Eheim vs. Tetratec

I must say that 10 years ago when I couldnt afford Eheim external filters, I thought the world of them and always wanted one.

When I set my new tank up, I bought an Eheim 4ft tank which came as a set and had an Eheim filter along with it and presumed that I would be sorted!

It had an Eheim 2222 External Cannister filer which looked great but for some reason had a tiny amount of filter material in it and a gap at the bottom about the same volume as the pads that came with it!

I soon found out that on its own it couldnt cope and through a long series of trial and error have replaced it with a Tetratec External filter.

I had the following in the tank:
Eheim 2222
Eheim Ecco 2212 internal (700 ltrs p/hour)
Aqua One Internal (1200ltrs p/hour)

I found that with my fish I had to do a waterchange every 2-3 days of about 50%. The test kit I had was reading safe but the water looked horrible and there were huge algae blooms and I had to keep cleaning the glass every 3 days.

What I have running now:
Tetratec EX1200 external (running in)
Eheim 2222 External
Eheim 2212 Eco Internal

I ran it for a week, with crystal clear water. The tests came up perfect!
I did a waterchange as I though it would be a good day to do it. The Tetratec was brand new so basically there wasnt much bio happening yet but still the water was sparkling.


With the eheim I had loads of crap floating around... the water would yellow within a day (I do have bog wood but it wasnt just that). With the tetratec, I have clean, clear water. No floating material even within a minute or two of the oscars spitting out most of it after eating.

I think that perhaps Eheim is over-rated... or the other companies have learned and are putting out great products. Definately try one of these products... they cheap and work brilliantly, with realy quality rubbers.

since joining last week the word FX5 has been used a lot...
What manufacturer makes these? Rena?

I am going to be building a 7ft monster tank for my clown knife and was thinking of using 4 of these tetratecs instead of a wet / dry sump...
The advantage of this is that i could clean one a week and still have maximum bio in the other 3... also they would have a great turnover rate (4800ltrs p/h in total) and the dead quiet!
They cost like £75-85 each depending where I go...

The FX5's... could I run my 7ft on a couple of those... or should I not be silly and go with the sump?

strangely enough though... the algae has improved... and instead of the fast growing green light algae... (due to before having high No3) I now have no algae growing except a little bit of much darker algae... but very minimal (low nitrates / nitrites)

Aah ok... so the FX5's are great for getting rid of the floaties... and the Eheim is great for the bacteria.

So what would you reccomend on a 7ft tank with 3 oscars and a clown knife living to a ripe old age and eating like kings
(also a few catfish...perhaps 4)

WyldFya;1003597; said:

The only way that nitrates would lessen is one if the tank isn't cycled, and it is still in the form of ammonia, or two if you lessened the number of fish in the tank/stop feeding as much. Green algae grows primarily off of light, very little nitrogen (can take any form) is needed. It can also grow well off of phophates.

Click to expand...

The tank has been running for just over 3 months... every 3 days 50% waterchange due to the yellow water and algae!
I added the tetratec EX1200, did a waterchange... and had a week of no yellow, no floaties... and almost no algae... did a waterchange of about 40% on sunday as there was almost no crap in the tank and have a spotless tank today... will do a 30% on sunday again and see how far I get