Re: Canister Review -- or Prompt Priming

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Giancarlo added some good comments re Eheim classic (2213,
etc.) canister filters.  Quality?  I have one that's about
20 years old and it's been in use most of that time. 

Re priming, Giancarlo said
> . . .I've always found that it
> expels the air on
> it's own very quickly (full or not full of water). The
> tubes remain full of
> water when I close the valves so priming is not an issue
> except for initial
> setup or after removing the hoses or similar, as someone
> else said, all it
> takes is to get the water over the elbow and the rest
> happens on it's own.

If the tubes are full and you refill the canister *and* it
has air in it, the air can be blocked by the water in the
return hose.  I think this is why some folks have trouble
getting an Eheim restarted -- I've even had this happen
with the Pro II series -- and pushing on the built-in
primer isn't much help -- it just keeps pushing the water
and air in the tubes back and forth with each stroke.  The
air will (usually) easily expel if the output tube rise
from the canister without any downturns that could cause a
trapped section of gas.  It can also help, for the same
reason, to lift the tank end of output out above the water
surface so that that air trying to rise in the output tube
can easily do so.

These things are true to some extent of all canisters, so
far as I know.  Rena makes a point of telling you to keep
the tubes vertical, as I recall -- maybe they all do; I
haven't read filter instructions in years.

I find the empty (of water) canister method the easiest and
most surefire method with the Ehiem classics -- but
whatever primes your pump!

I found out a long time ago, if a task seems especially
hard, I'm either using the wrong tool or using it the wrong
way.  That's just a rule of thumb, it's not a law ;-) 

Scott H.

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