cheap canister filter as a gravel vacuum???

[Magnum Man]

did a 60% water change vacuuming this tank yesterday... works like a champ 4 - 5 gallon buckets of very dirty water... this tank really needed a good vacuum... I'm going to start filling gallon jugs of dirty fish water, for the house plants... not quite there yet, but the throttle on this pump, and the ability to stall it, will be great for filling jugs... also there is a self primer, I learned how to use today, after sucking too much water out of the hose, on a bucket change... over all it's working out well... I just have a dedicated pail, and the pump fits inside it, for storage I leave it full each time, for quicker starts, and the handle on the bucket makes it easy to carry around..

 

[TwoTankAmin]

With the Eheim Pro II line I never have to prime the canister after doing my twice a year cleanings.

The filter intake assembly which handles both input and outflow has ball valved built into it. The process of disconnecting it automatically closes those two ball valves before the are detached. This mean the hose are both filled with water.

When I clean the filter is becomes completely empty of everything. I rinse the media, change the floss and then I refill the canister all the way with water. When I reattach the input/output assembly both the hoses and filters are filled with water, The process of sealing the intake back on the canister acts to reopen the ball valves.

I can then turn the filter back on and it works as if I never did anything. The filter has a priming pump which is a PITA to use. I have found a way around even needing this.

Please understand that my mind is governed by my being lazy. But my definition of being lazy is that I never want to any more work than is possible to get a job done right and well. So, the biggest problem with cleaning and returning canisters is priming them and I worked out a way not the have to do this. With the model Eheims I have and how they function makes it possible for me to do things this way.

There is one minor downside to the above. The canister is heavier when it is filled with water. This makes it a bit harder to maneuver. But as i approach mu 78th Bday I am still able to deal with this. Hover it has gotten a bit harder since I got my first canister in about 2003 or so. It took about a year from them for me to figure out how not to need to struggle with the big priming button atop the filter.

I have never used any other brand of canister so I do not know if they have a similar shut off set-up. If they do not one could jury rig an inline ball valve n the hoses clost to the filter intakes. This would allow one to shut off both flows before disconnecting the filter.

The best part about the system is that even if the restart does not start with 100% of the water in the hoses and filter body, any air works its way out almost immediately. If it is done right, the system will self-fill the small empty space quickly without needing to prime things.