# Eheim Canister Filter



## Cichlidrookie (Apr 6, 2014)

Hey Forumers......

Have a question?

I have a 120 gallon tank and I got an eheim 2217 with the tank. This canister filter is rated for 159 gallons. 

I like to use more filtration because it is going to be a frontosa tank. As most of us know cichlids create a lot of waste so I want to use more filtration. 

I have another eheim 2215 that I can also use with the tank. 

My question is can I hook up these two systems in series (together)? I know it is MECHANICALLY possible. 

Is that going to help? 
The water going through will technically be filtered twice. 

It is worth the hastle?

The only reason I don't want to set up both separately is all the pieces that will be in the tank. The will be two intake pipes and two outtake pipes. Plus two heaters. 

Thanks in advance.


----------



## Mykuhl (Apr 8, 2013)

Hmmm interesting idea, but how would that work since there are 2 pumps working and different powered ones at that. Would one pump in the filter just pump water into the other and the second pump return the water into the tank? Wouldn't there be conflict with the 2 pumps? If it does work, the benefit besides the cleaner look inside the tank would be that like you said the water would be filtered twice. What you could do is make the first filter(2215) purely mechanical flirtation and the second filter purely biological. That way you really only need to clean out the media in the mechanical canister filter and the biological one will stay clean.


----------



## matti2uude (Jan 10, 2009)

You can daisy chain them and put the largest strongest one last and only run it to power both. I remove the entire impeller assembly on the first one that doesn't get plugged in.


----------



## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

I would just run each independently to create more water movement in the tank to reduce dead spots and keep it simple


----------



## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

I've got a 2213 and a 2215 on a 55 with clown loaches and cory
The Eheims take up a little extra room but I feel the benefits are; cleaner water, flexibility to change one or the other out depending on the set up and also redundancy in case of the failure of one


----------



## Cichlidrookie (Apr 6, 2014)

Bullet said:


> I've got a 2213 and a 2215 on a 55 with clown loaches and cory
> The Eheims take up a little extra room but I feel the benefits are; cleaner water, flexibility to change one or the other out depending on the set up and also redundancy in case of the failure of one


Good call. I think I might do this. I just don't like all the HARDWARE in the tank. Maybe I will put the intakes in the corners. And the output at the top so it can't be seen.

Thanks


----------



## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

On my set up I've got one intake in each corner behind some plants or driftwood

I use the shepherd's hook for the output (return) and they don't dip in that far so not overly obtrusive. Plus, this gives a nicer flow I feel vs the spray bar which does really take up a lot of room 

Remember that the Eheim tubes and pipes are green color which I think blends in nicely

I can understand why you want to go to a minimal pipes and hardware feel. I guess we all want this look. This is why those of us who keep saltwater prefer to use a sump. It gets almost all of the hardware out of the display tank. But in the case of my freshwater set up, I always prefer more filtration than less 

Good luck


----------



## kdon (Jul 2, 2014)

I`ve actually seen it done before on a cichlid tank. They weren`t connected inline but both connected to a manifold. The only problem i found was priming the filters whenever one was cleaned. Both were two different sized Eheim filters. Thought it was bizarre when i first saw the setup.

This is a picture of the tank. Too bad i dont have a picture of the plumbing for you.


----------

