# Hydor ETH on Filter Inlet?



## JAS (19 Dec 2009)

I searched the forum and couldn't find an answer to this question, and I sent an email to Hydor a week ago with no response, so here's hoping someone might be able to help. Hopefully it's not a completely stupid question. 

I don't have enough room to hang the Hydor ETH behind the aquarium, and I really don't want it to be visible hanging to the side. That leaves placing it inside the cabinet as my only option. I'm sure most of the people reading this will wonder why that's a problem!  There's no real problem. It's just that positioning the heater on a Eheim 2028 or 2217 outlet involves a lot of twisting the tubes down and around to make things fit, and that slows down the flow rate more than I'd like it to. Plus it makes the cabinet messier than it needs to be.

The inlet of a 2217 is at the bottom of the canister, and that means the heater could be positioned directly above the inlet barb. No annoying bends in the tube, no excess loops of tube, problem solved. Obviously the heater might need to be cleaned more often, but does anyone foresee any problems with this setup?

Hydor recommend placing the ETH on the outlet, but I don't know if this is simply for maintenance reasons, or if there's some other technical reason. Thanks for any help.


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## Superman (20 Dec 2009)

I was told by hydor that there's a regulator on the heater that'll slow down the water to heat it. A similar way to which an electric power shower works. 

Therefore you don't want to have the heater on the inlet where muck can get stuck in it and allow the hester to overheat. The best place is on the outlet as the muck will have been removed in the filter.


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## JAS (20 Dec 2009)

Thanks for answering, that was the kind of information I was hoping Hydor would tell me if they had responded. 

Back to the drawing board. I see a few more double taps in my future, too.


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## JAS (4 Jan 2010)

Sorry for bumping and double posting.

I got a response back from Hydor, and the person I spoke to said he can't see a problem with putting the ETH on the filter inlet. Just make sure the water flows in the direction of the arrow, make sure it's primed properly and doesn't have air trapped, make sure it's cleaned quite often ... the usual things, I guess.


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## jonnyjr (4 Jan 2010)

I found when I had my ETH on the inlet it restricted the flow vastly and casued the filter to always klunk and things.


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## JAS (4 Jan 2010)

Really? I didn't think a syphon would be affected very much by something like the ETH, but your experience doesn't lie. I'll have to see if the same happens for me.


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## jonnyjr (4 Jan 2010)

I might have been doing something wrong I just found not enough water was getting into the filter. To try it out first before cutting your hose, slowly close off the tap on the inlet into the filter, this would be some indication as to how the filter will act with reduced flow.

Jon


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## JAS (6 Jan 2010)

That's a good tip. 

I always plumb inline equipment with double taps and the ETH is currently on the outlet of a 2028, but with the huge loops of tubing I wanted to avoid. I'll be plumbing it to the inlet of a 2217 that already uses the same size tap, so hopefully I'll be able to do a simple swap from one filter to the other and not have to cut anything.

If it does slow the flow down I can just swap it back.


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