting any
Slits in it, there was no alterations to do really,
it was just a simple matter of setting it up correctly.
If you've enjoyed this video, give it a thumbs up.
If you want to see me do one of your filters,
then by all means get in touch.
My contact details are in the video description.
UK only though, because it costs a fortune to send this abroad.
Um...
Yeah, if you want to share it anywhere,
if you think anybody else might benefit from watching this,
by all means share it anywhere you want on the intranet.
And I shall see you next time.
Thanks for watching.
It's a toothpick, man.
No, it's not a toothpick, man.
No, hey, it is a toothpick, man.
Oh, man, it's just, it is a toothpick.
