Am I stressing my canisters??

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T

tcarswell

Polypterus
MFK Member
Dec 6, 2008
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Whenever I do a water change I figured I can get 60% drained before my eheim 2215 water output slows. I run a fluval 405 as well. But the thing is I drain the tank with the canisters running (They never run dry I dont drain it that much) im now wondering if its undue stress on the canisters having to pick up the water further. Anyone else do this or not reccomend it ?
If it is bad what should I do shut them off? I am worried I will lose some BB due to lack of oxygen/movement in the canisters

Thanks fellas and ladies ,
Tcarswell
 
i always just unplug my filters for any WC. you won't lose any significant amount of BB if you only have the filters off for the hour or 2 it takes to do the WC.
 
It should be fine for an hour or two ? Sounds good then. I just hate to have to prime and what not lol.
 
I have all of my filters & heaters plugged into a common power strip... then when it's water change time I push one little button and everything turns off (lights are on a seperate plug w/ timer)... makes things real easy...

A friend through another forum has been running tests on a tank that is cycled via fishless cycling... he is finding he can stop feeding the tank ammonia for about 10 days before it can no longer pick up where it left off... in other words before it experiences enough die off to cause a mini cycle... Your not going to dent you BB colony in an hour or two ;-)

But that said... you are not stressin gyour magnetic driven pumps on your canisters... The reason we use magnetic driven pumps is to allow us to do all the goofy things we do in aquariums and not stress the pumps...

The motor turns at a given rate and stress on the impellor does not stress the motor... as they are only connected by a magnetic bond which slips under stress... as opposed to transferring that stress to the motor...
 
hmmm NCnutcase you make a good point. Should I just leave the pumps on? It makes a difference id imagine mixing the dechlor with the incoming tap water.....
 
I always leave mine on. They splash like made from the water falling, but nothing a lids won't take care of.
 
as long as the power heads inside the cannisters are staying submerged your not hurting anything. The only thing that's going to damage it is running it dry.
 
I leave mine on, unless I take out enough water to get below the filter intake . . . since I have my filter intakes around mid-tank, I very rarely get that low . . .
 
I turn mine off... as I often do large water changes that expose the intakes... I also like for the heater to be turned off during water changes...

But as mentioned, as long as your not running the canister dry you do not need to turn the canister off...
 
Thanks guys! Ill leave them on. I like the water getting stirred up as much as possible because of the dechlorinator mixing in the tank.
 
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