Do I Need To Turn My Filter Off When Doing A Water Change?

[entersandman]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but being a total noob i'm not really sure!!!

When doing my water changes do i need to turn the filter off?? I know i should turn the heater off but i'm not sure about my filter?
It's an extternal Fluval 205 and the output pipe is approx two inches under the surface, when i do a water change it then obviously comes above the water surface, is it ok to leave it running or is it better to turn it off???

Many thanks and sorry if this is a stupid question!!!

PS Anyone hear of a suicidal Danio before?? Bought my first 6 fish on Saturday 2X leopard Danios, 2X Pearl Danios and 2X Zebra Danios, i opened up my lid after they'd ben in there for a few hours just to check my water stats and one of the Leopard Danios actually jumped out of the tank and killed himself!!!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i've heard stories of people's filters breaking when they're run dry at water changes.

however we rarely turn ours off, they tend to just stop by themselves when they dry up then start again when they get wet. never had a problem, but that's not to say we've not just been lucky


god that's a fat lot of help isn't it

 

[DevUK]

I've been told that you can damage the impellors on internal filters (fluval specifically). The manual does say don't run them dry as it can cause damage to not just the impellor but also put strain on the motor. Personllay, I turn mine off. Might as well seeing as I have to take it appart to clean the sponges.

For the sake of reaching around to the plug socket, vs. spending a minimum of £5 on a new impellor or something more expensive I think its best to turn it off

 

[loveyourfish]

It depends on how your filter is build.

However bear in mind that turning off the filter would mean that there won't be any water flow in the filter, and that all your benificial bacteria will suffocate and die, and then it will cause another problem. But then again, it will take about an hour for the benificial bacteria to die without oxygen.

So, I don't think there is any problem if you off the filter during water change...if you can do it in less then an hour.

But, if doin water change will not affect the filter, then might as well leave it on

 

[BigIan]

an external will keep running if the outlet is above water, however if the inlet goes above water the filter will lose suction.

As a general rule your supposed to turn off all elecrisity to the tank before putting your arms inside it.

however i never do, the heater is low enough in the tank to not come too far above water level at water changes and the flter just sprays away....

i have had the odd shock from tanks when its all gone wrong though (always when equipment has gone wrong rather than at water changes)

 

[entersandman]

Well the input is very low down so there is no problem there!! The water change usually takes about 20/30 mins max, so i guess it should be ok to leave it on and let it just spray out the fresh water onto the surface rather than under it??? The only reason i ask is when i did a water change yesterday i turned it off but when i started it back up again it made a bit of a grinding noise for a few seconds which didn't sound right!! then it went and everything is working fine!!!

 

[BigIan]

yea they willd o that and they will also spew out clouds of bacteria that have grown in the tubes clouding your tank up...

as i said i never turn mine off....

 

[rdd1952]

As long as the intake is below water, it is fine to leave it on. I rarely unplug my canisters off during a water change because the intake is deep in the tank but almost always unplug the HOBs mainly because of the splash that the water re-entering the tank makes and the fact that it can disturb the substrate from the force.

 

[GrantyBoy]

I turn the power of to my tank when performing the weekly maintenance, so no filters will be running. The main reason I do this is because I mix my de-chlorinator in the tank, with the filters not running there is no chance of chlorinated water being sucked up direct through the filter and thus damaging the good bacteria

 

[BINKSY]

i always leave my external runnig too, i have a eheim pro 2 and as most people know they have adjustable taps so i just slow the flow down so it dosent splash everywhere, i also have a external heater so i have no worries about that either



Cheers Gordon

 

[Christine1014]

If the fluval 205 is anything like the 305 (which I have) you can probably just flip the black valve up to temporarily stop the syphon. In my set-up, reaching the outlet behind the cabinet/stand is a pain...
And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, I guess the 305 ISN'T like the 205!

 

[rdd1952]

I have 2 fluval 304s on my 75 gallon tank. If I am going to be removing enough water that the outlet is out of the water (the intake is pretty deep so I don't worry about it), I unplug the filters to keep the outlet from splashing back into the tank. Otherwise, I just let them run.

 

[Gatorbait]

I leave mine on whenever possible. Luckily I can do 20-25% wc's before the water gets low enough to stop the suction.

When I do large scale wc's, like 75%, I have no choice but to turn them off.