# Priming an Eheim Classic



## turtlehead (Nov 27, 2004)

What's the fastest and easiest way to prime a classic?


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

The best and seemily only way that I can see is:

Get bowl or bucket. Suck on the intake side to start a siphon and let the excess water spill into the bowl/bucket, and then close the disconnect valve.

Connect the canister to the line, and open up the valves to fill the canister. 
Plug in the filter, and bingo. Your Eheim is primed. In my experience this always works. I never had an issue priming my Eheim 2213s.

-John N.


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## titan97 (Feb 14, 2005)

I agree with John 100%. Make like Cheech and Chong and siphon the intake tubing orally.

-Dustin


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## turtlehead (Nov 27, 2004)

it has failed me 3 times resulting in a clean floor and a dirty mouth ahha


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

Suck on the out-take pipe then, it has worked for me (per Eheim instructions). No spillage and no tank water in the mouth! Give it a good suck untill water rushes down the intake tube and then reconnect it, wait for it to fill up and then plug it in.


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Tank water in the mouth and canister filters seem to go hand in hand sometimes.  

I don't know if this would work, but have you tried filling the canister independently and then turning everything on without starting a siphon? Maybe the pump itself can get the machine going. I never tried it, if you or any one does let us know how it goes.

Good Luck!  

-John N.


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## turtlehead (Nov 27, 2004)

I tried filling the cannister up then trying to start but the air bubble in the intake pipe stops everything. I'm going to try and siphon some water into the outake to get the air bubble out then plug it in. I'm going to see how that works out. It takes me 3 hours everytime just to start to dang thing up, it's a great filter though.


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## fishfry (Apr 15, 2004)

I have never had problems like that. By classic you mean: Right?










make sure the filter is lower than the aquarium and leave the intake hose in the aquarium --> suck on the outflow to start water siphoning into the filter --> do not put the outflow into your aquarium yet because air is coming out of it still --> put outflow into tank and turn on the filter


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## acbaldwin (Nov 3, 2005)

Old reefer trick:
If there is an air bubble in tube interupting the siphon, snake some air tubing up and suck out the air.
With my classic 2013 I just filled it up and put the top on. Then you gotta clean up the mess of the displaced water and clear out a few air bubbles.


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## tazcrash69 (Oct 24, 2005)

On my old Fluval, I used to fill the cannister, plug in, then tip so that the water fills the impellor chamber on top. 

HTH

Walter


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## standoyo (Aug 25, 2005)

tazcrash69 said:


> On my old Fluval, I used to fill the cannister, plug in, then tip so that the water fills the impellor chamber on top.
> 
> HTH
> 
> Walter


Hi,
That works well for me too, especially when my surface skimmer sucked too much air[due to low water level] and halted the flow.

Regards

Stan


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## hellrazar (Feb 23, 2006)

ha when I hooked up my Eheim classic as soon as i opened the valves it started the syphon on its own no tank water in my mouth.


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## Glouglou (Feb 21, 2006)

*I dont't like to drink that water...*

You can buy a part from eheim made especially for that purpose. It replace the Entry with a special one where you can fill directly water and start the filter.

http://aquariumsuppliesplus.com/pro459523.html


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## chiahead (Dec 18, 2004)

they also used to make a suction ball with an airline attached to it to suck the air out. It worked better than the mouth technique with no dirty water in your mouth. I think I still have mine laying around somewhere. PM me if your interested.


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## kakulo83 (Apr 27, 2005)

I connect my python vacuum to a faucet and feed it into the submerged intake tube of the filter. Works well enough and you don't have to run the risk of aquarium water in your mouth. Did this because on the really big classics its next to impossible to induce siphon.


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