Eheim Classic Not Working Properly?

[mwood2]

I just got my Eheim Classic yesterday and went out to buy media this morning. The previous owner gave me me it for 50 bucks and all the attachments. It had a layer of Bio Max (could have been Fluval Pre Filter as well) followed by a 3 layer of floss (Regular, Course, Carbon) followed by what I placed in there. I Layed my part 2 filter floss squares followed by 1 liter of Eheim Susbtance Pro then another Layer of Floss then FilStar Bio-Chem Stars, Floss and then lastly my old media. Its currently pretty noisy from the motor but its currently puping water.The GPH seems to be only around that of a Fluval 2+ or lower though. Main thing is that I know the filter is pumping enough to use my current media so its all still good but I want it to properly work. I did:

Put media in->Filled with tank water->Hooked all hoses->Sucked water in though the output hose to prime it and then turned on. This started a flow in and out but the amount seems pretty slow. What did I do wrong?

 

[Grakk]

If it sounds noisy and isn't pumping up to snuff, it sounds like either the impeller or motor might be at fault. Did you remove the impeller and inspect it.clean it? I'd give it a good thrashing with a scrub pad if you haven't. I may be mistaken, but I believe there are 2 small black rubber bearings on either end of the impeller shaft. Are these both present?

 

[mwood2]

I havent looked at the motor yet. I will do it once I get home later tonight. Should be fine until then.

 

[snowflake311]

When I got my classic I did not fill it with water. You hook it all up DRY. Then suck on the end let it fill halfway then turn on and it should be fine.

 

[mwood2]

well the guy said it was best to do it while it was full. I will give it another try tonight then.

 

[snowflake311]

The direction say to have the canister dry and then suck. You will have less air when it is done this way. Are the tubes all clean? It is a used tank so you might end up needing new parts. Check the perpeller see if it's all good.

 

[minxfishy]

The canister should be empty before filling. The what you do (and I got this direct for an Eheim peep) is connect all the hoses/attachments together, leaving them OPEN, then put a bucket (large) under the intake hose (which you unattach), then suck on the intake until you get a good stream of water (going into the bucket at this point).

The close the tap on the intake and reattach it to the rest of the hose, then open the tap, this will fill up the canister and push the air thru, wait until all the air is released, you can tell this as the noise/bubbles will stop at the surface and only then, plug it in.

It will make some noise for a few days I found, put eventually it will go silent, it just takes some time for all the trapped air to be released.

 

[mwood2]

Ok will I improved it a bit. I filled half way, sucked it untill water was coming out and then turned it on and it defently showed improvement. It wasent the speed of my 250 GPH eclipse 3 hood but close if not equal to that of a Fluval 2+. I plan to try and clean the propeller soon but its 12:30 here and I have school at 9AM and i have Homework to do still..

Its still making a slight rumbling sound, similar to a HoB filter that has low water but I will see if it goes away soon.

 

[snowflake311]

Ok will I improved it a bit. I filled half way, sucked it untill water was coming out and then turned it on and it defently showed improvement. It wasent the speed of my 250 GPH eclipse 3 hood but close if not equal to that of a Fluval 2+. I plan to try and clean the propeller soon but its 12:30 here and I have school at 9AM and i have Homework to do still..

Its still making a slight rumbling sound, similar to a HoB filter that has low water but I will see if it goes away soon.

The rumbling sound is too much air. I had this happen to me once after messing around with the filter. I turned it all off. Then let gravity clear the air out. The water rushed down the intake into the canister and pushed all the air out the spray bar. Then when I saw no more air bubbles coming out I turned the thing back on and it was super quite again.

 

[mwood2]

So if I turn it on half way full (sucking water in rather then dumping) and turn it on? When I turned on when it was close to full the motor just makes a rumbling sound. I will check the propeller once I have the time (busy as usual) and clean it. Also does where its set matter? I have it like so:

Also the water flow looks like so:

 

[minxfishy]

The canister should be below the tank for it to work properly.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, absolutely, the cannister should be entirely below the tank for best operation (it relies of some of the weight/power of the gravity suction drop down the intake pipe into the filter box.) I think it will actually work some inches beneath top line water level technically, but its much better entirely below the tank.

Minx is right that you can just let an Eheim slowly clear itself of air bubbles over a couple days after a filter clean. But I get impatient and what I do is to give it my "slight angle treatment" after its just set up and primed and running again. I sit in front of it with it running and I just lift the filter box and tilt it at slight angles in all directions, one at a time. I tilt it slightly and give it a kind of vibrational shake, not big shakes just small vibrationy. Between each shake angle I wait a bit and watch the output for the noisy bubbles to clear. If you do the shakes too big or too many at once you might get too big a bubble and get cavitation where the impeller has nothing to push and you lose your prime. Instead give it an angle shake, wait, go to a different angle, shake, wait etc. After a few of these you will note diminishing returns of getting trapped air out and that's it!

By the way, I fully agree with the "empty or partially full" is better that was discussed above. If the cannister starts out mostly air then the downrush of filling via intake hose siphoning will move all the air out with more force and better dislodge air bubbles from the sponges and you'll have less angle shaking to do after startup. Also, looking at your picture, I recommend a plastic bucket/rubbermaid container type thing to set the filter in down below as its always nice to have a backup for an accident.

~~waterdrop~~