My question is does anyone know if the Eheim 2260 can be 'modded' this way? I can't see anything on the internet about people who have removed the 1260 pump and replaced with another, I can't see any real issue with it myself as I know the Waveline can be used externally. I've looked into buying a more modern return pump, to be precise the Waveline DC6000 which although very powerful at 6,000 lph has the means of controlling the flow via a control unit so I could reduce the flow accordingly - this would give me the benefit of having a quieter pump using less electricity with the piece of mind that it won't break-down anytime soon. I want to upgrade the pump but still keep the benefit of the large amount of media this filter holds. My concern is that the Eheim 1260 return pump on top is pretty old, it seems to work fine but it is rather loud (the chassis vibrates a lot) and it uses around 65w of electricity, it just seems a bit out-dated. EHEIM 7633590 Classic 2217 Filter Replacement Impeller. Now, I bought the filter second-hand, in fact the canister is so old it actually has 'Made in West Germany' printed on the top! But it is solid and will go on for many years yet. EHEIM 7632600 50hz Classic Impeller Set 2213 2013/2113/2313 Aquarium Fish Tank. With EHEIM classic you have everything that makes up a good external filter. I run an Eheim 2260 filter on my 600l tank, for those that may not know much about these filters it consists of a very large bucket canister that holds around 18l of media with an Eheim 1260 (2260 lph) return pump on the top, this attaches to the bucket canister separately so can easily be removed - when you keep large, messy fancy goldfish this filter comes into it's own!

Eheim 2260 impeller