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Ehiem 2213 to fluval 107

Wolfie

Member
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2 Sep 2020
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65
Location
Westcliff
Hey im running Ehiem 2213 on 46L tank but can't say im overly impressed on flow rate, so was looking at maybe swapping to Fluval 107 as this has 550LPH compared to Ehiem 440LPH. Does anyone use the Fluval 107 that can tell me what its like? Also does it use same size inlet/outlet pipes as Ehiem(12/16 i believe). As dont want to change pipes as Fluval have horrible black ribbed ones.
Any advice would be much appreciated
TIA
 
I can’t help but if you do change it would be very interesting to hear your thoughts after running the 107 for a while.
As a point of interest what type of inlet/outlet and media are you using in the 2213?
 
Using glass lilly pipe & glass inlet, as dont intend on having many fish am using sponges and ceramic bio (10 shrimp maybe 4 or 5 snails
 
I can’t see anything there that should effect the flow from the Eheim too badly. The Fluval has a completely different arrangement inside so it will be interesting to see how you get on.
I’ve got a Tetratec EX400 on a 37L which works ok but the flow does suffer as the sponge pre-filter I fitted to the inlet slowly clogs.
I also have a 2213 on a 60L and the flow on that also drops quite a bit over time. I also have a Sera 130+UV that works well but it’s quite noisy so I stopped using it.
The problem I have is that I have shrimp in both tanks that need protection from being sucked into the filter. Anything fine enough to do the job invariably clogs over time.

Edit: Looking at the advertising for the Fluval it claims to be 25% Quieter. As I had to do some work on my Eheim to reduce the noise it makes I’d be keen to see what you think of the Fluval 107.
 
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I used to use a 2213 and 2215 personally, and still have the 2215 sitting in the shed where it's been for years. I replaced them with Fluval 105s and a 405 over 10 years ago, and the Fluvals are stll going stong! I chose to get Fluvals for ease of manitenence. The Eheim classics get great reviews for reliablity, I like thier simple design, and there is very little bypass over the media. This means that while the flow will be slow compared to the Fluval equivalent, it's actually doing a better job at filtering.

For planted tanks with low-medium stocking levels, I've found consitstent turnover is more important than actual filtering efficency IMO, and personally I hate cleaning Eheim classics - getting them primed and empty of air bubbles often left me with dirty water in my mouth and a noisy filter for hours 😅. For a fish-only tank that needs filtering efficiency and reliability over anything else, the 2213 (think it's called the "250" now) would probably be a wiser choice, but at the expense of ease of maintenence.

No idea about the queitness of the 107 though, I found the 105 to be about the same s the 2213, except much quieter post maintenence as I could use the priming lever/pump to get rid of air bubbles faster. Given that the 107 is advertised to be quieter than the 106...I would honestly never consider buying a new Eheim Classic for a home panted aquarium nowadays!
 
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I just bought a fluval 307 previously had a APS 2000Ex and was suprised how much room in the cabinet now. It is quiet but is new so timw will tell. The supplied media is odd phosphate pads as well as carbon bags. I added extra noodles in place of the them and a cut of coarse sponge. Like the fact it can be flow controlled
 
The only thing that concerned me with the 106/7 when I was looking for a new filter was the risk of bypass. A guy on YouTube says they’re not known for it though?
 
What is the "risk" you are worried about? As explained above, the Eheim Classics have a more simple design with less bypass, making them better at actually filtering. However, your priority seems to be turnover (as it should be for a typical lightly/medium stocked planted tank), and unless you have big messy fish kicking up silt, or a heavy bioload and poor plant growth, I would persoanlly advise considering ease-of-maintence and turnover rate over filtering efficiency.

So I wouldent say the higher bypass in the Fluval 105 is a "problem" at all, if you are putting a 105 (designed for a 100l tank) on a 45l tank, it's still going to have way more capacity to filter bits out of the water than you actually need, and more than a typical 45l tank would have. One of the reasons the flow rate is faster in the Fluvals is because of the bypass. More bypass = less efficiency = higher flow rate for the same size of pump . The more efficient it is at filtering, the faster the media will clog and reduce the flow rate, leading to more frequent mainenence...hardly an issue with a 2213 on a 45l since it's a good size of filter for the tank though :).

Efficiency isnt really part of the equation when you are adding external filters and trying to get a high rate of turnover though. This is why many people just use a smaller sized external along with internal wavemakers or powerheads in the tank, which would be a better idea for you than buying a whole new filter if you don't mind extra equipment in the tank.

Additionally 06/07 series do have a slightly better media setup with less bypass, but like I say, I dont care about bypass on planted tanks. I often leave some of the media baskets emtpy just so I don't have to clean the filter out as often 😅(if I left all the baskets full in the 405 on my messy goldfish tank the flow would slow down too fast).
 
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I give my vote for ease of maintenance For the Fluval 107 you can clean the pre-filter without removing the water or any of the other media baskets. The 2213 you have to remove the entire media basket and all the media just to clean the prefilter which is at the bottom of the media basket.

If you search this forum, you will realise that the 2213 also has a bypass issue because of the plastic media basket which the other Classics dont have. But 550l/hr vs 440l/hr... if circulation is important, the 107 will already be 20%+ improvement, bypass or no bypass...

Heres a photo of my Fluval 307 and 2213 together. 2213 ran with no problems for 10 years 24/7 but I've replaced it with a spare 6 year old Eco Pro 300 for more circulation.

fluval 307.jpg
 
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I don’t use the filter basket in the 2213, I have a fish pond plant pot cut down to fit into the bottom (upside down) which holds the medium and fine filter pads so bio media does not sit directly on the filter pads so as not to squash the fine filter pad. I don’t intend to have more than 6-8 small fish and maybe 7-8 Amano shrimp and a couple of horned nerite snails
 
I removed the media container from my 2213 as well. I have some coarse, medium and a fine foam in the bottom and then a home made basket containing Sera Siporax on top. Unlike the original setup, bypass is much less likely. What I have found though is that detritus seems to be forced through the fine filter once it is saturated. Cleaning the filter more frequently should alleviate this though. I should add that I cut the foams on my bandsaw (with a disc cutting jig) to be a snug fit inside the canister.
086DF030-A5BD-44C0-B713-21C23974BDBF.jpeg
 
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