Was That An Awful Night.

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VaegaVic

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So I've recently talked one of my friends into keeping fish, she's only 17 and likes fancy goldfish.
She bought her tank, I advised her on the stocking and said I would donate some media to give her a hand, the nice chap I am.

I go to do my weekly & monthly maintenance, weekly water change, monthly filter clean out, I thought this would be an absolutely perfect time to donate the media to my friend.

Now, I haven't been entirely happy with my main tank recently, mainly due to it's lack of design. I tried to make it look nice, but I can't keep live plants apart from mosses etc, due to low light and general fear of algae.
I finally get the tank in the best shape it's looked in years and decide it's time to clean out the filter.

I have an Eheim 2215, with double taps, so it's pretty easy.
I took the top off, saw how much gunge there was in the sponges and instantly thought that the reduced flow now made sense. I removed the sponges, gave them a good ol' rinse and put them back in, I removed one for my friend.

Everything so far is normal and lovely right?

Now for some absolutely bizzare reason, I've never cleaned out the impeller of my 2215, so I assumed it would be horrifying.
I pulled out the spindle, was pleasantly suprised nothing was on it and pushed it back in.
*snap*

"#128### was that..?"
The spindle had snapped inside the sealed canister unit. No way for me to physically remove it.

Dear god did I wet oneself.
Luckily, I had my old Interpet EPF 150 canister in my wardrobe.
I whacked that out, threw all the old media in that, primed it and turned it on.

"Pssssssssst"

The EPF had blown a seal.

I now had water draining from my tank and seeping into my carpet at a rate of a foot a second.
I disconnect the filter and run with it into the bathroom and basically throw it into the shower, where it continues to bleed water.

I now had no external and more media than a cheap japanese tv station.

Luckily, I'm a horder, and as such, I have at least 7 filters in the house and anyone point in time. I've now managed to rig all of my filters up into one power source, each with only 1 2215 sponge in it (as that's all each one can take, if that!) and prowling the internet for a new canister.

I've come across APS externals, and I'm rather impressed, £50 for 1000lph?, enough space for all of my hefty media? Job done.

Just hope 1000LPH in my 64L won't blow the seams apart, that's the last thing I need! lol.

Waiting 3 days for delivery now, this I'm not going to enjoy.

Just thought I'd share my hellish night.
 
Are you sure you can't remove the spindle as you can buy replacements if you could get it out ?

Also i've found eheims don't like being maintained. Every time i try to fix something on mine i break something else :)
 
In all honesty, I probably could, but I've wanted to try out an APS filter for quite some time.

The other thing is trying to find a replacement Eheim 2215 part for cheap. The cheapest I've found for a completely new impeller, including the spindle and casing is £25. Might as well go for a new, better filter for that money.
 
I have only just come around to externals (yeah yeah, I'm a dinosaur) and I HATE them. Yes they are efficient and yes they do a good job after booking a week off work getting the #40## thing started! And even then they only keep going until you breathe near them or look at them the wrong way! Every time I clean them out (20 minute job?) 3 hours later I am wet with tank water, sweat, fish cr*p, quite often blood- maybe even a few tears also! Undergravel fliters were rubbish but my were they simple!
 
I have only just come around to externals (yeah yeah, I'm a dinosaur) and I HATE them. Yes they are efficient and yes they do a good job after booking a week off work getting the #40## thing started! And even then they only keep going until you breathe near them or look at them the wrong way! Every time I clean them out (20 minute job?) 3 hours later I am wet with tank water, sweat, fish cr*p, quite often blood- maybe even a few tears also! Undergravel fliters were rubbish but my were they simple!

Haha,
I do agree with you on that one.
I have been tempted so many times to go back to Internals.
Then I realise, hang on, if I go back to internals, I'm going to have a great big filter in my tank looking like an eye-sore.
I also do enjoy the high turn over, it does make me giggle watching the fish swimming their hardest in the current.
 
What a pain the spindle snapping :crazy: i've done that on my tetratec before now :rolleyes:

And i found aquatics online very good for spares in general,here's their eheim parts and they have the shaft & bearings for £4.54 if thats the only part that needs replacing :)
 

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