We are sad to report that aquarium industry pioneer Gunther Eheim, founder of EHEIM, passed away Saturday at the age of 93. As an entrepreneur and innovator, Mr. Eheim revolutionized the aquarium industry with the invention of the first EHEIM canister filter in 1962.
Disappointed with the state of air-driven filters in the industry, Mr. Eheim (August 31, 1919-February 2, 2013) developed a filter with a sealed pump driven by a magnetic drive to circulate water from the aquarium into a canister for both mechanical and biological filtration. The design was so success that it also found use in the medical, laboratory and other hi-tech applications. By 1971, over 100,000 EHEIM aquarium filters were in use worldwide.
The company continued to grow over the next 40 years acquiring Müller & Pfleger in 1993 and Jäger in 2002. In 2008, the company introduced the third generation of filters with the introduction of the EHEIM Professional 3e electronic canister filter. In 2012 the company rolled the MP and Jäger trademarks into the EHEIM brand creating one unified brand with the slogan “quality only has a name.”
[via Acuaristica]
