Eheim 2227 advice needed

[mchambers]

I recently purchased an Eheim 2227 on eBay and installed it last weekend. To my relief, the wet/dry chamber does empty and refill. Unfortunately, however, the air from that chamber is then expelled through the outflow tubing through the spray bar. It makes the filter very noisy.

I don't think this is the way the filter is supposed to function. (Eheim's instructions are not very clear, but I believe that the air is supposed to exit through the breather tube.)

My questions: is this normal? If not, what is causing this?

To give a little more background, the height of the water above the bottom of the filter is about 45", within the 39-47" range required by Eheim. The intake, outflow, and breather tubes are fairly close to being the same length, although I need to shorten the intake tubing about 10" (don't want to do it right now because I have a pair of fish guarding eggs near the filter intake).

I'm thinking that the problem may have something to do with the sealing of the output pipe in the pump head (the long pipe that extends down from the pump head to the bottom of the filter.) As I understand it, looking at the pictures in the manual, the water is supposed to flow from the bottom of the canister up the output pipe to the pump head and from there out into the tank. Is that right? I'm thinking that perhaps the air is getting into the pump head where the output pipe connects to the head. Perhaps the o-ring is failing?

 

[Becca]

You'r filter farts!ound:

 

[mchambers]

Not helpful!

And it more bubbles than farts. No smell, either.

 

[Rasta Fish]

Matt
Take it apart and pit it back together
I have heard of this happening before and that seems to resolve it most time

 

[mchambers]

Thanks, Craig,

Alt-Ctrl-Del, huh?

I'll give it a try, once it's clear what's happening with the keyhole eggs.

 

[mchambers]

Took it apart and examined the output pipe, associated gasket and o-rings. Didn't see any obvious flaws. Lubricated everything and reassembled it and tried again. It works better, with less noise, but the filter still expels a lot of air when it refills with water, especially when it is close to full with water.

I contacted Eheim and got this response:

"If air is expelled but no water leaks from the unit, this could be caused by a hairline crack in one of the pipes or a worn sealing ring. Please inspect part # 7480680 as well as the o-rings attached to these two parts."

Part #7480680 is the output pipe, and it looks fine to me.

Am thinking of disassembling the floating control valve and cleaning that part out thoroughly. Also am thinking that perhaps the styrofoam is a little waterlogged. Anyone done this? How hard is it?

 

[Rasta Fish]

I have never done that before, i have to agree seems like its picking up air somewhere, my FX5 use to do that i just tighten the hose and spray-bar with a clamp fix it for me

 

[mchambers]

I saw Avatar/Sam's 2227 in action and it confirmed that the filter I acquired isn't working correctly. His is dead silent; mine sounds like it's breathing heavily.

I took mine apart again yesterday and today, with the assistance of my 18 year old son, who helped me check and inspect various aspects of the filter. Even boiled an o-ring based on Sam's past advice, which stopped a leak, but but had effect on the heavy breathing. Video of heavy breathing here:

[YT]5QBHsJTc2_w[/YT]

So I plugged the breather tube and the filter is now a wet filter, not a wet/dry filter.

Sent another email to Eheim and complained to the person who sold it to me and to EBay, when her response was deficient.

 

[mchambers]

Finally solved the problem!

I reduced the relative height of the water to the filter by raising the filter slightly (although it was already operating within the acceptable range, in theory). I also discovered that the upper media tray had too much Ehfisubstrat, causing the lattice on top of the tray to be pushed up into the filter intake reducer, which made it harder for the filter to draw water in.

The filter is now operating as a wet dry filter and is nearly completely silent.

 

[chriscoli]

Nice troubleshooting!

 

[mchambers]

Only after hours and hours of testing and disassembling and assembling, not to mention e-mails with Eheim.

Now I'm thinking that maybe I'll try it with coarse (10 PPI) Poret foam in the bottom tray, even though the manual warns only to use Ehfisubstrat. Seems to me that the foam has a similar porosity and ability to host beneficial microbes.

Like a moth to a flame, I can't resist tinkering.

 

[chriscoli]

Oh, I know this has been a very frustrating project for you......but seriously, I really appreciate what you've posted because if I ever get one of these.....I'm sure I'll need it as a reference!