A Really Silly Question From A Noob

[tanitatt]

Okay, so being the tinker that I am, I'm wondering if anyone has tried to somehow attach the siphon/vaccum thing to the intake on your filter? That way you can clean your tank without having to worry about overflow in the bucket you are siphoning into.

okay ... silly question ... I know ... but still come on ... this on is just such a practical idea.

thanks

Thomas

 

[dylema]

Hi, The way I see it, you would be filling your filter with heaps of junk that you sucked out of your gravel and so you would have to clean the filter out once you were done. Then you still need to make regular water changes so it would seem like double handling doing your suggested way. If you vacuum while doing a water change you are doing the two jobs in one and you don't have to clean your filter as often.

 

[bobf]

Well I guess you could do that but then you'd need to clean all the extra crap out of your filter - a whole lot more hassle than using a gravel vac ?

In practice you would be turning your filter in a gravel vac.

If you want to avoid using a bucket you can get a gravel vac which filters the water through a cloth bag and returns the water to the tank at the same time, but why bother cos you gotta do the water changes anyway?


(great minds and all that, eh Dylema )

 

[andywg]

Provided the filter has adequate size and mechanical filtrtion (I'm thinking large cannisters or sumps here) then that is an ideal scenario and one aimed for in very large tanks such though bottom fed weirs.

The problem will be if you don't have a large enough filter, or the flow rate is not enough to guide most of the debris to the filter.

If you can get it to work for you it should be good. I know I don't gravel vac every water change (on big tanks a pump is a much better tool than buckets) and aim to get as much of the gunk caught in the filters as possible as the filters are nice and easy to access.

 

[vic]

Also,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, the suction of your cannister is far greater than a syphone and you will be busy fishing (pun intended) gravel out of what is left of your impeller. Doesn't really seem like a good idea to me.
Google "the python". This is a neat rig that allows you to do the water removal "without" pails. There is also one in the DIY section or just google DIY python.
Cheers;

 

[andywg]

I run cannisters on most of my tanks (some even on the sump ones) and I have NEVER had gravel go into the filter. They do, however, help massively with keeping the bottom clean.

I would doubt any but the largest of cannsiters (think Fluval FX5) would have the ability to suck up gravel.

 

[diburning]

yea, get a python. it attaches to your sink. When you turn the sink on, the water starts siphoning, then you can also fill your tank with the sink water (fill a bucket to condition thre water first!)

or buy a battery operated gravel vac.

 

[Matthew5664]

Long hose , power head , cable tie.

Cut hose in two. attatch to ether end of powerhead. cable tie one end to tap at sink pointing down ( might need two)

Turn it on and away you go!

 

[mike_nofx]

In the Instructions for my gravel vac it actually says that you can connect it to the inlet of your filter!!

But like someone else mentioned, why clog your filter up with crap. You have to do water changes anyway, so why not vac while you water change.

Matthew, you just gave me an awesome idea, i will use a power head and hose to pump the new water from the bucket into the tank!!!! Up intil now i have been just using a jug to pour water into the tank. But as i sometimes change 60 Litres +, it can take a while.

 

[AMS]

Matthew, you just gave me an awesome idea, i will use a power head and hose to pump the new water from the bucket into the tank!!!! Up intil now i have been just using a jug to pour water into the tank. But as i sometimes change 60 Litres +, it can take a while.

LOL, youre just finding that out now?

 

[dylema]

Long hose , power head , cable tie.

Cut hose in two. attatch to ether end of powerhead. cable tie one end to tap at sink pointing down ( might need two)

Turn it on and away you go!

But I think there is a risk of a little bit of gravel making it into the hose (often one or two bits end up in my bucket) and that would not be good for your power head. Maybe add a foam prefilter somewhere inline to protect the power head.